![]() It is still using some of the features in the upgraded v2 satellites, including laser-link communications between satellites. The first mission, Group 2-10, used a slightly older variant of satellites known as v1.5. There were two different variants of satellites launching. Earlier this month, SpaceX surpassed 4,000 of these satellites in orbit, with that number growing continually. The second launch, Starlink Group 6-4, launched from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) on the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station Thursday, June 4 at 8:20 AM Local.īoth missions continue to grow SpaceX’s internet satellite network in low-Earth orbit. The first launch, Starlink Group 2-10 launched aboard a Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 4E (SLC-4E) located on the Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSFB) in California with a T0 of 11:02 PM PDT Tuesday, May 30 (06:02 UTC May 31). "There is contact!!!" Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, wrote on Twitter moments after the docking.SpaceX launched two Starlink missions from both coasts within the week. "According to telemetry data and reports from the ISS crew, the onboard systems of the station and the Nauka module are operating normally," Roscosmos said in a statement. The Nauka module is designed to serve as a research lab, storage unit and airlock that will upgrade Russia's capabilities aboard the ISS.Ī live broadcast showed the module, named after the Russian word for "science," docking with the space station a few minutes later than scheduled. Work is being carried out on the remaining fuel in the module," Roscosmos was cited by TASS as saying. "The process of transferring the Nauka module from flight mode to 'docked with ISS' mode is underway. Roscosmos attributed Thursday's post-docking issue to Nauka's engines having to work with residual fuel in the craft, TASS news agency reported. ![]() The flight correction maneuvers used up more propellant reserves than desired, "but nothing I would worry about," he said.Īfter its launch last week from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, the module experienced a series of glitches that raised concern about whether the docking procedure would go smoothly. Montalbano said there was no immediate sign of any damage to the space station. What caused the malfunction of the thrusters on the Nauka module, delivered by the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has yet to be determined, NASA officials said. Had the situation become so dangerous as to require evacuation of personnel, the crew could have escaped in a SpaceX crew capsule still parked at the outpost and designed to serve as a "lifeboat" if necessary, said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's commercial crew program. He said "the crew really didn't feel any movement." The Nauka engines were ultimately switched off, the space station was stabilized and its orientation was restored to where it had begun, NASA said.Ĭommunication with the crew was lost for several minutes twice during the disruption, but "there was no immediate danger at any time to the crew," Montalbano said. space agency officials said.Īt the height of the incident, the station was pitching out of alignment at the rate of about a half a degree per second, Montalbano said during a NASA conference call with reporters. The module's jets inexplicably restarted, causing the entire station to pitch out of its normal flight position some 250 miles above the Earth, leading the mission's flight director to declare a "spacecraft emergency," U.S. ![]() Thursday's mishap began about three hours after the multipurpose Nauka module had latched onto the space station, as mission controllers in Moscow were performing some post-docking "reconfiguration" procedures, according to NASA. The Starliner had been set to blast off atop an Atlas V rocket on Friday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. 3 its planned launch of Boeing's (BA.N) new CST-100 Starliner capsule on a highly anticipated uncrewed test flight to the space station. The seven crew members aboard - two Russian cosmonauts, three NASA astronauts, a Japanese astronaut and a European space agency astronaut from France - were never in any immediate danger, according to NASA and Russian state-owned news agency RIA.īut the malfunction prompted NASA to postpone until at least Aug. July 29 (Reuters) - The International Space Station (ISS) was thrown briefly out of control on Thursday when jet thrusters of a newly arrived Russian research module inadvertently fired a few hours after it was docked to the orbiting outpost, NASA officials said. ![]()
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