ISS astronauts shelter after Russian satellite breaks up in space

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) had to take shelter after an old Russian satellite broke into more than 100 pieces in orbit.

The event took place on Wednesday afternoon UK time near the ISS.

It meant astronauts onboard had to shelter for about an hour, Nasa's Space Station office said.

The astronauts were able to leave the spacecraft and carry on with their normal work not long after the incident.

There were no immediate details on what caused the Earth observation satellite, which Russia declared was dead in 2022, to break up.

US Space Command, which was tracking the satellite's broken pieces, said there was no immediate threat to other satellites currently in orbit.

By Thursday afternoon, at least 180 pieces of the satellite had been detected.

The satellite's breakup was at a height of roughly 220 miles above Earth.

It's a popular region where thousands of small to large satellites operate from, including SpaceX's Starlink network and China's Tiangong space station which currently has three of its astronauts onboard.

Why is it a big deal?

Six astronauts on board the ISS had to take shelter for an hour after a Russian satellite broke

Events in orbit like this don't happen very often, but there are increasing concerns as space becomes crowded with satellite networks, which people all over the world rely on every day.

Many of the satellites in space play a vital role when it comes to activities happening on Earth, like internet use and navigation services for example.

However, there are also lots of satellites currently in space which aren't being used anymore. These are part of what's known as 'space junk'.

"Due to the low orbit of this debris cloud, we estimate it’ll be weeks to months before the hazard has passed," said US space-tracking company LeoLabs about the Russian satellite in a statement.

There are around 25,000 pieces of debris bigger than four inches, which is about 10cm, in space caused by satellite explosions or collisions.

There are concerns this could cause more problems in the future.

What happens to dead satellites?

Dead satellites often remain in orbit until they descend into Earth's atmosphere years later and are burned up in the process.

In some much rarer circumstances, they fly really far away from Earth into deep space which lowers the risk of them crashing into active satellites.