MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian and American mission control specialists are trying to discover the origin of an object the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) discovered outside the station.
An earlier NASA report said that after checking the thrusters of the Progress resupply spacecraft, astronauts Alexander Kaleri and Michael Foale discovered an object flying near the station - a thin 20-25-centimeter long strip of soft material.
"The object is harmless. It poses no danger to the station or its crewmembers. Specialists are now trying to find out the origin of the object," NASA spokesman Sergei Puzanov told Interfax.
Experts believe it could be a piece of the station's insulation.
"The insulation protects the station from the effects of solar radiation. It poses no threat. There was a case on the Russian Soyuz ship when insulation tore off from its utility section. Experts coped with that situation," a Russian expert told Interfax.
He said specialists will be able to determine the origin of the debris after thoroughly questioning the astronauts and studying the object's behavior.