A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft had a near-miss with a strange object in space. The distance between the two according to Earth’s conditions was a little far off; however, things are different when it comes to space.
The Dragon spacecraft took four people aboard to space, and while it was on its way to the International Space Station, it almost crossed paths with an unidentified object. As per the news, the distance was only 28 miles (45 kilometers). However, later it was revealed that it wasn’t a big collision threat as the object was far off.
The object that was taken as a threat was later revealed to be at a safe distance. And the Dragon Spacecraft belonging to SpaceX continued its space venture to the ISS just as planned.
“The NASA/SpaceX team was informed of the possible conjunction by US Space Command,” NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told Futurism. “The object being tracked is classified as ‘unknown.’”
As per Humphries, the threat was taken very seriously at the beginning of the object spotting; even the crew comprising four people destined to go to the ISS wore their pressurized suits taking the initial preventive measures for a deadly collision. When this close call incident took place, it was 7 hours past from the time the Dragon spacecraft took off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Initially, NASA mission control spotted the strange unexplained object and informed the four-member team of the risk at the earliest. The four-member crew belongs to different nations, comprising of ESA, JAXA, and two from NASA. They were en-route to ISS to perform various tasks once they are aboard the largest setup in space.
The Dragon spacecraft is designed to be operated manually if required so. However, if it was an even closer call, the crew might have used that power to maneuver the craft at their will. Dragon spacecraft normally performs in a full-out autonomous action.
NASA informed the crew of strange object’s spotting that left the four-member team terrified of a possible accident. “For awareness, we have identified late-breaking possible conjunction with a fairly close miss distance to Dragon. As such, we do need you to proceed with suit donning, securing yourself in seats immediately. We will be erring on the side of caution to get you guys in a better configuration. The time of closest approach for this event is at 13:43 EST.”
The Dragon spacecraft later docked safely with the ISS, but the mysterious object remained unexplained. More nations and private organizations are taking to space, which increases the space junk, and it could very well be one explanation of the unidentified object spotting and a near-crash with the Dragon spacecraft.
