![]() (Roscosmos Space Agency Press Service photo, via AP) For 47 minutes, the space station lost control of its orientation when the firing occurred a few hours after docking, pushing the orbiting complex from its normal configuration. The newly arrived Russian science lab knocked the International Space Station out of position when it accidentally fired its thrusters. “They had to fire up thrusters on another visiting spacecraft in order to try to regain control.”Ī photo taken by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky of the Nauka module before docking with the International Space Station on July 29. They were cool under pressure in recovering from this situation, but it was a challenging thing for them to do quickly, and to go from everyday routines to responding to an unusual and unique emergency situation.” he said. One final consequence of the ill-timed thruster firing was a delay of the launch of an uncrewed Boeing Starliner capsule to the ISS.įurther problems have been detected with the Starliner propulsion-system, and a new date for launch has not been set. The ISS, Osborne said, also briefly went “power negative,” meaning the solar panels were pointed in the wrong direction, and the ISS was draining its batteries. (NASA via AP)Ī spacecraft emergency was declared, and Osborne said that required seven people aboard the ISS to prepare for possible evacuation. Lars Osborne, propulsion engineer lead for Agile Space Industries of Durango, said an inadvertent firing of thrusters on a Russian space vehicle sent the ISS into a tumble that will be studied for years. This image made from NASA TV shows the International Space Station, seen from the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft April 24. The inadvertent thruster fire from the Russian Nauka multipurpose vehicle also left the ISS in slightly different orbit, and Osborne said a new maneuver is planned in about two weeks to bring the space station back into correct orbit. ![]() ![]() “It will take some time before they can be back into normal operations and resume scientific experiments.” “Certainly, one of the immediate impacts was all the scientific research that was happening on the International Space Station had to come to a very abrupt halt,” Osborne said. Thrusters on other modules attached to the ISS were successful in regaining orientation and stabilizing the station, but Osborne said that did not happen without costs. Griffin Mission One is slated to carry the VIPER, the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, to the South Pole of the moon in late 2023 in search of lunar water and ice. It expanded in 2018 to design, develop, test and manufacture small rocket engines, called attitude control thrusters, used to steer space vehicles.Īgile was selected in December 2020 by Astrobotic Technology Inc., a Pittsburgh-based spacecraft and space robotics company, to build the 12 thrusters that will guide its Griffin Lunar Lander to the moon. “But my understanding is that the Nauka module got confused into thinking that it was trying to depart the International Space Station.”Īgile, founded in 2009, originally offered a test site for rocket engines in a remote area adjacent to Durango-La Plata County Airport. “Roscosmos claimed it was a short-term software error, which is a funny way to describe it,” said Lars Osborne, propulsion engineer lead for Agile Space Industries. One Durango business, Agile Space Industries, a designer, tester and manufacturer of the thrusters used to steer spacecraft, is uniquely situated to comment on last week’s ill-timed thruster firing. ![]() ![]() So what happened when an uncrewed Russian spacecraft inadvertently fired its thrusters sending the International Space Station tumbling 1½ times about 227 miles above the Earth? After docking, the Nauka inadvertently fired its thrusters, sending the ISS tumbling 1½ times before ground controllers regained control. The Nauka module, also called the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, approaches the International Space Station on July 29. ![]()
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