Kligat writes "For the first time in five years, the International Space Station has utilized the rockets on the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle to dodge leftover remnants of a defunct satellite. The Russian Cosmos-2421 was launched in June 2006 to track Western Navy vessels and is believed by NASA to have exploded, leaving 500 pieces of space debris.
Usually, the rockets on the ATV are used to take the ISS away from Earth's atmosphere and reduce drag. In this case, it had to take it downward because the ISS was already near the top of the acceptable range. Estimated probability of impact was 1 in 72, and an avoidance maneuver is called for if probability is greater than 1 in 10,000. It was predicted to pass the ISS within just a mile."
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