The new Russian module of the space station unintentionally triggered its engines, pushing the ISS out of position last week. Recently, a NASA flight director revealed that this incident is more serious than NASA’s initial report.
The report from The New York Times quoted Zebulon Scoville, a NASA flight director leading the control mission in Houston during the Russian module incident on July 29, 2021, stating that the International Space Station tilted far more than just 45 degrees.
The event had been “inaccurately reported,” he said. NASA officials disclosed that when the Nauka module experienced engine trouble, the ISS “rotated a full circle – about 540 degrees – before coming to a stop upside down. The space station then rotated an additional 180 degrees to return to its original orientation.”
Scoville also mentioned that this was the first time he had declared a “spacecraft emergency.”
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The International Space Station was captured by astronauts on the Endeavour space shuttle in 2010. Photo: NASA
On August 2, 2021, a NASA representative confirmed to Space.com that Zebulon Scoville’s information about the International Space Station incident was accurate. “We want to reiterate that the maximum rate at which the change occurred was slow enough that the crew members on the station didn’t feel it, and all station systems operated throughout the event,” emphasized the NASA representative.
Another NASA representative added that the initial 45-degree figure in the ISS incident was given by guidance, navigation, and control personnel in the initial minutes and was later updated after analysis.