NASA: Floating 'junk' no threat to space station

[November 30, 2009]  CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- NASA says a piece of old space junk that it's been tracking for a few days is no threat to the International Space Station.

But there's another piece of debris in the space station's neighborhood.

Mission Control decided late Friday that the outpost would not need to dodge a 10-year-old rocket chunk. The Delta rocket was launched in 1999 with NASA's comet-chasing spacecraft, Stardust. Experts concluded the junk would come no closer than five-and-a-half miles Saturday. In fact, it was moving away from the station.

On Friday, NASA spotted an old science payload from a previous shuttle mission in the vicinity of the 220-mile-high space station. It's expected to come within nine miles Monday. For now, it's not considered a threat.

[Associated Press; By MARCIA DUNN]

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