A Russian spacecraft
attached to the International Space Station (ISS) successfully fired its
engines Wednesday during a brief test to check its systems, NASA officials
said.
The unmanned
Progress
19 cargo ship fired its engines at 4:12 p.m. EDT (2012 GMT), boosting the
ISS about 1,312 feet (400 meters) higher above Earth, NASA spokesperson Kylie
Clem, of the agency's Johnson Space Center (JSC), told SPACE.com.
While the
engine burn lasted just under two minutes - about 114 seconds to be precise -
Russian engineers were eager to test the spacecraft's thrusters after it failed
to boost the ISS into a higher orbit last week.
"They
tested one side of thrusters and they'll look at when to test the other side,"
Clem said, adding that Russian engineers are looking over the data from today's
burn.
The failed
Progress burn, conducted on Oct. 18 EDT, unexpectedly stopped short about two
minutes into the first of two, nearly 12-minute maneuvers designed to raise the
ISS to an altitude of about 224 statute miles (360 kilometers). Russian
engineers believe a communications glitch between the spacecraft's thrusters
and navigation computer - which is designed to shut down Progress engines when
data drops out - may have caused the aborted burn, which left the ISS in orbit
just shy of 212 statute miles above Earth (341 kilometers), NASA officials
said.
Russian
flight controllers planned to conduct two Progress engine maneuvers before a
new cargo ship - Progress 20 -docks at the aft end of the space stations Zvezda
service module in December, NASA officials said.
Progress 20
is slated to launch toward the ISS on Dec. 21 and take two days to reach the
orbital laboratory, where Expedition 12
commander Bill McArthur and flight engineer Valery Tokarev are currently
working through their first of six months in Earth orbit.
Earlier
this week, Russian flight controllers said they could perform additional
Progress engine burns on Nov. 9 and Nov. 16 - or even later - due to the long
lead time before Progress 20 is slated to launch, Russia's Interfax News
Agency reported.
Meanwhile,
McArthur and Tokarev are gearing up for the first of at least two spacewalks
scheduled for their spaceflight. The two astronauts are expected to don U.S.
spacesuits and work outside the ISS on Nov. 7 and have spent most of this week
going over their tools and procedures to conduct the spacewalk, NASA officials
said.
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