The International Space Station (ISS) had to deploy the debris space avoidance maneuver Friday 13th January 2012 at 11.10 am EST. Thrusters were burned to boost it's orbit in order to avoid a 4" diameter piece of broken satellite which was likely to pass within 0.6 to 15 miles of the ISS.
The piece of space junk was from the Iridium 33 communication satellite that clashed with a Cosmos spacecraft in 2009, due to it's size the debris was being tracked by Nasa.
On the 28th June 2011 at 8.08am EDT the six astronauts manning the ISS had to shelter in two Russian Soyuz lifeboats when it was feared that a 10 centimetre diameter piece of debris would collide with and damage the International Space Station.
Image Credit: NASA
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