In combat with Russian lab module, space station “brought a knife to a shootout” – Spaceflight Now

STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS AND USED WITH PERMISSION

Playing it safe, the seven members of the International Space Station crew entered the US segment of the outpost on Friday, closed hatches and window shutters, and stood still while Russian flight controllers ventilated the helium pressurization lines in the new Nauka laboratory module.

Due to previous issues with the module’s propulsion system, the crew was not taking any risks, but the high-pressure helium in the lines used to pressurize Nauka’s thrusters was safely vented overboard. Moments later, station cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Piotr Dubrovnik opened a final hatch and floated into the spacious new addition.

“’We will withdraw from the current position. “

The 44,000-pound Nauka multipurpose laboratory docked with the Russian Zvezda module at the station on Thursday. But a software error resulted in unexpected thruster firing three hours later, with the lab out of contact with Russian flight controllers, pushing the space station out of its normal orientation, or “attitude.”

The unwanted movement prompted the Zvezda module’s thrusters to fire in an attempt to counter the thrust of the Nauka jets. The thrusters of a Progress freighter also joined to provide more force.

NASA Flight Director Zeb Scoville later tweeted that the result was a “forced flight” between the Nauka and Zvezda thrusters. Considering the orientation of the modules and the relative strengths of the thrusters, “the ISS brought a knife to a shootout.”

Senior MLM Flight Manager Greg Whitney and I shared the shift today. I have never: 1) been so proud of the team that sits at MCC and continues to live @Space station, 2) had to declare a spaceship emergency so far, 3) I was so happy to see all the solar panels + heaters still attached. https://t.co/Bmox4WVZsn

– Zebulon Scoville (@Explorer_Flight) July 29, 2021

“Reports that the ISS was only 45 degrees (from normal orientation) were premature,” he said. “We started making pear trees and cartwheels. Olympic judges would be proud.

He said the station “has moved as far away from attitude as possible. In the end, I won the fight by force and came back to a straight line and level.

Anyway, with the propellant pressurization lines now evacuated, the cosmonauts were ready to continue with the initial activation and equipment of the new module.

Reflecting on working to recover from the loss of attitude control, Scoville tweeted “I have never: 1) been more proud of the team that sits at MCC (Mission Control) and lives on @Space_Station, 2 ) had to declare a spaceship emergency so far, 3) I was so happy to see all the solar panels + heaters still attached.

Entering the Nauka dock, NASA eagerly awaited the launch on Friday of an Atlas 5 rocket carrying Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule on a second unmanned test flight to the space station. With a successful flight test, Boeing hopes to start launching astronauts by the end of this year or early next year.

But given the drama of Nauka’s arrival and initial uncertainty about the module’s health, NASA officials chose to delay the launch of Starliner. The flight was tentatively reset for launch on Tuesday, at 1:20 p.m. EDT.

Meanwhile, rocket builder United Launch Alliance transported the thruster and its payload from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral and returned them to a processing facility to protect it from afternoon storms.