The International Space Station adjusted its orbit Monday night to avoid space debris, NASA said.

"This evening, the International Space Station's Progress 81 thrusters fired for 5 minutes, 5 seconds in a Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver to provide the complex an extra measure of distance away from the predicted track of a fragment of Russian Cosmos 1408 debris," according to a space agency blog.

Space debris has become a major concern for human space travel and unmanned satellites as more and more manmade objects are launched into orbit.

More than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris or space junk are tracked by the Department of Defense's global Space Surveillance Network sensors, according to NASA.

"Much more debris -- too small to be tracked, but large enough to threaten human spaceflight and robotic missions -- exists in the near-Earth space environment."

The International Space Station is hosting two American astronauts, a Japanese astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut. who traveled onboard SpaceX's Endurance Crew Dragon's Crew-5 mission Oct. 5.

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US Space Command to Transfer Space Object Tracking to Department of Commerce
Washington DC (SPX) Oct 24, 2022
Right now, U.S. Space Command tracks more than 47,000 objects in space. But there are plans to transfer that responsibility to the Department of Commerce, an effort that will allow Spacecom to focus more on what's happening in space rather than just on the tracking of objects there, the Spacecom commander said. "My current priority is to invest in space domain awareness. To ... gain a better understanding of the activities in space," Army Gen. James Dickinson said. "Our challenges center on ensuri ... read more