By Paul Brinkmann
Orlando - The new Russian Nauka module (click here) for the International Space Station unexpectedly fired thrusters after docking Thursday, temporarily knocking the space station out of its normal position, NASA announced.
The problem was corrected quickly, and the people on board the space station are safe, NASA said....
...The problem prompted NASA to postpone Friday's launch of the Boeing Starliner test flight to the space station.
"It just doesn't make a lot of sense to send another vehicle the station's way, while they had this event and so we're working together and figure out what caused this," Steve Stich, NASA manager for the Commercial Crew Program, said during a press conference Thursday.
By late Thursday afternoon, mission controllers in Moscow had reconfigured the Nauka module to prevent further firing of its thrusters, said NASA's Joel Montalban, program manager for the space station.
"The team operated according to established procedures. It wasn't like we had to come up with procedures or anything. The team knows what to do and how to operate, and that's what they did today," Montalban said in the press conference.
The module had just arrived at the space station Thursday after years of delays and problems on the ground during manufacturing....
