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IN SPACE - MAY 29: In this handout provided by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), back dropped by planet Earth the International Space Station (ISS) is seen from NASA space shuttle Endeavour after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation May 29, 2011 in space. After 20 years, 25 missions and more than 115 million miles in space, NASA space shuttle Endeavour is on the last leg of its final flight to the International Space Station before being retired and donated to the California Science Center in Los Angeles. Capt. Mark E. Kelly, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' (D-AZ) husband, has lead mission STS-134 as it delivered the Express Logistics Carrier-3 (ELC-3) and the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-2) to the International Space Station. (Photo by NASA via Getty Images)

Astronauts Take Shelter Aboard ISS After Russian Anti-Satellite Test, U.S. Says

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A Russian weapons test obliterated a dead Russian satellite in outer space over the weekend, generating a cloud of debris that has forced astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to take shelter, according to U.S. officials.

Objects in space tear through the cosmos at up to 17,500 miles per hour, which means that even the smallest piece of debris poses a danger to the space station and satellites that are vital to the global economy, military and modern way of life.

Top officials at the White House, Pentagon and NASA have been briefed on the event, say three U.S. officials, who are not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, adding that the U.S. State Department is preparing to issue a formal statement.

U.S. Space Command, which oversees all space-based military operations, refused to directly comment on the alleged Russian weapons test, but did acknowledge a rare “debris-generating event” in a statement.

“We are actively working to characterize the debris field and will continue to ensure all space-faring nations have the information necessary to maneuver satellites if impacted,” said Major AnnMarie Annicelli, an Air Force spokeswoman. “We are also in the process of working with the interagency, including the State Department and NASA, concerning these reports and will provide an update in the near future.”

The target of the anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) was an old satellite called Cosmos-1408 that was launched by the Soviet Union in 1982 and has been defunct for years, space analysts say.

American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts were instructed to pull on their space suits and take shelter on capsules docked to the ISS in preparation for a possible impact, according to the Russian news agency TASS reported. A German astronaut and three American astronauts went to the Dragon capsule, while another American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts climbed aboard the Soyuz MS-19 capsule.

TASS reported debris flew past the orbiting station in the predawn hours Monday before traveling away from it.

Brian Weeden, a former Air Force officer and expert in space security at the Secure World Foundation, says the ISS will keep passing through the debris field every 90 minutes or so until tomorrow. 

“All objects in orbit are moving at very fast speeds, usually several kilometers per second, and thus a collision between two of them can be catastrophic,” Weeden says. “A collision with an object several centimeters in size or higher could rupture the space station, potentially harming or endangering the astronauts on board. That’s why they took shelter in the emergency lifeboat, just in case they had to make an emergency evacuation.”

It appears that Russia carried out a test of the PL-19 Nudol surface-to-space missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, which is located about 500 miles north of Moscow, Weeden says. The Russian military has tested the missile at least 10 times since 2014 without ever hitting a target in orbit, according to the Secure World Foundation.

The incident marks the latest contentious development in space, which is increasingly becoming a theater for unintentional escalation of hostilities between world powers. The U.S., Russia and China, are all improving their arsenals of lasers, anti-satellite weapons and state-of-the-art spacecraft designed to render each others’ satellites deaf, mute and blind in space.

The U.S. accused Russia twice last year of testing anti-satellite weapons: one direct-ascent missile and another on-orbit weapon. In 2007, China tested its anti-satellite weapons technology by targeting one of its own defunct weather satellites with a ground-based missile, sparking international outrage as the exercise blew the target into more than 3,000 pieces of debris which, the global space community warned, could menace other satellites for years to come.

It has since proved true. Just last Wednesday, the ISS was forced to fire up its thrusters and raise its altitude by about 1 mile in order to avoid a lingering piece of that 2007 wreck, which was on target to come uncomfortably close. The debris was not on a direct collision course with the station, but instead was on track to enter what NASA calls the “pizza box,” a 2.5 miles deep, 30 miles wide safety zone that the ISS maintains.

Anytime the pizza box is threatened, the station takes evasive maneuvers. This event marked the 29th time the station has been forced to bob and weave to stay out of harm’s way since 1999, but with the growing debris problem in low-Earth orbit, it is not remotely likely to be the last.

—With reporting by Jeffrey Kluger