A piece of space junk from a Soviet satellite does not pose a threat to the International Space Station or the Discovery shuttle as it races through space to dock with it, NASA said.
"We will not need to perform the debris avoidance maneuver," mission control in Houston told the seven-member crew on board the space shuttle, after tracking the debris for hours.
Hours after Discovery's launch on Sunday, NASA said it was tracking a 10-centimeter (four-inch) piece of debris believed to be from the Soviet-era Kosmos 1275 satellite, which disintegrated shortly after it was launched in 1981.
Initial projections put the object on a trajectory that would take it to within three-quarters of a kilometer (2,600 feet) of the International Space Station, causing teams in Houston and Moscow to prepare a plan to move the ISS from its orbit if necessary.
But NASA called off the "debris avoidance maneuver" after new information showed that the rubble was outside the ISS's danger zone.
The space junk threat was the second in as many weeks to threaten the ISS.
Last week, the space station's three-member crew had to temporarily evacuate the space station and seek shelter in a Soyuz capsule when a small piece of debris passed about 4.5 kilometers (2.7 miles) from the ISS.
A debris avoidance maneuver could not be undertaken last week because the Discovery shuttle was scheduled to launch on Sunday, and the ISS had to maintain its altitude, NASA officials told AFP.
LeRoy Cain, head of the mission management team, told a news conference on Monday that while NASA was "constantly mindful" of space rubble, having "one or two or three in short period of time is not anything significant."
Asked if the piece of rubble might pose a threat to the shuttle when it reaches the same orbit as the ISS, Cain said: "There is an ongoing assessment, in terms of these kinds of debris issues... But between now and docking, I don't think it will become an issue."
Discovery is scheduled to dock with the space station at 2113 GMT Tuesday, the second full day of a 13-day mission.
But the astronauts on Discovery face a vexing new problem: the spacecraft's exercise equipment is broken, NASA said.
Space officials said during a press conference that Discovery's "ergometer" -- a stationary bike-like contraption specially designed for use in zero gravity -- was not functioning properly.
The snag means that Discovery's astronauts now may have to improvise to stay in tip-top shape during the mission.
"If we can't fix it, we've got some rubber bungee-type exercise equipment that they can use to get some exercise," Paul Dye, flight director at Johnson Space Center in Houston, told reporters.
The deleterious effects of microgravity on the body makes exercise vitally important in helping astronauts maintain bone density and muscle mass, even during a relatively short space flight.
"It's important to get exercise while you're in space, because your muscles aren't working the way they normally do, just to keep you upright and moving around like they do on the Earth," Dye said.
He added that Discovery's space crew may be able to use equipment on the International Space Station to stave off the physical ravages of space.
"They've got different exercise equipment aboard the station that we can look at possibly using," he said.
"Even if this ergometer is jammed up the folks will still be able to get some exercise while they're on orbit, I'm not seeing that as a problem," Dye said.
Copyright 2009 AFP Global Edition
