Orbital Trash Buzzes Space Station, Shuttle

This story was updated at 11:49 a.m. EDT.

The derelict remains of an old European rocket zipped close by the International Space Station and shuttle Discovery Friday, but not close enough to pose a risk to the spacecraft or their astronaut crews.

At its closest approach, the space trash was less than a mile (1.3 km) from the space station - about a mile closer than previously reported - as it passed from left to right ahead of the orbiting laboratory, but did not endanger the spacecraft.

?The flight control team [is] continuing to monitor that debris, but again it did pass as expected and is no concern to the orbiting complex,? said NASA spokesperson Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters in the daily mission commentary after the debris flew by.

The space junk, part of an Ariane 5 rocket that launched two satellites into orbit in 2006, flew harmlessly past the linked station-shuttle complex at about 11:07 a.m. EDT (1107 GMT) as the 13 astronauts inside prepared for a day off.

NASA watched the approaching space junk for days to make sure it would not hit the space station or shuttle, or force the spacecraft to fire thrusters in order to dodge. By early Thursday, the chances of the debris coming too close for comfort were nil, the space agency said.

?We determined the chance of collision was zero,? NASA spokesperson Bill Jeffs told SPACE.com at the time.

The rocket trash is large by space debris standards: about 204 square feet (19 square meters) in area. It is flying in an extremely elliptical orbit that reaches nearly 20,000 miles (32,000 km) at its high point.

Late Wednesday, NASA considered several options to move the docked shuttle and space station to put more distance between them and the approaching space junk. At one point, the agency considered starting a Thursday spacewalk early or delaying it a day in order to perform the move.

But by Thursday, it became clear that the space debris posed no risk to the station and shuttle. The spacewalk planned for that day went on as planned, with astronauts replacing a massive ammonia coolant tank for the space station?s cooling system.

It was the second of three spacewalks planned for Discovery?s 13-day mission, which is delivering nearly 8 tons of supplies, science equipment and a treadmill named after comedian Stephen Colbert to the space station.

Today, the astronauts are expected to take a half-day off and continue moving cargo between the space station and shuttle. They will also speak with reporters on Earth and prepare for the mission's final spacewalk, which is set for Saturday.

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