ISS orbit correction canceled after engine malfunction

Kreydenko: "Several minutes after switching them on, four developed a
faulty 'pulsation' and all the engines were switched off automatically..."
This sure looks like an engine 'mini-pogo' hardware issue, from that verbal
description (through a translator, admittedly)
NASA, meanwhile, at its daily ISS report on 'NASA TV' (13:00 gmt)
attributes the shutdown to the loss of communications between the thrusters
and the Russian guidance computers... The shutdown, according to the TV
commentator, was a normal response to the absence of reliable data from the
engines, NOT a reflection of trouble with the engines themselves.
It would be nice for NASA to get its story consistent with the Russian
version, but that'll take some time.
Meanwhile, John Phillips remains the ONLY member of the Soyuz TMA-6 crew
who has NOT publicly given his version of the apparent 'depressurization
anaomaly' on the Soyuz descent last week. Krikalyov and Olsen have candidly
spoken out -- Phillips remains silent.
Are NASA experts really as clueless as this, or is it a negotiations
strategy over the commercial Soyuz seats negotiations?
--- JimO comments......






Moscow ITAR-TASS in Russian 0910 GMT 19 Oct 05


Moscow, 19 October: Russia's space agency Roskosmos has urged people not
to dramatize the situation surrounding the cutting out of the Progress
freighter's engines while correcting the International Space Station's
orbit. "The station's orbit is not in a critical state, there is enough
fuel," the official spokesman of the Federal Space Agency Roskosmos,
Konstantin Kreydenko, told an ITAR-TASS correspondent today.
He recalled that the adjustment of the orbit was intended to prepare the
station for future dockings with Progress cargo craft, the first of which is
to be launched from Baykonur on 21 December. "We have more than enough time
to calmly find out what went wrong and caused several engines to fail aboard
the Progress M-54 which is docked to the station, and to carry out another
readjustment," Kreydenko said.
Out of 28 thrusters used for orientation aboard the cargo craft, eight
were involved in the manoeuvre, he said. "Several minutes after switching
them on, four developed a faulty 'pulsation' and all the engines were
switched off automatically," the Roskosmos spokesman said.
A special commission from Mission Control Centre is now working to find
out the cause of the malfunction. "When the commission finishes its work, a
decision will be taken on a new date for the manoeuvre. We will definitely
raise the station's orbit. If need be, this operation can be performed by
the Progress's main propulsion engines instead of the thrusters," Kreydenko
said.