Russian Spacecraft's Thrusters Tilt the International Space Station - Again (space.com) 44
"Unplanned thruster firings by a Russian spacecraft briefly knocked the International Space Station off-kilter Friday, the second such incident in less than three months," reports Space.com:
The spacecraft involved today was the Soyuz MS-18, which is scheduled to bring cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy, film director Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild back to Earth early Sunday morning (Oct. 17)... "Within 30 minutes, flight controllers regained attitude control of the space station, which is now in a stable configuration," NASA officials wrote in an update this afternoon. "The crew was awake at the time of the event and was not in any danger."
The orbiting lab briefly tilted from its normal orientation this morning by 57 degrees, according to the Russian news agency Interfax, which cited communications between Novitskiy and Vladimir Solovyov, the flight director of the station's Russian segment.
Space station managers don't yet know what caused the anomalously long firing... It's also unclear why the MS-18's thrusters stopped firing, though the station's handlers have some ideas. "We think — and we haven't got confirmation — we think the thrusters stopped firing because they reached their prop[ellant] limit," NASA flight director Timothy Creamer told agency astronauts shortly after the thrusters shut down, according to The New York Times. "Moscow is checking into it and doing their data analysis."
The orbiting lab briefly tilted from its normal orientation this morning by 57 degrees, according to the Russian news agency Interfax, which cited communications between Novitskiy and Vladimir Solovyov, the flight director of the station's Russian segment.
Space station managers don't yet know what caused the anomalously long firing... It's also unclear why the MS-18's thrusters stopped firing, though the station's handlers have some ideas. "We think — and we haven't got confirmation — we think the thrusters stopped firing because they reached their prop[ellant] limit," NASA flight director Timothy Creamer told agency astronauts shortly after the thrusters shut down, according to The New York Times. "Moscow is checking into it and doing their data analysis."
Cut that shit loose (Score:2)
The Russians have proven that they are either unqualified to build a module, or untrustworthy to operate one... or both. Involving them is a waste of time, money, and effort until they unfuck themselves. Dump it and either figure out how to live without it (which will be easier than living with it) or get a new module from the billionaire's club.
Young ignoramus never learned history (Score:1)
Wow! How can people know so little about history? With all the time "news" on the internet, so many lemmings don't know that problems happen all the time. That not everything should be responded to with scorched earth policy.
Re:Cut that shit loose (Score:5, Funny)
The Russians have proven that they are either unqualified to build a module, or untrustworthy to operate one...
On the contrary. This proves that the ISS need *more* Russian modules -- positioned in pairs to balance out the unexpected thrusts. :-)
Re: Cut that shit loose (Score:2)
Do you want Space 1999? Because that's how you get Space 1999.
Respect the Soyuz orientation! (Score:1, Funny)
They should permit Soyuz any orientation it chooses! How dare the eurocentric white men of space agencies demand a specific orientation! Aiieee, we need a new pronoun for hollow tubes of steel!
Re: (Score:1)
Dear Russia, please ignore this speaker, I need your natural gas and your wheat.
Europe Thanks You A Bunch.
Re: (Score:2)
reached propellant limit? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
"So Soyuz is out of propellant? Isn't that a huge problem?"
Hardly.
There are actresses galore.
Re: (Score:2)
USSR talent is almost gone (Score:5, Interesting)
The talent base the USSR developed over the cold war and space race is nearly depleted. Whatever vestiges remain of that lineage are nearly gone, and we're seeing the results. Now that talented engineers are free to go where they feel the true innovation is happening, and where they can get paid well, Russia is loosing this kind of skillset.
They're having trouble just maintaining the status quo, let alone developing radically new launch or space technology. Also consider that the Soyuz capsules are originally 1960s technology with some retrofitting along the way.
Re: USSR talent is almost gone (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Good 'ol CCCP style products were built from materials of wildly variable quality, so the CCCP Engineers became quite adept of building simple, robust, overbuilt machines that ran like "Energizer Bunnies". Now that Russia is becoming westernized, it's engineering designs are becoming more elegant, and therefore less tolerant quality variances. It's not only "They don't build them like they used too", they can't build them like they used too, and it's not just the Russians either, we couldn't build a Saturn
Re: (Score:2)
What does the 1960s technology snub have to do with it?
I thought that point was clear in my comment. The engineers who designed the technology have long since passed away or retired. When you're talking about technology 60 years old, who in your organization understands it at the levels of the engineers that designed it? Same thing happens with software codebases. Heck, it happened at NASA with the F1 engine. It is claimed the engine cannot be produced any longer, for a number of reasons. At some point you must advance and develop new technology along with the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
No, a 60s car would not last as long. At least, not without doing more maintenance than you would normally.
A modern car today needs very little maintenance - an oil change every 5-8000 miles or so is about the
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
In the same way you could describe your PC as "originally 1970's technology with some retrofitting along the way" and give an equally misleading impression.
In many respects, the Soyuz MS (the current generation) bears about as much resemblance to the Soyuz 7K and 7K-OK (the 1960's generations) as a 2021 Corvette does to a 1967 Corvette. Despite the visual similarity, many systems have been up
Sounds dangerous (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Those Kerbals scream like crazy over nothing, they'll be fine, thrusters just mess you up on re-entry anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
2 tilt warnings 3th time is an tilt unless slam (Score:4, Funny)
2 tilt warnings 3th time is an tilt unless you slam tilt it
Becoming a circus (Score:2)
Re:Becoming a circus (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe we could send over our crack team of software devs from Boeing to help.
Well, they have had a lot of recent experience with attitude control.
It's that American woman's period (Score:1)
It must be that American astronaut's period that's causing these fluctuations. Because you know how women are. The fact that she is not on the station itself is irrelevant.
Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence... (Score:2)
... three times is enemy action.
Knock it off, Vlad, you are not so cute.
Russo-US cooperation needs to end (Score:2)
Russia is an enemy country and the US can afford all the space exploration it cares to pay for so economy is not an excuse.
Leave ISS and let them keep or de-orbit the thing. It's old and unlike Russia the US can send up another or several if needed.
Re: (Score:2)
Queue random unrelated story (Score:2)
Soyuz bad (Score:2)
And yet not just one but two NASA space shuttles explode killing their crews, and no "OMG! NASA needz to be dizmantelz!"
The Soyuz is a very reliable spacecraft and I am so sick of the "damn commie Ruskiez" clap trap coming out of the mouths of babes.