NEWS- False move by astronaut put space station out of kilter

False move by astronaut put space station out of kilter


28 October 2003

A false move by one of three astronauts who returned to earth from the
International Space Station on Tuesday pushed the ISS out of its
normal orientation, requiring use of precious fuel to straighten it up
again, a Russian space official said.

Valery Ryumin of the Energia company, said one of the three -- a
Russian, a US national and the first Spaniard ever to go into space --
mistakenly pressed two buttons at the same time, briefly switching on
the Soyuz capsule's rocket motors before the craft had undocked from
the space station.

The resulting boost pushed the station 25 degrees away from its normal
orientation in space, and scarce rocket fuel had to be used to put it
back in the right position, he said, in a report carried by the
Ria-Novosti news agency.

The official added that mission control had decided not to inform the
astronauts of the error until they were safely back on earth, in order
to avoid worrying them.

"We decided not to upset the crew, but will be carrying out a detailed
analysis later," said Ryumin. "Someone pressed two buttons at the same
time."

He was speaking after the Soyuz craft landed safely in a desert region
of Kazakhstan, carrying astronauts Edward Lu of the United States,
Yuri Malenchenko of Russia and Pedro Duque of Spain.

A spokesman for the US space agency NASA described the touch-down as
"a dream landing."

http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/031028073755.vog58ntq

I think it's more important to note that it was possible to knock the
station out of position by pressing two buttons in the Soyuz at once. The
Russians clearly build a very different sort of junk.

JJ Robinson II
Houston, TX
****************
* JOKE *
****************
* SERIOUS *
****************
* SARCASTIC *
****************
* OTHER? *
****************



"Rusty B" wrote in message
om...
False move by astronaut put space station out of kilter


28 October 2003

A false move by one of three astronauts who returned to earth from the
International Space Station on Tuesday pushed the ISS out of its
normal orientation, requiring use of precious fuel to straighten it up
again, a Russian space official said.---clip---

wrote in message
. ..
I think it's more important to note that it was possible to knock the
station out of position by pressing two buttons in the Soyuz at once. The
Russians clearly build a very different sort of junk.

They build functional kit.

Dave

Rusty B wrote:
False move by astronaut put space station out of kilter

[snip]

The resulting boost pushed the station 25 degrees away from its normal
orientation in space, and scarce rocket fuel had to be used to put it
back in the right position, he said, in a report carried by the
Ria-Novosti news agency.

[snip]

1) So far, they don't say who pushed the buttons, but aren't the
Russians touchy about having anyone else operate their equipment but a
Russian?

2) Also, not knowing the thrust impulse, might there have been damage
to the docking ring?

3) This article says the 3 crewmembers weren't informed until they
landed safely back on earth. But how could they *not* know?

4) How long were the buttons pushed? Was it a momentary thing?


Well, I've dozen more questions but I guess it's still too soon for
answers. But something like this is certainly not what NASA needs right
now, given recent comments/events concerning ISS safety.

Rusty B wrote:
False move by astronaut put space station out of kilter
[snip]

What does an unplanned 25 degree change in attitude by TMA do to
the CMGs? Would they be saturated?

In article ,
stmx3 wrote:
Rusty B wrote:
False move by astronaut put space station out of kilter

The resulting boost pushed the station 25 degrees away from its normal
orientation in space, and scarce rocket fuel had to be used to put it
back in the right position, he said, in a report carried by the
Ria-Novosti news agency.

1) So far, they don't say who pushed the buttons, but aren't the
Russians touchy about having anyone else operate their equipment but a
Russian?

Is this for real? I'd assumed that it was a joke (because any engineer
worth their salt would at least have had some kind of lockout/tagout
procedure to stop something like that ). No mentions of this anywhere else
that I can see ...

Nick

On Tue, 28 Oct 2003 21:56:36 GMT, stmx3
wrote:

Rusty B wrote:
False move by astronaut put space station out of kilter
[snip]

What does an unplanned 25 degree change in attitude by TMA do to
the CMGs? Would they be saturated?



The angle of the change isn't relevant (as long as the GNC Mode is
CMGTA). The rate is significant - because the CMG system is told to
not provide more than 200 ft-lb of torque. As long as the required
torque is less than that, normal desaturations will prevent
desaturation.

"Dave O'Neill" dave @ NOSPAM atomicrazor . com wrote:

wrote in message
...
I think it's more important to note that it was possible to knock the
station out of position by pressing two buttons in the Soyuz at once. The
Russians clearly build a very different sort of junk.

They build functional kit.

And, by those standards, so is the Shuttle.

D.
--
The STS-107 Columbia Loss FAQ can be found
at the following URLs:

Text-Only Version:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq.html

Enhanced HTML Version:
http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq_x.html

Corrections, comments, and additions should be
e-mailed to , as well as posted to
sci.space.history and sci.space.shuttle for
discussion.

I think it's more important to note that it was possible to knock the
station out of position by pressing two buttons in the Soyuz at once. The
Russians clearly build a very different sort of junk.


Is this a question of pressing 2 buttons at any time, or pressing 2 buttons
once you have pressed another collection of buttons to arm that system ?

On Mir, "pressing those 2 buttons" allowed the Soyuz to re-orient the station
so that its solar panels could supply power to bring the station back to life
again (after Progress had collided and moved it out of attitude).

So, running thrusters while docked should still be possible (heck, shuttle
does it too to change station attitude and perform reboosts).

So perhaps the problems is just procedures for standard undockings. paperwork,
not engineering.

Red Suit wrote in
:

I think it's more important to note that it was possible to knock
the station out of position by pressing two buttons in the Soyuz at
once. The Russians clearly build a very different sort of junk.

Is this a question of pressing 2 buttons at any time, or pressing 2
buttons once you have pressed another collection of buttons to arm
that system ?

We don't know. The Russians have not said, publicly at least.

On Mir, "pressing those 2 buttons" allowed the Soyuz to re-orient the
station so that its solar panels could supply power to bring the
station back to life again (after Progress had collided and moved it
out of attitude).

So, running thrusters while docked should still be possible (heck,
shuttle does it too to change station attitude and perform reboosts).

The key in both cases is that when the Soyuz/Shuttle is controlling, the
station is passive, and vice-versa. Having both trying to control
simultaneously is trouble, of course.

So perhaps the problems is just procedures for standard undockings.
paperwork, not engineering.

If the problem was procedures, we would have seen this problem on every
undocking. We have not.

--
JRF

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