Posted on 08/02/2021 1:53:48 PM PDT by BenLurkin
NASA...repeated during public comments about the incident that the orbiting lab tilted about 45 degrees... Zebulon Scoville, the NASA flight director leading mission control in Houston during the event, says the station tilted far more severely than just 45 degrees.
According to Scoville...after Nauka incorrectly fired up, the station "spun one-and-a-half revolutions — about 540 degrees — before coming to a stop upside down. The space station then did a 180-degree forward flip to get back to its original orientation,"...
Scoville took over mission control after the docking. It was actually his day off, but he was on site because he'd helped to prepare for the module docking and wanted to see how it went. He ended up taking over from the previous lead, Gregory Whitney, who had a meeting to attend, after docking, thinking it would be smooth sailing from there. But soon, a caution warning lit up.
Nauka was not only firing its thrusters, but that it was trying to actually pull away from the space station that it had just docked with. And he was soon told that the module could only receive direct commands from a ground station in Russia, which the space station wouldn't pass over for over an hour.
According to Scoville, the station reached a rotation rate maximum of 0.56 degrees per second.
The crew, working together with ground teams, helped to counteract Nauka's thrusters by counter-firing thrusters on the Russian module Zvezda and Progress cargo ship. Additionally, 15 minutes after starting to fire, Nauka's thrusters stopped, though Scoville said he didn't know why the thrusters did so.
But this combined series of events and counteractive measures allowed the team to get the station to stop moving and return to its correct position.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
180 degree forward flip while spinning?
Now that’s Olympic gold right there - what a ride!
DH offers - 20percent of reserve fuel used up? (normal altitude ajustments etc) and no new shipment for a few weeks
Yeah, I’m thinking how does tilt work in space. Tilt from north?
Nobody cares that the flight director’s name is Zebulon? Now I’m up to 95% sure we’re in an alien simulation...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.