Sunday, February 24, 2013

NASA revives communication with ISS following three-hour gap

NASA has finally restored its contact with the International Space Station after an equipment failure that lasted for almost three hours, leaving the mobile laboratory dependent without a direct link to its Mission Control center.

The space agency suddenly lost communication with the ISS at 9:45 a.m. ET (1445GMT), but fortunately, space station flight controllers at NASA’s Mission Control center in Houston were able to reestablish contact with the space station at 12:34 p.m. ET (17:34 GMT).

In a statement, NASA officials said: “Flight controllers were in the process of updating the station’s command and control software and were transitioning from the primary computer to the backup computer to complete the software load when the loss of communication occurred.

Reports from NASA officials said that the failure was caused by a main data relay system that malfunctioned, making the computer that controls the ISS’ critical functions switch to a backup. After the incident, the station was still not able to communicate with the Tracking and Data Relay satellite network which serves as the outpost’s link to NASA’s Mission Control center on the ground.

The loss of communication occurred when flight controllers at NASA’s Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston were sending a software update to the International Space Station. Fortunately, NASA flight controllers were able to communicate with the spaceflyers aboard the space station even before the lines of communication were restored.

Once Mission Control made contact with the International Space Station through Russian ground stations, Expedition 34 commander Kevin Ford reported on the health and status of the space station and its residents.

"Hey, just FYI, the station's still fine and straight, everybody is in good shape of course," said Ford in an audio released by NASA. "And nothing unexpected other than lots of caution warning tones, and of course we have no system in sight. We'll get that back to you as soon as we can."

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