Russia's new Nauka module, a research lab, airlock, and storage unit, reportedly began firing its thrusters uncontrollably hours after safely docking with the International Space Station, tilting the ISS 45 degrees out of attitude, according to a live broadcast of emerging events on NASA TV.
“Nauka” Module dock to the Space Station
Nauka, also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module-Upgrade or simply Multipurpose Laboratory Module, is a component of the International Space Station. The MLM-U is funded by Roscosmos. In the original ISS plans, Nauka was to use the location of the Docking and Stowage Module.
Launch date: 21 July 2021
Launch vehicle: Proton-M
Docked: 29 July 2021
Pressurised volume: 80.9 m3 (2,860 cu ft); Habitable: 70 m3 (2,500 cu ft)
Mass: 20,350 kg (44,860 lb) in orbit; At launch: 23,200 kg (51,100 lb); Dry mass: 20,300 kg (44,800 lb)
While the crew of the renowned low-Earth orbit space station is unaffected, NASA, the European Space Agency, and Russian Flight Directors are all monitoring the situation closely
"When Nauka began firing uncontrollably at 12:45 PM EDT, Zvezda's hatch was opened and crew was in the midst of getting things up and running," NASASpaceFlight journalist Chris Gebhardt tweeted. "The International Space Station is tilted 45 degrees. NO RISK TO THE CREW!" This came after the Nauka module successfully docked with the ISS following a harrowing voyage from Earth. The module encountered a failure to perform a main thruster burn to lift it to a higher orbit after it was launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrone on July 21, although this was remedied by backup thrusters.
Progress thrusters were fired to correct the ISS' orientation
However, after the Nauka module caused the ISS to lose its proper orientation, the station's attitude was corrected using service module thrusters and later progress thrusters. As of this writing, it appears to be in good shape, with no casualties, and Russian teams are continuing to investigate the Nauka thruster problem. Another tweet from the NASASpaceFlight journalist stated, "Progress thrusters were deployed to recover ISS nominal attitude." "Russian teams will keep working on the Nauka thruster problem." According to NASA's live broadcast, a follow-up teleconference to discuss the incident will be held later and will be announced on Nasa.gov and social media.
When the thruster fire started accidentally, Russia's Zvezda service module attempted to repair the attitude loss, but the maneuver moved to the main Progress thrusters. According to another tweet, the ISS will need to travel back within range of Russian ground controllers through its orbital trajectory to repair the problem, so the Nauka module's thrusters don't fire uncontrollably again. The precarious situation was being monitored in real time by Japan's space agency (JAXA), in addition to NASA and ESA control centers. The team at Mission Control Houston thought they'd seen debris or ice flying off the ISS into space, but they didn't.
