International Space Station forced to swerve to avoid US space junk

Rogozin said the manoeuvre would not affect the launch of the Soyuz MS-20 rocket on Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and its docking at the ISS.

Space debris, or space junk, consists of discarded launch vehicles or parts of a spacecraft that float around and risk colliding with satellites or the International Space Station.

Debris forced Nasa to postpone a spacewalk on Tuesday to replace a faulty antenna at the ISS.

US officials said last month an anti-satellite missile test carried out by Russia had generated a debris field in low-Earth orbit that endangered the ISS and would pose a hazard to space activities for years.