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http://www.friends-partners.org/pipermail/fpspace/2005-October/018189.htmlMoscow 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.
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http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=18428Last night’s ISS reboost was aborted when Progress 19 thrusters shut down after only 117 sec into the first of two planned burns. [Preliminary indications from Moscow are that the thrusters fired as commanded, but that a subsequent loss of communication ("talk back") in the pressure sensing feedback loop within the Progress thruster system caused the premature shutdown. Due to the lack of knowledge of the cause of the anomaly at the time, the second reboost burn was postponed by TsUP/Moscow until the situation is fully understood and any identified workarounds implemented. The second burn did not take place, and the short first burn resulted in only 0.32 m/s delta-V (instead of 5.88 m/s planned), with 0.55 km altitude increase (instead of 10.1 km planned from both burns).]