On Thursday, Russia said it successfully docked the Nauka laboratory module with the International Space Station though the troubled unit caused yet another fright after accidentally firing and briefly throwing the entire station out of position.
The mission comes after more than a decade of delays and as Russia seeks to boost its space industry, which has fallen behind since the collapse of the Soviet Union and struggles to keep up with competition from the United States.
A few hours after docking, Nauka’s propulsive devices unexpectedly fired, forcing personnel aboard the multinational manned orbital platform to fire thrusters on the Russian segment of the station to counter the effect.
The module started firing “inadvertently and unexpectedly, moving the station 45 degrees out of attitude,” NASA said on Twitter. “Recovery operations have regained attitude and the crew is in no danger,” it added.
