NASA's Expedition 30 crew need not take shelter in their Soyuz spacecraft after flight controllers determined that the Fengyun 1C satellite debris poses no threat of the International Space Station crew.

A 4-inch piece of debris from the destroyed Chinese Fengyun 1C was seen to head towards the International Space Station prompting NASA's Mission Control to warn the Expedition 30 crew of a possible collision.

However after flight controllers evaluated the tracking data on the Fengyun 1C satellite debris, they concluded it poses no threat to the International Space Station.

NASA had earlier said it will advise the ISS crew if they need to take shelter to avoid a potential encounter with the debris which can move about 22,000 feet per second when in orbit and collisions "with even a small piece of debris will involve considerable energy."

Among the precautionary measures that the Expedition 30 crew can make include closing hatches between station modules and getting into their Soyuz spacecraft about 30 minutes before the time of the closest approach of the space debris.

NASA said it is also a standard procedure to maneuver the space station out of the way of the predicted path of the debris to avoid such encounters as the object may come within 2,800 feet of the station.