The restoration of control over the orientation of the station took about 30 minutes, the department noted
NEW YORK, October 16. /tass/. The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is cooperating with Roscosmos to establish the root causes of the incident that led to a change in the orientation of the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday. This was reported to TASS by a NASA representative.
"Flight controllers continue to evaluate data on the station's loss of orientation due to the inclusion of engines," NASA noted. "We and Roscosmos are cooperating to establish the root causes of what happened."
A representative of the American Space Agency noted that "at 05:02 on the time of the East Coast of the United States (12:02 Moscow Time), flight controllers from the Russian side conducted a planned test activation of the engines of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft. "The work of the engines unexpectedly continued after the test window was closed, which at 05:13 (12:13 Moscow time) led to a loss of control over the orientation of the ISS," NASA said. "Within 30 minutes, the flight controllers were able to regain control over the orientation of the station, which is now in a stable condition," the statement says.
NASA stressed that the return of the Soyuz MS-18 with a movie crew on board to Earth after the incident is planned in the same time frame. Soyuz MS-18 should return to Earth on Sunday night," the ministry noted. According to the schedule, at 16:15 on October 16, East Coast time (23:15 Moscow time on October 16), the Russian cosmonauts will say goodbye to the rest of the crew, at 21:00 (04:00 Moscow time on October 17) the ship will be undocked from the ISS, at 23:15 (06:15 Moscow time on October 17) its descent from orbit will begin, and at 00:36 (7:36 Moscow time on October 17) landing is planned.
Earlier on Friday, the Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia (part of Roscosmos) TASS reported that the ISS briefly lost orientation during testing of the engines of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft. As specified in Energia, the orientation of the station was promptly restored thanks to the actions of the personnel of the Main Operational Control Group of the Russian segment of the ISS.
Currently there are 10 crew members on board the ISS: Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky, Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild, director Klim Shipenko, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hai, Shane Kimbrough and Megan MacArthur, European Space Agency astronaut Tom Peske, and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. Three of them - Novitsky, Peresild and Shipenko - will return to Earth on October 17 on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft.
