Foreign Desk Report
MOSCOW: Russia on Friday blamed a software failure for an incident that briefly knocked the International Space Station (ISS) off course and said it was pressing ahead with work to activate a newly-attached module at the center of the episode.
The ISS was thrown off track on Thursday after the engines of the Russian Nauka, or ‘science’, research module roared into life about three hours after it had latched on.
Vladimir Solovyov, designer general at Energia, a Russian space agency company, sought to reassure international partners that the incident had been contained and said cosmonauts would have it up and running soon.
“Due to a short-term software failure, a direct command was mistakenly implemented to turn on the module’s engines for withdrawal, which led to some modification of the orientation of the complex as a whole,” he said in a statement. “The crew is now busy balancing the pressure in the Nauka module. In the afternoon, the crew will open the hatches, enter the module, turn on the necessary means of purifying the atmosphere and begin normal regular work.”
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, who is on board, on Friday told his followers on Twitter not to worry.
