Space station to move to avoid debris

3 Oct 2012, 6:09 pm   -   Source: AAP

The International Space Station has to change orbit to avoid a collision with junk accumulating above the earth.

The Russian space program's Mission Control Centre says it will move the International Space Station into a different orbit to avoid possible collision with a fragment of debris.

Mission Control Centre spokeswoman Nadyezhda Zavyalova said the Russian Zvezda module will fire booster rockets to carry out the operation on Thursday at 07.22 am Moscow time (13.22 AEST).

The space station performs evasive manoeuvres when the likelihood of a collision exceeds one in 10,000.

NASA estimates that more than 21,000 fragments of orbital debris larger than 10 centimetres are stuck in earth's orbit, and experts worry that orbiting junk is becoming a growing problem for the space industry.

There are six astronauts - three Russians, two Americans and one from Japan - onboard the orbiting laboratory.

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