Russia's space agency said that its section of the International Space Station has again experienced an air leak problem, but the problem does not pose a threat to the crew at the moment.
"Indeed, experts have detected an air leak on the ISS. There is no threat to the crew or the station itself."
According to the Russian news agency TASS, space officials said Russian crews regularly work to detect and fix potential leaks on the ISS.
THE LEAK IS SMALL BUT GROWING
According to Joel Montalbano, ISS Program Manager at the US National Space Agency, the leak is small but growing.
Montalbano said, "There is an area at the end of the International Space Station where we see a leak. It's a small leak. About a week before the last Progress launch and docking, we saw the leak increasing."
WORKING TOGETHER WITH ROSCOSMOS
Montalbano added that NASA is working with Russia's Roscosmos State Space Activities Organization on the issue and that the leak neither affected the safety of the crew nor disrupted the Crew-8 mission, which aims to send four astronauts to the ISS.
FIRST LEAK DETECTED IN 2020
NASA and Roscosmos found an air leak on the Russian side of the ISS in August 2020.The leak was in the Zvezda module, which provides critical life support such as oxygen and water.This leak source was detected and temporarily fixed in October 2020, but another possible leak point was found by Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov in November 2021.Roscosmos said in January 2022 that the "last air leak" at Zvezda had been located and would be fixed.However, Wednesday's statement indicates that the problem has reappeared.
HAD DECIDED TO WITHDRAW FROM ISS
At a time when the US announced sanctions targeting the Russian government over the war in Ukraine, Russia decided to withdraw from the ISS after 2024.
PLANS TO BUILD ITS OWN SPACE STATION
Meanwhile, Roscosmos said China plans to build its own space station, following the example of the independent Tiangong station.
