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Russian space junk hurtles toward astronauts

Getty

Getty

A piece of debris flying through space at over eight miles per second has forced three crew members to clamour into the International Space Station for shelter, say NASA.

For close to one hour Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko, Gennady Padalka and American astronaut Scott Kelly were ordered into the space station for safety.

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It is only the fourth time in 15 years NASA has had to implement the procedure.

Video aboard the pod of the space station where the crew shacked up shows the trio moving to secure its various hatches.

Mr Kelly and NASA both tweeted to ensure the crew were safe and sound.

Ideally NASA would learn of incoming debris with more time to spare and have the ability to move the massive space station out of its path.

But on Thursday, the crew only had 90 minutes notice to avoid the supersonically travelling debris.

NASA believe there are some half-a-million pieces of debris that could pose a threat to their crew’s spacecrafts. The International Space Station orbits at a speed of close to 17500 mph.

The debris was believed to be moving at twice that speed.

TIME posted video of the crew’s emergency efforts as the debris approached.

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