The space debris, which will pass near the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, does not pose a threat to the station, Roscosmos said.

The agency said the space debris that will approach the ISS at 13:16 GMT "does not pose a threat".

"The probability of colliding with the ISS is zero, no station orbit correction is necessary.", Roscosmos noted.

The statement was issued after NASA yesterday announced that there was a threat of an unidentified object approaching the station by up to 4.8 km [3 miles] on Thursday at 13:16 GMT. Roscosmos, however, remained sceptical, saying that a collision is not probable.

The station was hit by space debris earlier this year. A piece of space junk struck the Canadian remote robotic system aboard the ISS, but the incident did not affect the operation of the device.