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posted by martyb on Friday July 30 2021, @06:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the What-does-this-button-do? dept.

Russian module suddenly fires thrusters after docking with space station:

Flight controllers at NASA and Roscosmos averted a disaster on Thursday after a large Russian module docked with the International Space Station and began to "inadvertently" fire its thrusters.

The Russian "Nauka" module linked to the space station at 8:30 am CT (13:30 UTC), local time in Houston, where NASA's Mission Control is based. After that, Russian cosmonauts aboard the station began preparing to open the hatches leading to Nauka, but at 11:34 am Houston time, Nauka unexpectedly started to fire its movement thrusters.

Within minutes, the space station began to lose attitude control. This was a problem for several reasons. First of all, the station requires a certain attitude to maintain signal with geostationary satellites and talk to Mission Control on the ground. Also, solar arrays are positioned to collect power based upon this predetermined attitude.

Another concern is G forces on the station's structure. The various components of the extensive space station were assembled in microgravity and designed to operate at zero-G. So even small stresses on the vehicle can induce small cracks or other problems with the station's structure.

For all of these reasons, space station flight controllers in Houston and Moscow acted quickly after the station started to drift. Attitude control was fully lost at 11:42 am, and engines on the space station's service module were fired. This was followed by a handover to the Russian Progress vehicle attached to the station, which began to fire its thrusters. This tug-of-war offset the Nauka module thruster activity, which eventually stopped after fuel supplies were exhausted. By 12:29 pm on Thursday, attitude control was restored. It made for quite an hour on the ground and in space.

[...] By late Thursday afternoon, when NASA officials held a teleconference to brief reporters, the situation appeared to be well in hand.

Previously:
Russia's MLM Nauka Makes Triumphant Docking to ISS.


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @12:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 01 2021, @12:00AM (#1161808)

    No, this was just Russian building standards and quality control at work. They talk big but Cosmodrome has more to lose than NASA does if the ISS shuts down.

    The US/EU have been funnelling money to major campaign contributors with little to show for it for too long. Bigelow laid off all of their employees so they are out of the running. Two to three stations would be a problem because Congress isn't willing to properly fund (and thus crew) the one that is already there. One station would be enough for current needs if it was properly funded and crewed. Funding beyond that should be directed at a moon base, and then at Mars.

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