The International Space Station has leaked more air than usual, which has sparked an investigation that will confine the three-person crew to a single module for the next few days.
NASA and its international partners first noticed the air leak in September 2019. The ISS naturally loses air over time, but the current leak rate is slightly above normal, and it has been so for almost a year. Nothing alarming, but clearly something the mission controllers would like to fix.
Mission controllers were unable to properly characterize the leak due to routine station operations, such as spacewalks and receiving and dispatching spacecraft, as NASA explained. in his blog ISS. The air leak is “still within segment specifications and poses no immediate danger to the crew or the space station,” according to NASA. Teams are rolling out a plan to “isolate, identify and potentially repair the source,” the agency said.
To help with the process, NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin will spend the weekend confined to the Zvezda service module. The Expedition 63 crew will remain within the Russian segment from Friday August 21 to Monday August 24.
G / O Media can get a commission
–
–
All hatches on the ISS will be closed while the crew waits for them in the service module. This will allow mission controllers to monitor the air pressure in each module and identify which section of the station is losing more air than usual. This will not identify the exact spot that is responsible for the leak, but it will reduce the possibilities.
NASA said the test posed no risk to the crew and the results were expected by the end of next week. There’s plenty of room inside Zvezda for the crew, who recently became a trio after the departure of NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley.
Comments
0 comments
–
