US Astronaughts break International Space Station: Russians blame US

Engineers are studying whether a new solar-power unit - installed by (US) astronauts earlier today - is the cause of the problem and whether disconnecting it to reboot the computers would resolve it.

The failure occurred in computers on the Russian segment of the 16-nation space station - computers that control navigation and critical life-support systems on the huge orbital base.

Without them, the station cannot maintain proper orbit and the crew cannot stay on board.