Russia accuses space station of software failure after short-term deviation from orbit Reuters

Authors: Andrew Osborn and Alexander Marrow

MOSCOW (Reuters)-Russia on Friday accused a software failure of causing an event that temporarily derailed the International Space Station (ISS), and said it is stepping up work to activate a new add-on module at the event center.

After the engine of the Russian Nauka or “Science” research module roared into life about three hours after it was locked, the International Space Station was thrown out of orbit on Thursday.

Vladimir Solovyov, the chief designer of Energia, the Russian space agency, tried to assure international partners that the incident was under control and said that the astronauts would be up and running soon.

He said in a statement: “Due to a short-term software failure, a direct command was wrongly executed to turn on the module engine for withdrawal, which caused some changes in the direction of the entire complex.”

“The crew is now busy balancing the pressure in the Nauka cabin. In the afternoon, the crew will open the cabin door, enter the cabin, turn on the necessary air purification devices, and start normal daily work.”

Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin (Dmitry Rogozin) later stated that human factors may be involved.

“Everything is going well, but there are human factors. There is some euphoria (after the successful docking) and everyone relaxes,” he was quoted on the website of the Communist Youth League Pravda.

According to NASA, the seven crew members on board — two Russian astronauts, three NASA astronauts, one Japanese astronaut and one European Space Agency astronaut from France — never faced any Immediate danger.

Russian astronaut Oleg Nowitzki told his followers not to worry on Twitter on Friday.

“Dear friends, I am reading a lot of your comments. Don’t worry! Our work to integrate the newly arrived Nauka module on the International Space Station is still continuing! We will open the hatch tonight. You will be notified in time!”

The Russian Space Agency Roscosmos stated that Russian experts are completing the inspection of the Nauka engine remotely to ensure the safety of everyone and that the International Space Station is on a normal flight trajectory.

It said that the docking was successful in terms of the seal between the new module and the rest of the International Space Station.

Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, praised Nauka’s docking with the International Space Station the day before as a “very difficult and important victory for us”, and warmly received congratulations from space entrepreneur Elon Musk on Twitter.

Rogozin also talked about plans to launch another Russian module to the International Space Station in November.

Roscosmos has suffered a series of accidents and corruption scandals, including contractors accused of embezzling state funds during the construction of the Eastern Space Launch Field in the country’s Far East.