Accidental Thruster Firing On The ISS Requires More Study

An accident happened not long ago aboard ISS after Russia docked its new Multipurpose Laboratory Module. Shortly after docking, the thrusters on that new module fired, pushing the ISS out of its normal orientation. Mission controllers were able to regain control of the space station and orient it correctly, but that may not be the end of the story.

It appears there was no damage done to the ISS, but Russian officials are now saying it’s up to specialists to assess how the ISS may have been stressed and what the consequences are. Both US and Russian space officials have said that the crew wasn’t in any danger during the incident.

The station has to be properly aligned to gain maximum power from the solar panels used to support the space station’s systems. Officials say that communications with ground controllers went out twice for a few minutes on Thursday. In a tweet from Tuesday, NASA said that the station was 45 degrees out of alignment while the thrusters were still firing, and a loss of control was discussed with the crew.

The station is a rather delicate structure and both the Russian and the US segments are built as light as possible, Sergei Krikalev, director of crewed space programs at Roscosmos said. An additional load stresses the drivers of solar batteries and the frames they are mounted on. Specialists will analyze the consequences and it is too early to talk about how serious it was, but it was an unforeseen situation that requires a detailed study.