"The breakdown of one of the three American gyroscopes will probably not require an additional walk into space in order to repair it. It seems we will need to relieve the two remaining gyroscopes more often to remove the accumulated kinetic energy," he said.
The ISS crew's final EVA, scheduled for March 28, will focus on mounting equipment for the docking of the new European cargo ship, Jules Verne.
This is not the first time an American gyroscope has failed. When it happened in April 2004, it forced the ISS crew to organize an unscheduled space walk to repair it.
The recent situation called for additional preparations, because the crew has to reach the gyroscope not from the American, but from the Russian segment of the station. The walk was put off until June 16.
Traditionally in Russian cosmonautics the date and the time of space work are chosen depending on the existence of the most favorable zones for radio communication through Russian ground points. This practice makes it possible to fully control the cosmonauts and the state of their health. But this condition could not be observed last year.
On the Americans' request, joint groups of Russian and American experts made a detailed analysis of the situation and decided the walk would happen early on June 25, Moscow time. However, the walk was stopped after ten minutes because of a mistake.
As a result, the gyroscope had to be repaired on July 1, 2004.
