Debris Threatens the Space Station
Hello fellow space enthusiasts! Welcome back to Norminal News! Some news before we get started: NASA's DART mission has successfully launched and it is headed to Didymus, the asteroid.
On November 15, 2021, the International Space Station (ISS) went into a lockdown because of a large cloud of debris headed toward the Space Station. A new Russian anti-satellite weapon had tested its abilities on a satellite orbiting earth. The debris from the test spread around the globe, forming a massive cloud of spacecraft shards floating in orbit. The ISS just happened to go through that cloud of debris, causing the lockdown. All of the astronauts retreated into descent vehicles that could eject from the station and come back to earth on a moment's notice. The cloud of debris hit the station, but no major damage was done. All of the astronauts are safe, and they were given the "ok" to go back into the main modules of the station. To learn more about this dilemma, there is a helpful video Here.
One final piece of news, NASA has assigned astronauts for the next crewed mission, Crew 4. This mission will launch in April 2022 and will carry astronauts Jessica Watkins, Kjell Lindgren, Robert Hines, and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
Here are some more helpful links: A video recapping what happened and more, a video of the launch of the DART spacecraft, and a cool documentary about the history of Russian rocket engines.
That is all the news I have for today, thank you for joining!
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