Astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) have taken refuge from a piece of Russian satellite debris that passed near the station.

Astronauts had to seek shelter inside the Soyuz vehicle, docked to the ISS, as space debris unexpectedly approached the station.

However, the crew members, two Russians and an American, were soon given the all clear to return back to the station.

The three had to stay inside the Soyuz vehicle, the most protected place on the station, for about 10 minutes until they were cleared.

“The data on the debris appeared unexpectedly, there was no time to sustain the operation of ISS orbit adjustment,” a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control Center told Russia's TASS news agency on Thursday.

The debris was reportedly a piece from an old Soviet weather satellite, Meteor-2, which was launched into space in 1979.

"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 at 1200 GMT," said a statement by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

"All station systems are operating normally and the crew will move out of the Soyuz spacecraft in which they stayed during the debris pass,” the statement added.

Russian cosmonauts, Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka, as well as NASA astronaut, Scott Kelly, are currently on board the ISS.

Space junk and debris from old satellites and other space mission equipment is constantly orbiting the Earth at speeds up to 10 kilometers per second. With that speed, even small objects pose a considerable threat to the ISS and other operational spacecraft outside the planet.