The government has ruled out the possibility of a collision between a South Korean satellite and space debris.
 
The Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning announced the conclusion after analyzing data from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute late Sunday.

The ministry said that a distance of over ten kilometers will be kept between South Korea’s Science and Technology Satellite 3 and the space debris.
 
Earlier, the ministry had raised the possibility of a collision at around 9:30 p.m. on Sunday as it forecast that the piece of debris would come as close as 23 meters to the South Korean satellite.
 
The ministry said it was notified by the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center that the debris veered off the course of collision due to solar activity.
 
The Satellite Research Center within the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology said it will continue to monitor the satellite to prepare for a collision with any small pieces surrounding the space debris.
 
The debris is one of thousands produced by the 2009 collision between an inactive Russian communications satellite and an active U.S. commercial communications satellite.
 
The South Korean satellite, launched in 2013, avoided colliding with the debris of a Soviet-era satellite in September last year.