A new Russian module began experiencing issues shortly after docking with the International Space Station on Thursday.
The 43-foot long, 23-ton Nauka module docked with the space station at 8:29 a.m. CDT. About three hours later, the module's thrusters began firing inadvertently.
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This caused the space station to lose attitude control. Attitude is the orientation of the spacecraft in relativity to Earth, and attitude control is the process of controlling that orientation.
The space station was about 45 degrees out of attitude. Russia's flight control team fired the thrusters of its cargo spacecraft docked to the station to help regain ISS attitude and return the station to a normal attitude configuration.
"The crew was never in any danger," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said. Adding, “We do not know why the Nauka thrusters began to fire. That is not clear at this point.”
The Russian flight control team has indicated that it will be able to send commands to the Nauka module to disable those thrusters and prevent any reoccurrence of inadvertent thruster firings.
The loss of attitude control does not appear to have affected other systems or structures on the International Space Station. However, it is delaying the Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft that was supposed to launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Friday afternoon.
This uncrewed test flight is part of NASA's Commercial Crew Program, where commercial companies own and operate the spacecraft trusted to carry astronauts to the space station. This uncrewed test flight must occur before Boeing can conduct a crewed test flight and then receive certification for operational flights.
This story will be updated.
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