A piece of an old Russian satellite whizzed by the International Space Station (ISS) on Saturday (March 24, 2012), forcing its six-member crew to take temporary shelter in two Soyuz escape capsules.
The incident was the third of its kind in more than a decade of continuous habitation of ISS, NASA said in a series of Twitter updates.
The Russian space agency said the debris passed within 23 kilometers (14 miles) of ISS, forcing the three Russians, two US astronauts and a Dutch member of the crew to relocate to the two Soyuz capsules on board.