Russia closely watches space situation to pare off threats for ISS crew — Roscosmos

MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. Russia’s automated warning system of hazardous situations in near-Earth space is monitoring the space situation to ensure the safety of the International Space Station (ISS) and its crew, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday. "The automated warning system of hazardous situations in near-Earth space continues to control the situation in order to prevent and pare off all possible safety threats for the International Space Station and its crew," Roscosmos said in a statement. Providing complete safety for the ISS crewmembers is a top priority task, Roscosmos stressed. "We are convinced that only the joint efforts of all the space powers will make it possible to ensure maximally safe co-existence and activity in outer space," the statement says. On Monday, the ISS approached space debris several times. This information came from NASA’s Mission Control Center in Houston. During the first two incidents, when debris approached the ISS, Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov and US astronaut Mark Vande Hei went over to the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, while US astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Germany’s Matthias Maurer went onboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft. Later, US Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price alleged that a Russian anti-satellite weapon’s test was behind the space junk, which endangered the international orbital outpost. Read more