Yesterday at 12:45 p.m EDT on the International Space Station the thrusters of the newly docked Russian Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module fired unexpectedly. NASA says the crew was never in danger, but is that the case?
The statement NASA sent out following the incident stated, “The crew was never and is not in any danger. Ground teams quickly regained attitude control and the motion of the space station is stable.” During a media teleconference Kathy Lueders, Associate Administrator, NASA’s Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate said in her opening remarks, “but because of the team’s preparedness, the crew is ready, the contingency operations performed, and we were able to return to a stable and safe configuration.”
This would suggest the ISS was not in a safe and stable configuration. Tim Fernholz of Quartz picked up on this fact and asked a series of questions. “You’ve been saying that this was never putting astronauts in any danger? But you’ve also been saying you have to return the station to a safe and stable configuration, which suggests that previously it was not safe or was unstable. If 45 minutes of loss of attitude control is not dangerous. When does it become dangerous? How long would that have to continue before it would be a problematic scenario?”
Both Kathy Lueders and Joel Montalbano, Manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program responded to the question. Neither actually answered the first two questions. They spoke about how they had prepared closely for the Nauka launching and docking with Roscosmos. They also spoke to contingency plans in place for this type of issue.
Joel Montalbano did say that the thrusters on Nauka had been disabled as one of the steps taken. That should mitigate the problem. The incident cause the ISS to lose attitude control for 45 minutes before the issue was rectified.
Yet the question remains.
Nauka issues raised before docking
NASA Watch has received an internal memo it says it can’t release. However, and according to NASA Watch, “Based on internal memos we’ve read (and I cannot post), NASA personnel in Houston and Moscow were worried about Nauka and its propulsion system – before docking even happened. Plus NASA does not have the complete insight into Nauka prop system that they’d like to have and must rely on Russians.”
“Two of the three levels of redundancy in the Nauka prop system were lost before docking. The friendly banter between NASA and Roscosmos about Nauka issues was not as collegial and transparent as Kathy Lueders et al described it as being yesterday.”
Because of the Nauka issue, NASA has decided to postpone today’s launch attempt of Boeing’s Starliner Orbital Flight Test-2 mission until August 3rd the earliest.
“NASA and Boeing have decided to stand down from Friday’s launch attempt of the agency’s Orbital Flight Test-2 mission. Currently, launch teams are assessing the next available opportunity. The move allows the International Space Station team time to continue working checkouts of the newly arrived Roscosmos’ Nauka module and to ensure the station will be ready for Starliner’s arrival.”