Russians Fire Nauka’s Engines to Adjust Module’s Orbit

Editor’s Note: Engineers appear to have worked out problems with the engine on the new Nauka science module heading for a docking with the International Space Station next week.

MOSCOW (Roscosmos PR) — On Thursday, July 22, 2021, specialists of the flight control group of the multipurpose module Nauka in the Moscow Region Mission Control Center conducted two corrective maneuvers of the module launched the day before to the International Space Station.

The first maneuver took place at 18:07 Moscow time, when the engines of the module were turned on for 17.23 seconds. The impulse value was 1 m / s. The second switching on of the engines took place at 20:19 Moscow time and lasted 250.04 seconds. The impulse was 14.59 m / s.

Orbital parameters after two impulses:

• Orbital period : 90.17 min;
• Orbit inclination : 51.64 degrees;
• Minimum orbital altitude : 230.43 km;
• Maximum orbital altitude : 364.86 km.

Thus, the telemetry data confirmed the operability of the module’s propulsion system. The next pulses for further orbit building are scheduled for tomorrow, July 23rd. Undocking and flooding of the Pirs module is scheduled for Saturday 24 July.