An air leak was detected on the ISS – Kommersant

An air leak was detected in the tail section of the International Space Station, Roscosmos and NASA reported. According to the American side, it was discovered a week ago and has doubled in strength during this time. At the same time, Russian and American experts claim that it does not pose a serious danger to the crew and to the station as a whole.

The head of the NASA program on the ISS, Joel Montalbano, said at a briefing that we are talking about the Zvezda module. The leak occurred when the module was docking with the Progress M-15M cargo ship. A leak was discovered in the Zvezda transition chamber. This is one of the most important segments of the ISS. It performs life support functions on all station modules. “At the moment, this does not seriously affect the safety of the crew,” he added and noted that the Americans are now discussing with their Russian colleagues ways to eliminate the leak.

The press service of Roscosmos confirmed the lack of security. They noted that the crew regularly carries out work to find and eliminate possible leaks. “As previously reported, the obsolescence of the station design and the ever-increasing need for repair and restoration work on board take up a significant amount of crew time,” noted Roscosmos (quoted by Interfax).

Leaks in the transition chamber of the Zvezda module have been recorded previously. In 2020, a 4 cm crack was discovered, then the astronauts were able to repair it with temporary means. In November 2021, cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov discovered another suspected leak in the Zvezda module skin. In December 2021, Roscosomos reported that the cosmonauts had discovered a “possible final air leak” in the intermediate chamber of the Zvezda module.