American segment of the ISS was left without communication with the Earth due to a battery-related failure

On the American segment of the International Space Station, there was a failure in the power supply system, RIA Novosti reports

, citing part of the crew’s negotiations with the Earth , broadcast by NASA .

It is noted that outside the American segment of the station is a farm with eight solar panels, each of which generates electricity for its own power channel.

According to NASA, a specialist at the Houston Mission Control Center in the morning told American astronaut Kathleen Rubins that outside the station, the battery discharge-charging unit had ceased to function, because of this, the power supply was reduced by a third.

As a result, the American Unity module had to turn off the smoke detectors and the computer; high-speed communication with the Earth and one of the four gyroscopes that support the station’s orientation in space also do not work.

Russian oxygen production system fails on ISS
On board the International Space Station , the Russian system for obtaining oxygen “Electron-VM” has again failed, it follows from the negotiations of the crew with the Earth, broadcast by NASA .
The system in the Zvezda module failed three times in October. As then told RIA Novosti in ” Roskosmos “, the ISS crew under the leadership of the main operational control group of the Russian segment disassembled “Electron-VM” and studied it for malfunctions. In December, the state corporation announced that the system had been restored.

According to the negotiations, on Saturday afternoon, cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov reported to the Mission Control Center near Moscow about the emergency shutdown of the Electron. He added that the failure occurred due to low pressure in the system and coincided in time with the shutdown of the vacuum cleaner used for cleaning on the Russian segment of the ISS. Multiple attempts to turn on “Electron” did not lead to success, experts on Earth are dealing with the problem.

Oxygen reserves are available both at the station itself and on the cargo ships arriving there. In addition, the US Segment of the ISS houses the OGS oxygen production system in the Tranquility module.

Russian cosmonauts Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov , American astronauts Kathleen Rubins, Michael Hopkins , Victor Glover and Shannon Walker, and Japanese Soichi Noguchi are currently working on the ISS .