The crewmembers aboard the International Space Station (ISS) had to brace for a "close" call with passing space debris, but all parties involved came out unharmed.

According to the Agence France Press, the three astronauts currently inhabiting the ISS absconded to a Russian Soyuz spacecraft attached to the floating science lab while the debris passed by. The crewmembers aboard at the time were Scott Kelly, a NASA astronaut, and two Russian cosmonauts, Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Kornienko.

"The crew of the International Space Station is resuming normal operations after getting an all clear from Mission Control following a close pass by space debris this morning," NASA said in a statement. "All station systems are operating normally and the crew will move out of the Soyuz spacecraft in which they stayed during the debris pass. They will reconfigure the station for normal operations and then continue their research work during the day. This was the fourth time in the history of station operations that the crew has moved to the Soyuz due to a potential close pass of debris. This debris was from an old Russian weather satellite."

Kelly received word from NASA of the debris about an hour before it passed the ISS and was then notified the crewmembers were safe from potential danger minutes after the close encounter.

As Gizmodo noted, the ISS typically has more time to move out of the way of potentially dangerous debris, as was the case in 2011 and 2012.

The data on the possible close pass was received too late and was not sufficiently precise enough for the station to take any evasive maneuver," James Hartsfield, a spokesman for NASA told the AFP. "In those cases, the crew can be called to put the station in a safe configuration and move to the Soyuz until the debris has passed."