According to NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, a piece of space junk smashed into the International Space Station, damaging the orbiting lab’s robotic arm.
During a routine inspection on May 12, a puncture in the arm’s protective thermal covering was discovered, but the nearly 60-foot robotic appendage is still operational, according to Canadian Space Agency officials.
It’s unclear what struck Canadarm2, the space station’s robotic arm, or when the incident occurred, but an investigation is underway.
The hole appears to be about 0.2 inches across, according to the agency, and the damage is limited to a small section of Canadarm2.
More than 27,000 pieces of space junk are tracked by the US Department of Defense, including about 23,000 objects larger than a softball. These pieces of debris travel through space at speeds of up to 18,000 miles per hour, posing a threat to operational spacecraft as well as astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
Four astronauts on their way to the International Space Station in one of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsules were warned of a possible collision with space junk shortly after launch in April. However, the United States Space Command later confirmed that the alarm was false and that the object was not in danger of colliding with the spacecraft.