Russia reports ‘non-standard’ air leak on Space Station Russia reports ‘non-standard’ air leak on Space Station MOSCOW,oct 1: Russia said Tuesday that
astronauts had found an air leak in its
section of the International Space
Station, with a senior space official
calling the air loss beyond expected
levels.
The crew on the ISS — Russian cosmonauts
Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner and NASA
astronaut Christopher Cassidy — have been
searching for the air leak since August,
first checking the US segment.
Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said in
a statement that after analysis and a
search for the leak “it was established
that the spot is located in the Zvezda
(star) service module, which contains
scientific equipment.”
It said a search was now underfoot to
pinpoint the exact location, saying the
situation “is not dangerous for the life
and health of the ISS crew and does not
prevent the ISS continuing manned flight.”
“It’s not critical in the near future,”
said Sergei Krikalyov, the executive
director of Russia’s manned space
programmes, in a televised comment.
He said the ISS always has slight air loss
due to the air purifying system.
“These leaks are predictable. What’s
happening now is more than the standard
leakage and naturally if it lasts a long
time, it will require supplies of extra
air to the station,” he said.
He said the crew were now resting but
hoped to find the precise spot and fix the
leak on Wednesday.
“That’s not for sure,” he added, saying
there was quite a large area to search,
reports AFP.
“We have time. The leak exists of course.
It’s not good that it’s there, but it’s
not critical,” he said.
NASA said that the leak had appeared to
grow in size overnight Monday to Tuesday
and the crew were awakened by flight
controllers to carry out a search.
It was later found that a temperature
change had made the leak seem to grow,
while the rate of air escaping 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 ultrasound
detector.
The incident comes after astronauts in
2018 found a hole in the wall of a
Russian-made Soyuz space capsule docked
onto 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 set to arrive
in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft due to
launch October 14.
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