Space junk falls harmlessly in South Pacific, NASA says

Remnants of a tank full of ammonia coolant tossed from the International Space Station last year fell harmlessly into the South Pacific late Sunday, according to NASA.

Space station program manager Mike Suffredini said Monday the debris splashed down somewhere between Australia and New Zealand.

NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson heaved the piece of space junk from the space station in July 2007.

The agency normally tries to avoid adding to the debris in space, but the accelerated schedule to end space shuttle flights in 2010 meant NASA did not have room on its remaining flights to bring the tank back to Earth by shuttle.

Anderson also tossed a 96-kilogram video camera stand during his spacewalk, an item NASA expected to burn up in the atmosphere.

The tank was launched in 2001 to provide the station with a spare coolant in case of a leak at the orbiting complex. But the surplus ammonia was never used and the tank itself had exceeded its expected lifetime.

It's not known how much of the 635-kilogram, refrigerator-sized tank actually survived re-entry into the atmosphere and landed in the ocean.

NASA said on the weekend it expected up to 15 pieces of the tank to survive re-entry, with pieces ranging in size from 40 grams to 17.5 kilograms.