A small chunk of space trash made an uncomfortably close pass by the International Space Station late Friday, but not close enough to force the astronauts aboard to take shelter in their Russian lifeboats.

NASA's Mission Control woke the six astronauts on the station from their sleep late Friday as the space debris approached, but ultimately decided not to send the crew into their Soyuz spacecraft to ride out the orbital trash's near miss. The astronauts were told they could go back to sleep.

"Sorry we had to do it that way, and we had to wake you up in the middle of the night," the station's Russian Mission Control radioed the crew. The debris was expected to fly within 1,640 feet (500 meters) of the orbiting laboratory Friday night at 10:48 p.m. EST (0348 Saturday GMT).

Sending the astronauts into their Soyuz lifeboats would have been a precaution only. Earlier today, NASA officials said the space junk posed no threat to the station or its crew, but news of its close approach came too late to steer the massive orbiting lab clear using its Russian thrusters.

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091106-space-junk-astronauts-update...