The International Space Station (ISS) will perform a maneuver on Friday to avoid debris from the U.S. Iridium 33 satellite, NASA said on Friday.
The ISS orbit will be raised 1.5 kilometers to 391.4 kilometers by firing the engines of the Zvezda service module, Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said.
They will operate for 54 seconds, increasing the ISS speed by 0.85 meters per second.
The Iridium 33 satellite collided with the defunct Russian Cosmos 2251 satellite in 2009 and created a large amount of space debris.
ISS ballistics officers said on Thursday afternoon that the debris could possibly collide with the station. Flight Director Emily Nelson gave the go-ahead to proceed with the avoidance maneuver on Friday at 16:10 GMT using the Zvezda service module engines to readjust the space station, NASA said on its website.
