Abandon spaceship! CREW FLEE TO ESCAPE POD IN FLYING DEBRIS DRAMA.

Byline: BY MIKE SWAIN SCIENCE EDITOR

ASTRONAUTS fled the international space station yesterday as debris threatened to blast a hole in it.

The three crew scrambled into the adjoining Russian Soyuz capsule which has independent supplies of air, power, food and water.

The danger came from part of an old rocket motor travelling at 17,500mph.

It was less than a third of an inch across but could easily have punched a hole in the station's fragile skin.

Americans Mike Fincke and Sandra Magnus, and Russian Yuri Lonchakov huddled in their refuge for 10 minutes.

If the space station had been knocked out Soyuz - used by the Russians to ferry their crew to the international project - would have kept the three safe until a rescue mission could be sent up.

It is the first time the station has had to be evacuated for debris and is a stark reminder of the amount of junk in space.

Warning of the engine fragment, travelling faster than a bullet, came too late to change the course of the space station.

Experts on the ground tracked the debris with telescopes and gave the all clear at 4.45pm UK time. Nasa spokesman Kelly Humphries said: "We are re-activating all systems so we can get back to business." In the eight years that astronauts have lived aboard the station it has had to shift orbit eight times to avoid junk.

But Mr Humphries said last night: "This is the first time we have had to evacuate and shelter in a Soyuz."

He said the debris was a "very tiny piece" of an old "payload assist motor" that was previously on either a Delta rocket or the Shuttle.

Russian Mission control played down the drama, saying: "The crew have already returned to the station. They are in absolutely no danger and the debris has passed.

"They didn't even close the hatch between the station and the Soyuz and sat there for only about 10 minutes."

Space junk is becoming an increasing threat to the 800 working satellites now orbiting. Since Sputnik in 1957 more than 6,000 satellites have been sent up and Nasa keeps track of around 25,000 pieces of potentially dangerous debris.

Almost four out of 10 pieces are from decommissioned satellites, old rocket stages and bits from space missions.

The remaining junk comes from pieces which have been blown off in explosions.

An American and a Russian satellite smashed into each other over Siberia just over a month ago - even though the chances of a collision had been estimated at billions to one.

600K objects larger than a third of an inch float around in space and 25,000 are being tracked by Nasa

220 miles above Earth, the Space Station has been under construction for a decade with 16 nations involved

CAPTION(S):

ESCAPE The three crew had to scramble into adjoining Soyuz; HOW THE CREW FLED TO ESCAPE CAPSULE