Space station hit by debris

The crew of the international space station have been alarmed by a possible collision with space debris, but Russian space officials said today the men were safe and there was no immediate sign of any damage.

The station is manned by British-born astronaut Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri.

A space official said the sound might have been produced by equipment on the station, but a spokesman for Russia’s Space Forces attributed the noise to a possible brush with debris.

Valery Lyndin, a spokesman for Mission Control outside Moscow, said all the station’s systems were working normally after the sound was reported.

An inspection of the station’s outer surface by outside cameras found no sign of damage, he said.

Sergei Gorbunov, a spokesman for the Russian Aerospace Agency, said the crew heard what “sounded like a tin can was being crushed”.

A spokesman for the Russian Space Forces said that the station had collided with a piece of space junk.

The spokesman said the Space Forces had detected an object along the station’s orbit. They believed it was very small and would pose no danger to the craft.