Ron Hardin wrote:

What does this mean?

There are two gyroscopes still functioning, and that is enough
to stabilize the station, Suffredini said. If one of these remaining
gyroscopes fails, the station will rely on thrusters to keep it
steady.

http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsA...toryID=4914891

The most likely conclusion is that the reporter is clueless, but maybe I've overlooked something.

International Space Station Freedom FUBAR Space Hole One Alpha is
dynamically unstable. Given the opportunity, it will spontaneously
align its long axis with the divergence of the local gravitational
field, thereby pointing at the center of mass of the Earth. Given
that NASA is ****ing incompetent, the thing ws designed to drift
normal to its natural orientation (makes for better pictures). As it
orbits, FUBAR's attitude must be continuously corrected. One of the
sweet results is that the actual micro-gee volume of the giant white
elephant is about that of four basketballs.

Another sweet result is that FUBAR's orientation system is forever
burning through its MTBF. The Hubble telescope, another Space Scuttle
disaster of too little mass lofted not high enough, is constantly
burning through its orientation system as well. All this is a
continuing surprise to NASA.

--
Uncle Al
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/
(Toxic URL! Unsafe for children and most mammals)
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