In recent weeks on the International Space Station, the air leak that has been plaguing the Russian Zvezda service module for years has doubled: the situation is monitored by both NASA and Roscomos and currently poses no risk to the crew on board.
This was reported by Joel Montalbano, head of the ISS program for NASA, during a press conference organized at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to take stock of the launch of the Crew-8 mission, postponed to Sunday.
The leak, first discovered in September 2019, affects an intermediate compartment located between the docking hatch and the rest of the Zvezda module.
After repair attempts, air leakage had remained at levels considered manageable, equal to approximately 0.45 kilograms of air per day.
In the last month, however, something has changed.
Montalbano explained that the loss doubled about a week before the Progress MS-26 freighter was launched on February 15 with supplies destined for the ISS.
Two days later the shuttle docked without problems with the Zvezda module: the hatch was intentionally left closed for 24 hours, but no changes in the leak were observed.
Subsequently, the hatch was left open for five days to allow the crew to unload supplies, and then it was closed.
It will remain this way until early April.
"We are working with our Russian colleagues on the next steps to take," concluded Montalbano.
The problem on the Zvezda module is just the latest in a long series of failures and losses that have recently affected the International Space Station.
In October 2023, the leak of coolant from the Russian Nauka module forced NASA to postpone two spacewalks.
In February 2023, a leak occurred from the Russian freighter Progress.
Just two months earlier, in December 2022, there had been a refrigerant leak from the Russian Soyuz shuttle: the accident had forced Roscosmos to cancel an extravehicular activity at the last minute and send an emergency Soyuz, while three astronauts on board they had their mission extended from six to twelve months.
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