The crew on board is not in any danger.
NASA and its Russian partner Roscosmos will attempt to hunt down the origin of a very small leak on the International Space Station this weekend, one that's been causing air to discharge a little more quickly from the ISS for the last calendar year. Both crew members now on board the station will stay in the Russian segment of the ISS over the weekend, whereas NASA attempts to isolate the source of the leak in other areas of the spacecraft.
NASA first detected it could have a flow on the channel way back in September of 2019. Air inside the station slowly leaks out of the ISS over time, but officials noticed the air appeared to be escaping in a marginally higher rate than normal. Ever since that time, the flow appears to have increased marginally. However, NASA has not had much time to investigate. Things have been pretty busy on the ISS since September, with astronauts conducting various spacewalks and new vehicles such as SpaceX's Crew Dragon bringing folks to and from the ISS. The leak hasn't been a massive issue since tanks on board the ISS will help to maintain the station's pressure whenever atmosphere escapes.
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Now that the program has slowed down, NASA has time to figure out where the leak is coming from. Over the weekend, NASA will monitor the air pressure levels in each of the modules to be able to pinpoint the offending flow. Results of this test ought to be available weekly. NASA states that the team will have plenty of room inside the Russian segment and that the team isn't in any danger.
Leaks pop up from time to time on the ISS, but one escape in 2018 got more attention than others. At the moment, astronauts traced a leak on board the ISS to a small hole within a visiting Russian Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS. Conspiracy theories abounded in Russian media that the hole might have been drilled from the inside of the Soyuz by someone on board the ISS. Two cosmonauts did a spacewalk to analyze the hole in the outside. Ultimately, Roscosmos manager Dmitry Rogozin suggested that Russian officials understood how the hole got there, but they would not divulge the reason.
NASA and its Russian partner Roscosmos will attempt to hunt down the origin of a very small leak on the International Space Station this weekend, one that's been causing air to discharge a little more quickly from the ISS for the last calendar year. Both crew members now on board the station will stay in the Russian segment of the ISS over the weekend, whereas NASA attempts to isolate the source of the leak in other areas of the spacecraft.
NASA first detected it could have a flow on the channel way back in September of 2019. Air inside the station slowly leaks out of the ISS over time, but officials noticed the air appeared to be escaping in a marginally higher rate than normal. Ever since that time, the flow appears to have increased marginally. However, NASA has not had much time to investigate. Things have been pretty busy on the ISS since September, with astronauts conducting various spacewalks and new vehicles such as SpaceX's Crew Dragon bringing folks to and from the ISS. The leak hasn't been a massive issue since tanks on board the ISS will help to maintain the station's pressure whenever atmosphere escapes.
Now that the program has slowed down, NASA has time to figure out where the leak is coming from. Over the weekend, NASA will monitor the air pressure levels in each of the modules to be able to pinpoint the offending flow. Results of this test ought to be available weekly. NASA states that the team will have plenty of room inside the Russian segment and that the team isn't in any danger.
Leaks pop up from time to time on the ISS, but one escape in 2018 got more attention than others. At the moment, astronauts traced a leak on board the ISS to a small hole within a visiting Russian Soyuz capsule docked to the ISS. Conspiracy theories abounded in Russian media that the hole might have been drilled from the inside of the Soyuz by someone on board the ISS. Two cosmonauts did a spacewalk to analyze the hole in the outside. Ultimately, Roscosmos manager Dmitry Rogozin suggested that Russian officials understood how the hole got there, but they would not divulge the reason.