The head of NASA flights Zebulon Scoville said that due to the unauthorized activation of the engines of the module “Science”, the International Space Station made one and a half “somersaults”, RIA Novosti reports.
“Almost 1.5 turns were performed in one direction along the pitch and then 0.5 turns in the opposite direction,” he said.
Earlier, NASA reported that, according to preliminary data, the station made a rotation of 45 degrees.
The module was launched to the ISS on July 21, on the 29th it made a successful docking with the Zvezda module. However, the engines of “Science” unexpectedly turned on due to a software failure.
Because of this, the opening of the hatches was postponed to July 30. The day before, it was reported about the successful opening of the hatch into the module. Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, who are on the station, entered the multi-purpose laboratory module for the first time.