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

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.

Comments

Working on a more comprehensive repair

[olsmeister]

They initially slowed the leak with Kapton tape and are working on a more comprehensive repair, according to NASA

Re:Working on a more comprehensive repair

[Gabest]

Sound like a real job for FLEX TAPE.

Re: Working on a more comprehensive repair

[pr0fessor]

When I was in college I JB welded a quarter to the sidewalk and watched people try to pick it up and kick it loose for weeks until one day it was gone along with a chunk of concrete.

NASA Link to the story

[mykepredko]

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.

Hmmm.

[msauve]

Russian side, colluding with the US? Must be a Wikileak!

Re:Don't worry

[Nidi62]

Comrade Putin has already announced his plan to repair the station. At this very moment he is taking time away from his hiking vacation to find suitably-sized rocks - once he has a good one, he will throw it up to the station with such strength and accuracy that the rock will seal the leak!

If Putin were to fix the leak, he would do it right. He'd be out there doing an EVA shirtless patching it himself.