Russian Space Firm Says All Systems Normal on ISS

[mastodon]

Russian Space Firm Says All Systems Normal on ISS

Reuters - A leading Russian space firm said on Thursday the International Space Station (ISS) was steering normally after routine work had been completed.

On Wednesday, American space agency NASA said the ISS had been unable to steer after an unexplained problem with a ground-based computer in Moscow.

Astronauts were using jets on the space shuttle Discovery, docked on the space station, to maintain stable flight.

RSC Energia, a private firm that controls much of the former Soviet space programme, said in a statement that the work carried out on August 14-15 to update the software programmes for the craft's steering systems was planned and routine.

"At the current time all necessary operations to change the programmes on the ship have been carried out successfully and the onboard systems are functioning normally," Energia said.

"During the period of this planned work when the onboard computer systems and the steering and stabilisation systems of the ship are disconnected, all necessary processes to support the steering of the orbiting ISS are carried out by the shuttle," the statement said.

The same procedure had been carried out several times before aboard the ISS, with the Discovery shuttle's support, it added.

Russia was updating computer software that commands the large gyroscopes that hold the station stable as it circles the Earth at five miles per second. The operation had been planned for Discovery's visit so that the shuttle would be on hand. Ties between Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos and NASA were strained earlier in the year after Moscow agreed to send U.S. millionaire Dennis Tito to the ISS as the world's first paying cosmic tourist.

NASA said an amateur had no business in space, especially aboard the $95 billion ISS. The Russians said that as a full partner in the ISS they could send anyone they wanted to. Rosaviakosmos head Yuri Koptev said recently that Russia was preparing to send more tourists into space.

Space agencies in the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe have teamed up to work on the ISS.

The space station is due to be completed by 2006.