The Nauka laboratory module was successfully docked with the International Space Station on Thursday, albeit the troublesome equipment caused yet another scare when it unintentionally fired, pushing the entire station out of place.
The mission comes after more than a decade of delays, and it comes as Russia strives to bolster its space sector, which has lagged behind since the demise of the Soviet Union and is struggling to stay up with US competition.
Nauka’s propulsive equipment unexpectedly launched a few hours after docking, causing crew members on the multinational manned orbital platform to fire thrusters on the Russian part of the station to counteract the effect.
The module began firing “inadvertently and unexpectedly,” NASA stated on Twitter, “pushing the station 45 degrees out of attitude.” “Recovery activities have recovered their focus, and the crew is not in danger,” the statement continued.
Kathy Lueders, NASA’s human spaceflight program chief, described the incident as a “very exciting hour” and commended the crew for stabilizing the situation in a press conference.
The US space agency also confirmed that the SpaceX Dragon docked to the orbiting station was operational and ready to evacuate the crew if necessary.
While an inquiry is underway, an uncrewed test flight of a Boeing Starliner crew spacecraft to the International Space Station has been postponed from Friday to at least August 3.
At 1329 GMT, the Russian space agency Roscosmos showed the latest addition to its part of the ISS docking with the Zvezda service module’s nadir (Earth-facing) port.
“There is contact!!!” exclaims the narrator. Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, tweeted that Russia has achieved the first docking of an ISS module in 11 years.
The module’s integration with the space station will now require several months and multiple spacewalks.
