The thrusters of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft (MS-18) were unexpectedly stimulated, causing the International Space Station to tilt and rotate 57 degrees out of control again. This was the second similar occurrence in less than three months.
The spacecraft plans to transport Russian astronaut Oleg Novitskiy, film director Klim Shipenko and actresses early on Sunday morning (October 17) Eastern Time in the United States. Yulia Peresild returned to Earth. In the test before returning home, Russian flight controllers activated the spacecraft’s propellers at 5:02 am on Friday.
NASA officials wrote in the update: “After the test window was over, the thrusters continued to start unexpectedly, causing the International Space Station to lose its attitude control at 5:13 a.m. Within 30 minutes, the flight controller regained control of the space station. His posture has now returned to stability. The crew remained awake at the time of the incident and did not encounter any danger.”
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Moreover, Vladimir Solovyov, the flight director of the Russian section of the International Space Station, confirmed that the orbital laboratory briefly deviated from its normal azimuth by 57 degrees. The space station management personnel do not yet know the cause of this anomaly.
NASA officials wrote in the update that NASA and the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos are currently conducting a joint investigation. At the same time, they also don’t know why the thrusters are turned on, although the space station management personnel have their own guesses.
NASA flight director Timothy Creamer told the astronauts shortly after the thrusters were shut down: “We think (but it has not been confirmed) that the thrusters are shut down because they have reached their limit. Russia is working on this. Investigate and conduct data analysis.”
The International Space Station also tilted on July 29, when the thrusters of Russia’s newly arrived Nauka research module were accidentally activated. The impact of that event was even greater, prompting the International Space Station to rotate about 45 degrees. Russian officials blamed the software failure.
An official of the Russian Space Agency wrote in a statement issued on July 30: “Due to a short-term software failure on the Noka, a direct command was mistakenly executed to start the thruster engine for detachment, which caused the entire space station to lose control. The posture has changed.”
Despite the accident, the Soyuz MS-18 will return to Earth this weekend. The spacecraft will leave the space station at approximately 9:14 pm on Saturday (October 16) Eastern Summer Time, and land on the grasslands of Kazakhstan in about 3.5 hours.
Besides, Russian astronaut Nowitzki spent about 6 months in orbit, while Shipenko and Peresil only stayed for 12 days. The two launched on October 5 and shot a movie called “Challenges” on the space station. They took off with astronaut Anton Shkaplerov, who will stay and work on the space station.
