NASA said the leak appeared to grow overnight Monday through Tuesday. (File)
Moscow:
Russia said Tuesday that astronauts found an air leak in its section of the International Space Station, a senior space official calling the loss of air beyond expected levels.
The ISS crew – Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy – have been looking for the air leak since August, checking the US segment for the first time.
Russian space agency Roscosmos said in a statement that after analysis and search for the leak, “it was determined that the spot is located in the Zvezda (star) service module, which contains scientific material.”
He said a search was now underway to locate the exact location, saying the situation “is not dangerous for the life and health of the ISS crew and does not prevent the ISS to continue its manned flight “.
“It is not critical in the near future,” Sergei Krikalyov, executive director of Russia’s human space programs, said in a television commentary.
He said the ISS still had slight air loss from the air purification system.
“These leaks are predictable. What is happening now is more than the standard leak and naturally if it lasts a long time it will require an additional air supply to the station,” he said.
He said the crew were resting now but were hoping to find the exact spot and fix the leak on Wednesday.
“It’s not sure,” he added, saying there was a fairly large area to look for.
“We have time. The leak exists of course. It is not good that it is there, but it is not critical,” he said.
NASA said the leak appeared to escalate overnight Monday through Tuesday and the crew were awakened by flight controllers to search.
It was later discovered that a change in temperature caused the leak to increase, while the rate of air leakage was “unchanged,” the US space agency said.
Previously, astronauts had searched for the source of the leak in the US segment of the station using an ultrasonic detector.
The incident comes after astronauts in 2018 discovered a hole in the wall of a Russian-made Soyuz space capsule docked on the ISS.
The cause of the hole has not yet been made public.
Three new crew members, Russians Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, are expected to arrive in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft due for launch on October 14.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
