Because Of This The Russian Nauka Module Collided With The Space Station Yesterday

Nauka, a multipurpose science module designed to accommodate both cargo and people. (photo: NASA)

JAKARTA - The Russian space agency (Roscosmos) said the collision of the International Space Station (ISS) and the Nauka module laboratory occurred due to a software error or human error.

Compiled from The Verge, Sunday, August 1st, the incident began when the module's thrusters suddenly fired hours after docking, displacing the ISS from its normal position. A software glitch caused the Nauka module to think it should back off the station.

A research station or laboratory the size of a football field hovering 270 miles in low-Earth orbit, pushed 45 degrees off course once the Nauka thrusters started firing. NASA said it lost control of the station's position minutes later, but was eventually repositioned to normal after a booster from another Russian module neutralized Nauka's errant fire.

"Due to a short-term software failure, the direct command was incorrectly implemented to start the engine of the module for recall, which led to several modifications to the orientation of the complex as a whole," said Russian station segment space flight director Vladimir Solovyov.

Roscosmos will lead the investigation into the shooting of the wrong thrusters. Checks on the Nauka engine are being completed remotely by Russian specialists. This is done to ensure continued safety and the station is on a normal flight path.

"The space station and its new Russian module are operating normally now. A reliable internal command and power interface has been created, as well as a power supply interface connecting the module to the station," Solovyov said.

He said the station's Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov had balanced the pressure on Nauka and planned to enter the module to start purifying the atmosphere and start work as usual.

Nauka, which means science in Russian, is a multipurpose science module designed to accommodate both cargo and people. Its long-delayed development began in 1995 and has gone through several design changes that pushed its original launch date from 2007 to 2021.

Finally launched on July 21. Upon reaching space, it immediately encountered propulsion and communication problems that delayed its insertion into orbit. The module successfully docked eight days later, on Thursday, before the thrusters came out and pushed the station off track.

NASA space station manager Joel Montalbano revealed the crash resulted in the delay of Boeing's planned launch of its unmanned Starliner capsule to the ISS, which was scheduled for Friday at 2:53 p.m. ET and is now Tuesday, August 3 at 13:20 ET.