The International Space Station's planned reboost maneuver ended after just 5 seconds.
Cargo ships docked to the International Space Station fire their thrusters in short spurts to keep the space station in motion. Normally, these vehicles are Russian Progress capsule, but on Monday, a vehicle was scheduled to complete a five-minute burn to evaluate whether the capsule is ready to take this duty on a regular basis.
At 11:20 a.m., the engine started to fire. The NASA statement said that the site shut down after five seconds. The agency noted that the company isn't sure what happened.
The seven astronauts on the International Space Station are unaffected by the glitch. The crew of the Expedition 67 was never in danger and is still working on the complex, which is over 400 kilometers above the Earth.
There is a photo tour of the International Space Station.
Today's maneuver was delayed after a Progress capsule docked to the station on Thursday to make sure it didn't get hit by debris.
The debris from Russia's anti-satellite test may have come as close as a half mile to the station without the protective maneuver, according to scientists.
In February, the Cygnus capsule arrived at the lab. The vehicle has been packed with trash in order to be destroyed later this month. NASA wants to notch the reboost attempt in order to make it a standard practice.
The next steps needed to continue development of enhanced capability as a standard service for NASA were written in today's statement.
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