Long moments of tension aboard the International Space Station (ISS): around 6:30 pm yesterday, the engines of the recently docked Russian module Nauka unexpectedly started turning on the entire station. The thrust that tilted the station 45 degrees was counterbalanced with the firing of other engines and the situation gradually returned to normal without any damage. “It was certainly an unexpected accident but we cannot call it serious, rather” undesirable “,” Bernardo Patti, long-time responsible for the ISS for the European Space Agency (ESA) and now responsible for the Exploration Program of ESA.
“In no time – Patti specified – there was a real danger of life for the crew aboard the Space Station”. At the origin of the accident that tilted the ISS up to 45 degrees was the ignition of the engines of the Russian Nauka module recently docked at the Station. “The module had registered various anomalies from the beginning – continued Patti – and now the Russian space agency will make its own investigation to ascertain the details of the causes”.
Shortly after the launch of the module, on 21 July from the Baikonur base in Kazakhstan, the Nauka module had made everyone stand in suspense due to the misfire of its main thrusters but the technicians from the ground had still managed to activate auxiliary engines to get the module to the right altitude and proceed with the maneuvers to approach the ISS which ended yesterday at 15:29 Italian time. After about 3 hours, however, the Nauka’s engines suddenly restarted because “some of the fuel control valves had not closed,” Patti said.
Obviously the causes are still to be defined with certainty through an accurate investigation but it is considered probable that a failure to update the software of the Nauka which mistakenly believed to be in flight and not yet docked at the Station was also considered likely to trigger the ignition. . The incident was also reported live on social media by some of the astronauts on board including the American Drew Morgan who wrote on Twitter “We are in a tug of war between the engines of Zvezda and Nauka”.
The incident allegedly began at 6:34 pm when the Space Station’s computers reported a sudden start of rotation generated by a gradual thrust, so much so that no astronaut had initially noticed it. Immediately the on-board computers had activated a countermeasure by activating a counter thrust with the thrusters of another Russian module, Zvezda. But the station slowly continued to tilt up to 45 degrees and at that point it was decided to also activate the engines of the Russian Progress cargo shuttle. After a few minutes, the situation is finally back under control and there is no damage of any kind.
«It is normal that in 23 years some accidents have occurred from time to time – underlined Patti – we have had even more serious ones. I think it is important to see the glass half full, all accidents have always been handled in the best possible way even if obviously we would gladly do without them ». Meanwhile, as a precaution, NASA announced the postponement of the launch of Starliner, the Boeing space capsule that should have completed the unmanned flight test today, reaching the ISS.