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Ever since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, the tension brewing between Russia and the western countries has also spilled over to their respective space programs.
Given how Russia was an active participant in almost all missions, it did not react well to the US and European countries giving it the cold shoulder.
Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, even threatened to retract its participation in the International Space Station (ISS).
And while things have calmed down in the last few months, the ISS's safety was brought to question again last week, when orbital debris from a recent Russian anti-satellite weapons test almost collided with the space station.
In November 2021, Russia had destroyed the Soviet-era Kosmos 1408 satellite as part of an anti-satellite weapon test.
But on June 16 this year, a piece of debris suspected to be a part of the now-torn down satellite almost crashed against the ISS.
However, Roscosmos used an uncrewed Progress 81 cargo ship docked at the ISS to move the orbiting lab clear of a piece of space debris.
The Progress 81 cargo ship fired its thrusters for 4 minutes and 34 seconds to shift its trajectory away from the Cosmos-1408 space debris.
Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, later wrote on Telegram that "at 22.03 Moscow time, the engines of the Russian Progress MS-20 transport cargo ship carried out an unscheduled manoeuvre to avoid a dangerous approach of the International Space Station with a fragment of the Kosmos-1408 spacecraft".
NASA reassured that the manoeuvre was merely precautionary and posed no threat. "The crew was never in any danger, and the manoeuvre had no impact on station operations," it stated.
However, it is crucial to note that had the orbit not been shifted, the debris would have flown by at a distance of just 0.8 km of the ISS!
This is not the first time the ISS has had to dodge a piece of flying debris.
Just last year, a Canadian robotic arm that was vital in assembling the orbiting lab was struck by a piece of space junk, leaving it with a 5 mm hole.
In these past decades, space junk, categorised as a type of pollution, has grown dramatically by about 7,500 metric tonnes!
It poses a grave threat to the safety of astronauts, the International Space Station, and hundreds of functional satellites orbiting the Earth.
The satellite destroyed by Roscomos last year produced an estimated 1,500 pieces of orbital debris.
Astronauts on the space station were forced to take cover on November 15 due to concerns about the trash, but experts say it could continue to pose a risk to the space station and other spacecrafts for years to come. ** For weather, science, and COVID-19 updates on the go, download The Weather Channel App (on Android and iOS store).
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