International Space Station stabilizes after just-docked Russian module suddenly fires thrusters
- Reference: 1627605849
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/30/iss_russia_nauka_module/
- Source link:
The [1]launch of Nauka, also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, did not go smoothly. Engine troubles and dodgy docking sensors meant that the vehicle did not [2]rendezvous with the orbiting lab until today. It blasted off atop a Proton-M rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan eight days earlier.
Even after the vehicle finally managed to dock, problems did not stop there. Within hours of it attaching itself to the space station, its engines began aimlessly firing. The generated thrust caused the whole space station to lose attitude control, according to NASA:
Following this morning's docking of the Nauka module to the [3]@Space_Station , the module's thrusters started firing at 12:45pm ET inadvertently and unexpectedly, moving the station 45 degrees out of attitude. Recovery operations have regained attitude and the crew is in no danger: [4]pic.twitter.com/jFlDZD7ZHp — NASA (@NASA) [5]July 29, 2021
"The crew is not in any danger, never was in any danger, and attitude control has been regained," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said about an hour after the thrusters briefly fired at around 1645 GMT. Communications between ground and the station were lost for 11 minutes during the burn, which was at one point declared a "spacecraft emergency" by NASA officials.
Indeed, we're told none of the seven astronauts on board the station were harmed during the scare. The crew right now is made up of cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov, who were in the Zvezda module connected to Nauka at the time; Akihiko Hoshide from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency; and NASA’s Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, and Mark Vande Hei.
[6]
According to the American space agency, the low-Earth-orbit station automatically detected that the Nauka module was in error, and used its own thrusters, including those on the Zvezda unit, to correct its orientation. It’s not clear what caused Nauka to malfunction, and Russian officials sent commands to the errant module to ensure it wouldn't fire again. It's also said that Nauka is out of propellant following its "tug of war" with the ISS.
[7]
Spokespeople at Roscosmos were not immediately available for comment.
NASA and Boeing will hold off launching a cargo resupply mission, dubbed Orbital Flight Test-2, that was meant to fly on Friday, July 30, as everyone continues to monitor the ISS and the Nauka module.
[8]
The Orbital Flight Test-2 mission is, as the name suggests, a test of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner, a capsule it hopes will eventually compete with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon in shuttling astronauts to and from the ISS.
“Currently, launch teams are assessing the next available opportunity,” NASA [9]said in a statement. “The move allows the International Space Station team time to continue working checkouts of the newly arrived Roscosmos’ Nauka module and to ensure the station will be ready for Starliner’s arrival.” ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/22/nauka_problems/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/29/nauka_docks/
[3] https://twitter.com/Space_Station?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[4] https://t.co/jFlDZD7ZHp
[5] https://twitter.com/NASA/status/1420801401358364678?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YQN5azgWqjzWbQ3A6hoRjgAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQN5azgWqjzWbQ3A6hoRjgAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YQN5azgWqjzWbQ3A6hoRjgAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2021/07/29/update-to-nasas-boeing-orbital-flight-test-2-mission/
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Next fast-track mission
Warning: Code brown! Projectiles on the way!
Since when did Boeing start building Russian space hardware?
Update from a news conference
Space.com reported that the latest news conference stated:
"The space station automatically recognized that Nauka's thrusters were sending the orbiting laboratory askew and ordered the Zvezda module to fire its own thrusters to compensate, a process completed by the robotic Russian Progress 78 cargo ship, which is also docked to the space station.
After the station regained its proper position, Nauka's overseers in Russia began work to ensure the thrusters would not fire mistakenly again, according to NASA. That command was successfully implemented as the space station flew over command stations in Russia."
As we found out with Hubble, decades old hardware and software is not the easiest thing to fix.
https://www.space.com/nauka-module-thruster-fire-tilts-space-station
Astronauts were
never in any danger, except from micro-meteors, decompression, bad air, fire, radiation, collision and having their station torqued to pieces by a bad module. It's all perfectly safe. Nothing to see here.
Move along. Move along.
> "The crew is not in any danger, never was in any danger, and attitude control has been regained," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said about 50 minutes after the thrusters briefly fired.
It might just be the quote clipping out the human bits of the text, but this is a supremely blasé statement.
Can we hear you now?
"NASA and Boeing will hold off launching a cargo resupply mission, ... “Currently, launch teams are assessing the next available opportunity,”
The SciFi / this-is-outer-space aspects strongly return every so often. Why launch a resupply mission until you know the ISS will be there upon arrival?
Sail on good ship
Next fast-track mission
Emergency cargo flight with replacement underwear and cleaning supplies.