According to reports, a piece of space junk threatened to hit the international space station and because of that three astronauts sought emergency shelter. On Thursday, three astronauts squatted in their Soyuz capsule, docked to the space station, for almost an hour.

Reports say that the fragment from an old Russian weather satellite passed without doing any harm; it passed nearly 1½ miles (3kms) away. NASA astronaut Scott Kelly said via Twitter, “Happy there was no impact. Great coordination with international ground teams. Excellent training”.

It is for the fourth time in the history of the space station that a crew moved into a Russian Soyuz in order to protect themselves from debris that could be dangerous. The exact size of the object was unknown, According to a Nasa spokesman, it is unknown that what the exact size of the object was.

Generally, NASA doesn’t take much time to learn about incoming junk faster. However, this Thursday, the scenario was different from what usually happens; the crew was informed just 1½ hours ahead.

The three astronauts were involved in their work when Mission Control gave them orders to move to the Soyuz on Thursday. According to NASA spokesman Dan Huot, there was no need for astronauts to put on Soyuz flight suits.

As per reports, the green light came 1½ hours after the first alert, at around 8 am EDT (1200 GMT). Astronauts were able to restart their work at the space station after over an hour, after the “shelter in place”, as mentioned by NASA. According to Mission Control, interrupted research work will be rescheduled.