Article Posted on : - Sep 28, 2012

The International Space Station. A NASA photo

HOUSTON (PTI): NASA on Thursday cancelled a scheduled debris avoidance manoeuvre saying the remains from an Indian rocket body and a Russian satellite no longer posed a threat to the International Space Station (ISS).

"ISS managers decided space debris was no longer a threat to the ISS and a debris avoidance manoeuvre is not needed," NASA tweeted.

Earlier, NASA said it was keeping a close eye on the two pieces of space junk expected to hit the ISS and the station would have to dodge the orbital debris.

While tracking the Russian Cosmos satellite and the Indian rocket body, NASA made sure that neither object would pose any possibility of a conjunction with the ISS.

Following this, they decided to call off a debris avoidance manoeuvre scheduled for Thursday morning by the flight control team at Mission Control.

ISS's 'Expedition 33' is headed by Indian-origin Commander Sunita Williams and Flight Engineers Aki Hoshide and Yuri Malenchenko. They will continue their stay until November 12.

The station's trio began their mission when they docked their Soyuz TMA-05M spacecraft to the Rassvet module on July 17.