Russian engineers successfully test fired the engines on its Progress cargo ship, currently docked to the International Space Station, on Wednesday.
At 2012 GMT Wednesday, half of the ship’s thrusters fired properly for 114seconds, boosting the station’s altitude by 400 metres. Russia may opt to test fire the other half of the thrusters later, says Kylie Clem, spokeswoman at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.
The test was conducted to determine what went wrong when the Progress tried to boost the station’s altitude on 18 October. During that firing, its engines shut down 117 seconds into an expected 11-minute burn. A planned second 11-minute reboost was then cancelled.
It may be a communications glitch that caused the initial problem. Russian officials say they believe that computers shut down the engines after losing performance information. Analysis of Wednesday’s test is expected to provide more insight into the problem.
Advertisement
The 18 October burn lifted the station’s orbit by just 550 metres, instead of the planned 10 kilometres, placing the station at an average altitude of 347 km above Earth.
Always falling
More engine burns are planned to put the station in the right orbit for the next Progress launch in December, says Clem.
Even if the existing Progress ship’s engines do not work, the Russian Service Module has the ability to lift the station’s orbit, though engineers would prefer to use up the Progress’s fuel.
Like all Earth-orbiting satellites, the ISS gradually falls toward the planet over time and Progress ships are routinely used to lift its orbit. The space shuttle can also be used to boost the orbit, but it has only visited the space station once since the shuttle Columbia disaster in February 2003.
