Russia blames software glitch after space station briefly thrown off course

Washington/Moscow: Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, blamed a short-term software failure for the engine misfirings of the Nauka, the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, which shifted the ISS off its normal position, reports IANS. Vladimir Solovyoy, the flight director of ISS's Russian segment, said through a statement on Friday that the software failure caused the issue and modified the orientation of the complex as a whole.

The thrusters of the Russian module had fired unexpectedly after docking to ISS on Thursday. This has caused the Nauka to think that it was supposed to back away from the space station.

NASA stated that they lost control of the space station's positioning but regained the same and repositioned it back to normal.

Solovyov said that slight fluctuations were noticed during the final rendezvous but were eliminated by the docking system. At the moment, ISS is in its normal orientation, and the multipurpose laboratory module systems are functioning normally. A reliable internal power and command interface was created, and a power supply interface that connected the module to the station is also created, he added.

Solovyov also said that the crew is balancing the module. The procedure is lengthy because of the size of the module. The crew will enter into the module, purify its indoor atmosphere and start to resume their mission, he said.

Nauka, meaning science in Russian, is a multipurpose module designed to carry cargo and humans to space.