This article is a list of accidents and incidents related to the International Space Station (ISS). It includes mishaps occurring on board the ISS, flights to and from the space station, as well as other program related incidents. Excluded from the list are routine actions such as repairs of minor malfunctions or debris avoidance maneuvers.
List
2001 November 28: Progress M1-7 cargo spacecraft failed to perform hard docking due to debris on the docking ring left by Progress M-45. During an unscheduled spacewalk on December 3 the foreign object was inspected and removed, finally allowing Progress M1-7 to complete the docking procedures.
2003 May 4: Soyuz TMA-1 switched to a ballistic reentry during descent, resulting in landing about 460 kilometres (290 mi) from target. The crew inside the spacecraft experienced increased acceleration, still within limits even for untrained people. Technical commission concluded the cause to be incorrect behaviour of descent control system leading to yaw angle exceeding the limits, which triggered the switch to ballistic mode. As the time of publishing of this report, the performed simulations were unable to replicate this scenario, although design evaluations revealed a very unlikely combination of input signals could lead to underlying failures.
2004 February 27: Despite completing the main objective of VKD-9 spacewalk, it was terminated early due to a cooling system malfunction in Aleksandr Kaleri's spacesuit. A post-spacewalk inspection showed disruption of the cooling water flow caused by pinching of a coolant tube as the cause of the malfunction. Remaining planned activities were moved to a later spacewalk. June 24: VKD-9a spacewalk was cut short after the primary oxygen bottle in the spacesuit of Mike Fincke began losing pressure at a high rate almost immediately after exiting the hatch. Total length of the spacewalk was 14 minutes 22 seconds. The cause of malfunction was determined to be open oxygen flow switch that was not fully seated in normal flow position. In order to avoid such an incident, spacewalk procedures were updated with additional checks of valves' positions. The spacewalk was rescheduled to June 30. August 3: During Expedition 9 EVA-3 spacewalk, the ISS lost its attitude control and drifted 80 degrees off the nominal attitude. Resulting power conservation procedures lead to a loss of primary S-band communication between the astronauts and the ground crew. No personnel were inside the station at the time. In order to use the Service Module thrusters to regain correct attitude, the crew had to move away from it and only returned after realignment 45 minutes later. Due to this incident, mission control adjusted attitude control planning and power conservation measures for the future EVAs.
2005 July 28: Two gap fillers protruding between the shuttle's heat shield tiles were photographed during the Rendezvous pitch maneuver of STS-114 ahead of docking to the space station. On some of the previous missions, similar protrusions resulted in increased heating and tile damage. After careful considerations, NASA decided to remove those gap fillers during an upcoming spacewalk. The task was performed on EVA-3 on August 3 without issues. Additional spacewalk was considered to deal with a damaged thermal blanket near the shuttle cockpit window, but was ultimately determined as unnecessary based on analysis and wind tunnel tests.
2006 October 26: During docking of Progress M-58 orientation antenna failed to fully retract. The spacecraft physically connected to the station but mission control delayed hard docking by over 4 hours while working to reduce the risks of failed antenna hitting elements of Zvezda service module. To ensure it will not interfere during undocking, several attempts of retracting the antenna took place during two spacewalks of Expedition 14. After they failed, the supporting strut was cut, allowing partial retracting.
2007 June 8: During the launch of STS-117/13A a part of thermal insulation blanket on the orbiter orbital maneuvering system pod peeled off from adjacent thermal tiles. It was adjusted into position and stapled during the EVA-3 spacewalk on June 15. August 15: EVA-3 spacewalk of STS-118/13A.1 mission was terminated early after a hole was found in second layer of Rick Mastracchio's EMU glove during periodic inspection. The hole didn't lead to any leaks as spacesuit consists of five layers and termination was a precautionary measure. The hole was determined to be a cut caused by a sharp edge. October 21: Failure of Instrumentation/Propulsion Module commanded separation from the Descent Module of Soyuz TMA-10 during return to Earth resulted in ballistic reentry with higher loads on the crew than normal. The same issue will occur during the next Soyuz TMA landing.
2008 April 19: Landing of Soyuz TMA-11 was performed in ballistic mode, resulting in touchdown 420 km away from the nominal site. Later analysis showed the cause was separation failure between Instrumentation and Propulsion Module and Descent Module due to issues with pyro bolts that start the separation. The issue was similar to the previous Soyuz landing, but with higher g-force of almost 8.5g and lower separation altitude of 60–66 kilometres (37–41 mi). While the crew was initially reported to be healthy, spaceflight participant Yi So-Yeon was later hospitalized due to mild dislocation and bruising of vertebrae. NASA simulations showed that in the worst case such scenarios could lead to loss of crew due to failure of hatch or parachute cover. As a result, during Soyuz TMA-12’s stay on the ISS, an unplanned EVA was performed on July 10 to remove one of the pyro bolts from the spacecraft for inspection on the ground. Additionally, a software patch was introduced on TMA-12 to position the vehicle sideways for faster burn-through of the truss structure connecting the modules in case their separation fails in the future. Failure of the pyro bolts on the two flights was determined to be due to electromagnetic environment while in orbit. Design of the separation system was reworked accordingly. November 20: As EVA-2 spacewalk of STS-126/ULF2 was wrapping up, Shane Kimbrough's spacesuit sensors showed carbon dioxide buildup above safe limits. He was commanded to terminate his spacewalk and return to the airlock as a precaution. Kimbrough encountered increased CO2 levels on EVA-4 of the mission as well and took periodic rests to control it.
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