UPDATE - ISS To Perform Avoidance Maneuver Against Space Debris On Friday - Russia's Rogozin

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd December, 2021) The International Space Station (ISS) will perform a maneuver to avoid debris of US rocket Pegasus on Friday morning, Dmitry Rogozin, the chief of Russia's state space agency Roscosmos said.

A fragment of the US carrier rocket Pegasus, launched in 1994, will fly at a 3.3 mile distance from the ISS at about 10:33 GMT. An earlier statement by Roscosmos said there was no need of an ISS avoidance maneuver.

"Preliminarily, an avoidance maneuver of the ISS is planned for 10:58 a.m. Moscow time (07:58 GMT) on December 3 to prevent a dangerous approach with the Pegasus fragment," Rogozin said on Telegram.

The maneuver will be performed by the Russian spaceship Progress MS-18, which will lower the orbital altitude of the ISS by 310 meters (1,017 feet), according to infographics posted by Rogozin.

The orbit adjustment would not affect the December 8 launch of the Soyuz MS-20 rocket that will carry Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and two Japanese space tourists to the ISS, Roscosmos told journalists.

The ISS has been approached by space debris thrice in November. On November 12, a fragment of the Chinese spacecraft Fengyun-1C flew near the ISS, prompting an avoidance maneuver. On November 15, the ISS crew had to shelter in spaceships docked to the station after alerted of a cloud of debris that was produced by the Tselina-D satellite, shot down by Russia during testing of anti-satellite missiles. On November 25, a fragment of Elon Musk's Falcon 9 rocket flew past the station, passing at a distance of more than three miles, causing no interference with the ISS.