Title: NASA Headquarters Power Outage Causes Communication Loss with Astronauts Aboard International Space Station
Date: [Insert Date]
A power outage at NASA headquarters in Houston has resulted in the space agency losing contact with its astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS), including Frank Rubio, who has been stranded for 10 months due to failures in the ship that would return him to Earth.
The incident occurred at 8:00 in the morning, local time, forcing NASA to seek assistance from the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and utilize their communication systems to establish contact with the astronauts in space. Joel Montalbano, the ISS program manager for NASA, stated in a press conference that they were able to communicate with the crew through Russian assets approximately 20 minutes after the failure.
Alongside Frank Rubio, the crew onboard the ISS includes Woody Hoburg and Stephen Bowen from NASA, Russian cosmonauts Andrey Fedyaev and Sergey Prokopyev, and Emirati astronaut Sultan Alneyadi.
The power outage occurred as planned upgrades were being carried out to the ground power system of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where NASA headquarters is located.
Montalbano revealed that they lost power, telemetry, command, and voice communication with the ISS. However, he assured that a backup command and control system was in place, which they would typically use in the event of a center closure for a weather emergency, especially during hurricane season.
This incident marks the first time since the ISS became operational in 2009 that NASA has had to rely on its backup control systems to restore communication with astronauts on board.
Fortunately, all systems returned to normal functionality 90 minutes after the power failure, according to the US space agency. Montalbano emphasized that the crew and the ISS were not in any danger during the outage.
Frank Rubio, 47, arrived at the ISS in September 2022 through the Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft. He was originally scheduled to return to Earth in March 2023 using the same vehicle. However, both the initial ship and the rescue ship sent to retrieve him experienced failures in their refrigeration systems.
NASA will continue working to address the technical issues and ensure the safe return of Rubio and the rest of the crew when possible.
Overall, the incident serves as a reminder of the challenges associated with space missions and the critical importance of robust backup systems to maintain communication with astronauts orbiting the Earth.