MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th July, 2021) Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday may temporarily move to the US segment so that the fuel system of the docked Nauka module can be safely fixed, follows from the crew's talks with the Earth command center as broadcast by NASA.
Cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky asked a specialist from the Russian mission control center near Moscow to negotiate with the American side whether the Russian crew could temporarily move to the US segment of the ISS on Friday while the fuel system of the Nauka module is brought to a safe state by purging its fuel pipes with helium.
On Thursday, the module successfully docked to the ISS, after 14 years of waiting on the Earth and eight days of orbital flight. Later, Russian cosmonauts told ground specialists that Nauka's engines had unexpectedly activated. This led to a change in the position of the station, and the ISS engines had to be switched on in order to compensate for the operation of the Nauka engines.
Nauka is the first Russian module sent to the station in 11 years.
