- Russia is flying a new science module, called Nauka, to the International Space Station.
- Nauka is 14 years late, but it brings new science facilities and extra space for Russia’s cosmonauts.
- Nauka is set to dock to the ISS on Thursday morning. Watch NASA’s livestream of the maneuver below.
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Russia is finally ready to attach a long-awaited science module to the International Space Station.
The new module, a 43-foot-long cylinder called Nauka (meaning “science” in Russian), is currently orbiting Earth and making its way towards the station. It will give the Russian side of the ISS expanded science facilities, crew quarters, and a new airlock for spacewalks. Nauka also features a new docking port for Russian spacecraft.
The module was originally scheduled to launch in 2007, but technical issues and unexpected repairs led to years of delay.
To clear a port for Nauka, Russia’s 20-year-old Pirs docking station detached from the ISS on Saturday. Pirs first arrived at the space station in 2001, and it has served as a receiving station for cargo-carrying Progress capsules and astronaut-ferrying Soyuz spaceships.
After Pirs undocked, a Progress spacecraft towed it into Earth’s atmosphere. As gravity pulled the old module down, the bulk of it burned up in the atmosphere. The parts that survived fell into the Pacific Ocean.
Now that Pirs’ old port is open, Nauka is scheduled to dock there on Thursday morning at 9:24 a.m. ET. The high-stakes maneuver must be executed perfectly: The spaceship must align exactly with the port in order to lock into place and form a seal so that cosmonauts can open the hatch and access their new facilities.
If all that is successful, the ISS cosmonauts will then need to conduct about 11 spacewalks to set up electronics on the outside of the new module, according to Spaceflight Now.
Nauka had mid-flight issues on its way to the ISS
Nauka, which is also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM), hasn’t had a smooth journey to the ISS.
Shortly after launching on July 21, Nauka started malfunctioning. It didn’t complete the first engine burn that was supposed to push it into a higher orbit above Earth. The module needed to gain altitude so that gravity wouldn’t pull it into the atmosphere, where it would burn up. So Russian mission controllers instructed the module to fire its backup thrusters to push itself higher.
Over the last few days, it’s fired its thrusters several times to move into the right orbital path.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, announced Wednesday morning that Nauka had successfully performed its “final corrective maneuver,” putting it on track to reach the ISS.
Watch Nauka dock to the space station live
NASA plans to broadcast live footage of Nauka docking to the ISS on Thursday morning, starting at 8:30 a.m. ET. Watch the livestream via the embed below.
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