International Space Station forced to swerve to avoid US space junk

Orbit dropped by 310 metres briefly to avoid collision with fragment from vessel launched in 1994

The International Space Station performed a manoeuvre to swerve from a fragment of a US launch vehicle, the head of Russia's space agency has said.

Dmitry Rogozin, the director general of Roscosmos, said the station's orbit dropped by 310 metres for almost three minutes to avoid a close encounter with a particle from the American vessel, which was sent into space in 1994.