Skip to main content

Errant thruster firing causes scare on International Space Station

A worrying issue caused the International Space Station to temporarily tilt out of its orbit on the morning of Friday, October 15. The incident occurred due to an errant firing of a spacecraft thruster, as reported by the New York Times.

Although space agencies confirm that the crew was not in any danger, this is the second such incident this year. In July, the thrusters on a newly installed Russian space station module fired unexpectedly, pushing the module out of orientation.

The latest incident occurred when the thruster of a Russian Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, currently docked with the station, misfired during testing.

In a brief statement, Russian space agency Roscosmos said, “During the Soyuz MS-18 engines testing, the station’s orientation was impacted. As a result, the International Space Station orientation was temporarily changed. The station’s orientation was swiftly recovered due to the actions of the ISS Russian Segment Chief Operating Control Group specialists. The station and the crew are in no danger.”

This happened at 5:13 a.m. ET (2:13 a.m. PT) while Russian astronaut Oleg Novitsky was performing tests. Novitsky is due to return to Earth aboard the Soyuz MS-18 tonight, Saturday, October 16, along with two members of a Russian film crew, actress Yulia Peresild and producer Klim Shipenko. These two have been on the ISS recording footage for a movie, in the first event of its kind on the ISS. The three crew members should depart on Saturday evening at 9:14 p.m. ET (6:14 p.m. PT) as scheduled, entering the Soyuz and undocking from the station’s Nauka module.

In a statement posted to its blog, NASA confirmed that the incident had occurred but also emphasized that the crew were not in danger: “At 5:02 a.m. EDT today, Russian flight controllers conducted a scheduled thruster firing test on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that is scheduled to return to Earth Saturday night with three crew members aboard. The thruster firing unexpectedly continued after the end of the test window, resulting in a loss of attitude control for the International Space Station at 5:13 a.m. Within 30 minutes, flight controllers regained attitude control of the space station, which is now in a stable configuration. The crew was awake at the time of the event and was not in any danger.”

Editors' Recommendations

Georgina Torbet
Georgina is the Digital Trends space writer, covering human space exploration, planetary science, and cosmology. She…
SpaceX’s Starship launch sparked a fire in a Texas state park
SpaceX's Starship launching from Boca Chica, Texas, in April 2023.

SpaceX successfully launched the most powerful rocket ever developed on Thursday, April 20, but just a few minutes after clearing the pad in Boca Chica, Texas, the 120-meter-tall Starship vehicle tumbled out of control and exploded in midair.

Despite the fiery end, the commercial spaceflight company led by Elon Musk described the maiden test mission as a success, giving the team plenty of data to work with so that it can improve the rocket’s design before attempting a complete flight that would see the upper stage of the vehicle reach orbit for the first time.

Read more
Check out this gorgeous space station design from Airbus
Airbus's concept design for the LOOP space station.

Airbus has unveiled a concept design for a gorgeous-looking space station that it says could one day orbit Earth or another planet far away.

Previous

Read more
A spacecraft at the ISS is about to take a very short trip
The Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft is seen approaching the Poisk module of the space station prior to docking at 7:58 p.m. EST as the space station was flying 260 miles above northern Mongolia.

Three astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS) are about to take a very short ride aboard a Soyuz spacecraft.

In a maneuver designed to make room for the arrival of the Roscosmos Progress 84 cargo spacecraft later this year, astronaut Frank Rubio of NASA, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, will this week hop aboard the Soyuz MS-23 capsule and pilot it from the Poisk module on the space-facing side of the complex to the Prichal module on the Earth-facing side of the outpost.

Read more