A major power outage has hit the International Space Station, delaying a scheduled SpaceX supply run until all the power channels are up and running again.
The supply run by a SpaceX Dragon capsule, which was supposed to launch on Wednesday, May 1, has been pushed back to at least Friday, May 3.
Loss Of Power Delays Supply Run
According to NASA, the space station team spotted an issue on one of the Main Bus Switching Units on Monday, April 29. It knocked out two power channels that the unit distributes power to.
One of the major effects of the power outage is that the robot arm outside the ISS is left with just a single functioning power channel. This large robot arm is crucial to successful flights to the ISS since it grabs visiting vehicle such as the SpaceX Dragon capsule on a supply run and places it safely outside the station.
Since the two crippled power sources are required for the arm to function, the agency had to delay the delivery until the issue gets resolved.
Northrop Grumman just delivered a batch of supplies on the ISS two weeks ago, so there is no urgent rush to the supply run.
NASA has not yet confirmed the new date of the supply run.
Plans Are Underway To Fix ISS Power Issue
Flight controllers are planning to use the robot arm to replace the malfunctioning power-switching unit with a spare, which means the astronauts do not need to go on a spacewalk to fix the problem.
"Teams are working on a plan to robotically replace the failed unit and restore full power to the station system," NASA said in a blog post. "Additional information will be provided as it becomes available."
There are six other power channels in the station that are still reportedly working fine. NASA has also confirmed that the ISS and the crew inside are safe.
According to CBS News, engineers at the Johnson Space Center initially hoped that they could restore the switching unit to its normal operations.
Another option was to re-route the power from the two affected power channels into the other channels that are working normally. While the team was able to re-route power to keep the critical systems afloat and operating well, they were unable to find an alternative power source for the external robot arm.
