A fragment of the American Pegasus rocket will fly 5.4 km from the International Space Station (ISS) on December 3. This was announced on Wednesday, December 1, according to Roscosmos.
"According to preliminary information from the Main Information and Analytical Center of the Automated Warning System for Dangerous Situations in Near-Earth Outer space of JSC TsNIIMash, a fragment of the stage of the Pegasus launch vehicle launched in 1994 will approach the International Space Station on the afternoon of December 3," the Telegram channel of the state corporation says.
The minimum distance between the fragment and the station will be 5.4 km.
"As of December 1, the decision on the need for an evasion maneuver has not been made, the specialists of the MCC and GIAC continue to monitor the situation," Roscosmos added.
Earlier, on November 25, Roscosmos told about the flight of a fragment of an American Falcon 9 rocket to the ISS. According to specialists of the state corporation, the fragment approached the ISS at 7:18 Moscow time on November 25 and passed by the space station at a distance of over 5 km.
Roscosmos also drew attention to the fact that the convergence of the Falcon 9 fragment with the ISS did not create interference for it.
Falcon 9 launched in California (USA) with the kamikaze space probe DRAT, which will crash into an asteroid to test the technology of protecting the Earth from collisions with space objects, earlier this day. The launch vehicle is sent to the near-Earth asteroid Dimorph, which orbits the larger asteroid Didyma.