Russian module knocks out International Space Station

A Russian module briefly knocked the International Space Station out of position on Thursday after it accidentally fired its thrusters.

The space station lost control of its orientation for 47 minutes when the shot occurred a few hours after docking and pushed the orbiting complex out of its normal configuration.

The location of the station is key to get power from solar panels and/or communications. Communication with the ground controllers also broke off twice for a few minutes.

Air traffic controllers regained control using thrusters on other Russian components at the station to restore order to the ship, and it is now stable and safe, NASA said.

“We didn’t notice any damage,” the space station’s program director, Joel Montalbano, said in a late-afternoon news conference.

“There was never any immediate danger to the crew.”

Montalbano said the crew didn’t actually feel any movement or shaking. NASA said the station moved 45 degrees from attitude, about one-eighth of a full circle.

The complex never rotated, NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said.

NASA’s director of human spaceflight, Kathy Lueders, called it “a pretty exciting hour.”

The incident prompted NASA to delay a retest flight for Boeing’s crew capsule that was scheduled for Friday afternoon from Florida.

It will be Boeing’s second attempt to reach the 250-mile station before astronauts are brought aboard; Software problems screwed up the first test.

Russia’s long-delayed 22-ton laboratory, named Nauka, arrived early on Thursday, eight days after launch from Russia’s launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

The launch of Nauka, which is intended to offer more space for scientific experiments and space for the crew, was repeatedly delayed due to technical problems. It was originally supposed to go up in 2007.

In 2013, experts found contamination in its fuel system, resulting in a lengthy and costly replacement. Other Nauka systems were also modernized or repaired.

Measuring 13 meters in length, Nauka became the first new compartment for the Russian segment of the outpost since 2010.

On Monday, one of Russia’s older units, the spacewalk Pirs, undocked from the station to make way for the new lab.

Nauka will require many maneuvers, including up to 11 spacewalks beginning in early September, to get it ready for operation.

The space station is currently operated by NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov from the Russian space company Roscosmos; Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet.

In 1998 Russia launched the station’s first compartment, Zarya, which was followed in 2000 by another large piece, Zvezda, and three smaller modules in subsequent years. The last of them, Rassvet, arrived at the station in 2010.

Russian space officials downplayed the incident involving Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, tweeting: “Everything is fine on the ISS. The crew is resting and I advise you to be too.”