Shuttle Swerves To Avoid Debris

The space shuttle Endeavour made an unexpected maneuver Friday around a piece of space junk, illustrating the increased vigilance required to avoid a growing amount of space debris.

The Endeavour, which was launched Thursday with a crew of six on a nine-day satellite retrieval mission, fired steering thrusters to slow its speed slightly so that it avoided passing too close to an abandoned Air Force satellite, said officials of the NASA.

Col. Brian Duffy of the Air Force, the mission commander, received a two and a half hour warning from Mission Control in Houston that the shuttle would pass within four-fifths of a mile of the 350-pound satellite if no changes were made in the Endeavour’s orbit 290 miles above the Earth.