The real significance of the ISS thruster test failure

Published: May 08, 2006
Source: www.thespacereview.com



Last month the test of thrusters mounted on a Russian module of the ISS was aborted. James Oberg examines what went wrong with that test, and its significance for ISS operations in general.

Last month’s failure of a test of a pair of rocket engines on the International Space Station has taught a whole series of unexpected lessons and has answered questions that the station’s operators hadn’t even intended to ask. Yet since nothing actually happened, a senior NASA spokesman said it was a “non-story”. But that’s nowhere near the truth.

The incident and repercussions of it further underscore that operating a space facility as complex and poorly documented as the ISS is an irremediably non-deterministic process. That is, anything can happen, at any time—and blindside everybody involved.continue..