“The US Space Command is aware of an event that generated debris in space. We are actively working to characterize the debris field,” said a spokesperson, who also said the military was in contact with the State Department and NASA on this matter.
Some American space specialists suspect that an anti-satellite missile test conducted by Russia is at the origin of this debris, information having not been confirmed for the moment.
Such an action, which would constitute a show of force from Moscow, has been carried out by only four nations in the past, including Russia.
It is highly criticized, in particular because of the large amount of debris generated, which then becomes dangerous projectiles.
Earlier, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had declared the astronauts aboard the ISS out of danger, without mentioning a possible missile test.
"The object's orbit, which forced the crew today to travel to the spacecraft using standard procedures, has moved away from the orbit of the ISS," Roscosmos tweeted.
"The station is now in the green."
"Friends, everything is in order with us. We continue the work according to our program", also tweeted the Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
Contacted, NASA did not immediately respond to AFP's requests.
Seven people are currently on the International Space Station.
According to the specialized media Spaceflight Now, NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn, as well as European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer, took refuge aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, on board which they arrived only a few days ago.
The American astronaut Mark Vande Hei and the two Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrovnik went to the Soyuz spacecraft, from the same source.
This procedure should enable them to be able to leave the Space Station towards Earth in an emergency.
© 2021 AFP