The Unreported Abnormalities of the ISS and a Surge in Serious Incidents
In August, a malfunction occurred in Boeing’s new spacecraft, Starliner, and two crew members are still stranded on the ISS (International Space Station), which was widely reported. In fact, the ISS, which has been under construction for 27 years, has frequently experienced a number of serious incidents (situations leading to accidents).
In April of this year, 1.7 kg of air per day leaked inside the ISS at four times the normal rate, and as of September the leakage had been reduced to one-third, but the ISS risk level has been raised to Level 5, the highest level. This has been a regular occurrence since 1919, and no clear solution has been found yet,” said NASA’s Office of the Inspector General.
Most of the ISS troubles are on the Russian side.
The ISS, which consists of multiple modules (components), is roughly divided into an American compartment at the nose and a Russian compartment at the rear. However, the cracks are minute and the exact location has not been identified.
In fact, most of the ISS’s troubles occur on the Russian segment. And they are not only occurring on aging, but also on newly-built spacecraft. The most critical accident occurred in July 2009. Russia launched the new multi-purpose module “Nauka” and docked it to the ISS, but three hours later, Nauka’s thrusters (attitude control system) suddenly activated. The abnormal thrusts could not be stopped by remote control from the ground station, and the ISS began to rotate, raising its nose as if in a backflip,” said a Science magazine editor.
In response to this unprecedented situation, NASA declared a state of emergency. The rotation finally came to a halt when NAUKA ran out of fuel. It did not deviate far from its orbit. The rotational motion was caused by the fact that Nauka’s connection port was off the ISS’s center of gravity, but if it had docked at a port closer to the center of gravity, the ISS hull would have been dragged down toward the Earth for a long time.
