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The Russian space agency blamed a “short-term software failure” for yesterday’s engine crash with its new science module. The module’s thrusters went off unexpectedly hours after docking, displacing the International Space Station from its normal position. The software problem made the Nauka module think it was supposed to move away from the station.
The space station, a football-field-sized research laboratory floating 270 miles in low-earth orbit, was moved 45 degrees after Nauka’s thrusters began firing. NASA said it lost control of the station’s positioning minutes later, but was eventually repositioned to normal after thrusters from another Russian module thwarted stray fire from Nauka.
“Due to a short-term software failure, a direct command was mistakenly implemented to turn on the module motors for removal, resulting in some change in the orientation of the complex as a whole,” Vladimir Soloviev, the director of space flight told the Russian segment of the station in a statement Friday morning.
Roscosmos will lead the investigation into the misfire from the thrusters and keep his U.S. partners informed of any fixes, NASA space station director Joel Montalbano told reporters on Thursday. The incident forced a delay in Boeing’s planned launch of its unmanned Starliner capsule to the ISS, which was scheduled for Friday at 2:53 p.m. ET and is now scheduled for Tuesday, August 3 at 1:20 p.m. ET, the agency said. in a press release.
The space station and its new Russian module are “functioning normally” now, Soloviev said, adding that “a reliable internal power and control interface has been created, as well as a power supply interface that connected the module to the station”. He said Russian station cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Piotrevo are balancing the pressure in Nauka and planning to enter the module to start “purifying the atmosphere and starting normal normal work.”
Nauka, which means science in Russian, is a multipurpose science module designed to hold goods and humans. Its long-delayed development began in 1995 and has undergone several design changes that pushed its original launch date back from 2007 to 2021. It was finally launched on July 21. Upon reaching space, it almost immediately encountered propulsion and communication problems that delayed its insertion into orbit. The module successfully docked eight days later, Thursday, before its thrusters failed and pushed the station off the runway.
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