ISS: Nasa lost control of the space station – the incident was arguably worse than initially communicated

NASA loses control of the International Space Station for a short time – later it turns out: The incident was much worse than first communicated.

Houston / Frankfurt – The International Space Station ISS moves its orbits around the earth normally inconspicuously and without major events. But last Thursday (July 29th, 2021) it was different: The Russian module “Nauka”, which had just docked at the ISS, ignited its engines unscheduled due to a software error and messed up the flight path of the space station. The US space agency NASA lost control of the ISS for about an hour, and contact with the crew on board the International Space Station was also lost. But apparently the situation was far worse than it was communicated by NASA so far.

According to NASA, the space station turned 45 degrees during the unplanned maneuver when the situation was under control again. But now the Nasa flight director Zebulon Scoville, who was on duty during the situation, spoke to the New York Times and described what really happened. “That was reported a bit wrongly,” the US newspaper quoted the NASA employee as saying.

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International Space Station ISS was out of control – NASA report glossed over the incident

In fact, the International Space Station made a total of one and a half revolutions – about 540 degrees – before coming to an upside-down stop. Then the ISS made a forward 180 degree turn to return to its original orientation. The space station rotated at a maximum speed of 0.56 degrees per second, Scoville said. The seven astronauts who currently live and work on the ISS, however, have noticed almost no changes within the station and have never been in danger, emphasizes the NASA flight director. NASA had previously emphasized that the astronauts were safe at all times.

The Russian space agency Roskosmos later explained the unscheduled ignition of the engines on the new Russian ISS module “Nauka” as a software error. At the same time, the configuration of the module ensured that “Nauka” could not be deactivated directly after the unplanned ignition of the engines: direct commands to the module must be sent from a ground station in Russia – and it should take another 70 minutes until the space station is back flew over Russia.

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NASA: “Tug of war” around the International Space Station – lost contact with the crew

What could be controlled directly, however, were the engines of the Russian ISS service module Zvezda and the space freighter Progress, which had brought cargo to the ISS and was still docked there. These engines worked against the incorrectly started module, which in this “tug of war”, as NASA employees later called it, only gave up when the fuel ran out.

ISS: NASA employee reports an emergency – contact with the crew lost twice

Scoville, who was not supposed to be on duty that day, reported an emergency for the first time in his seven years as ISS flight director, he told the New York Times about the exciting operation. Through this emergency report, additional antennas were activated in the USA in order to communicate with the space station. Nevertheless, they lost contact with the crew on board the ISS twice – first for four minutes, then again for seven minutes. This was due to the rotation of the space station: Due to the changed orientation, the ISS could no longer make contact with the satellites, via which communication normally takes place.

When the situation on the ISS returned to normal, the astronauts on board got the rest of the day off. According to information from the New York Times, there is so far no evidence of damage to the space station. It seems like the ISS just barely missed a catastrophe.

However, the incident still has effects: After the planned test flight of the Boeing spacecraft “CST-100 Starliner” was postponed to Tuesday (August 3rd, 2021) due to problems with the ISS, the launch must now be postponed again for weather reasons . (Tanja Banner)

Rubric list image: © Nasa/Roscosmos