Pat Dollard

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That was a close call.

The two astronauts and one cosmonaut aboard the International Space Station had to duck for cover Thursday as space debris passed perilously close to the orbiting platform.

Crew members Sandra Magnus, Michael Fincke and Yury Lonchakov were ordered into one of the Soyuz TMA-13 escape capsules at 12:35 p.m. EDT.

In case the space station were to be hit, the astronauts could have undocked and headed back to Earth.

The window of danger passed at 12:45 p.m., and left the capsule and reentered the space station.

NASA said the offending object was most likely an old motor from the space station itself.

The debris was was about one-third of an inch in width, said NASA spokesman Josh Byerly.