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Small Leak Discovered on Russian Side of International Space Station, NASA Says (go.com)

Posted by msmash on from the meanwhile-in-space dept.

A small pressure leak was discovered on the International Space Station, according to NASA. From a report: Flight controllers at mission control centers in Houston and Moscow began seeing signs of the leak Wednesday night when the six-member crew aboard the orbital outpost were asleep. Flight controllers monitored the situation until the crew awakened at their normal time Thursday morning "since they were in no danger," NASA said in a media release. Crew members then conducted "extensive checks" to determine the location of the leak, which appears to be on the Russian side of the space station. They initially slowed the leak with Kapton tape and are working on a more comprehensive repair, according to NASA. "Program officials and flight controllers are continuing to monitor the situation as the crew works through its troubleshooting procedures," NASA said.

2 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. NASA Link to the story by mykepredko · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacest...

    The link is in a Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft that docked with the ISS on June 6th and brought up Sergey Prokopyev, Alexander Gerst and Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor.

    I will be interested in hearing what the "more comprehensive long-term repair" will be as I presume the spacecraft will be returning to earth at some point with the astronauts and since the leak is located in a part of the spacecraft that does not return to Earth (I'm guessing it burns up in the atmosphere) then I can't imagine anything more than keeping the opening from propagating will be required.

    It will be interesting to hear what is the source of the leak - it is apparently 2mm in diameter and I'm wondering if this would be a meteorite or a piece of space debris.

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    1. Re:NASA Link to the story by MirthScout · · Score: 3, Informative

      The Soyuz has 3 sections: orbital module, descent module, and service module.
      After undocking the Soyuz will fire its engines to deorbit. Before re-entry, both the orbital module and service module will be jettisoned and will burn up on re-entry. The descent module survives re-entry and parachutes to a landing.

      The orbital module and descent module are both pressurised. The article's wording might be considered to be wrong since it could be argued that even the 2 modules that burn up actually return to earth. Based on the article and design of the Soyuz, they are implying the leak is on the orbital module.

      So, the problem will be solved when the Soyuz undocks.