ISS to Perform Avoidance Maneuver Against Space Debris on Friday

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - 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 manoeuvre.

"Preliminarily, an avoidance manoeuvre 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 ISS has been approached by space debris trice in November.