CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida — The Worldwide House Station has sprung a leak.
The area station has a leak on the aft finish of the Russian module the place the nation’s Progress spacecraft dock to the orbital lab, stated NASA’s Worldwide House Station (ISS) Program Supervisor Joel Mantalbano throughout a press briefing on Wednesday (Feb. 28) at NASA’s Kennedy House Middle right here, which was held to debate SpaceX’s upcoming Crew-8 astronaut mission to the ISS.
“I might say that space is about three toes [0.9 meters] or so in size,” Montalbano stated. “Had been working with our Russian colleagues on the subsequent step. Not an affect proper now on the crew security or car operations, however one thing for everyone to pay attention to.”
The leak has no affect on the Crew-8 mission, Montalbano added, which is scheduled to raise off at 12:04 a.m. EST (0504 GMT) on Friday (March. 1). Watch it dwell right here at House.com, courtesy of NASA.
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Montalbano added that the leak started growing in quantity roughly one week previous to the Feb. 14 launch of a Progress resupply vessel to the area station. This is not the primary time that leaks in the identical a part of the Russian service module have needed to be repaired.
Leaks from Russian {hardware} have plagued the ISS in current months. A dramatic incident occurred in December 2022 when a Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft started quickly venting coolant into area shortly earlier than a scheduled Russian spacewalk, which was promptly cancelled.
With few different choices and never sufficient lifeboats, the Russian area company despatched up an empty substitute Soyuz, a car referred to as MS-23, and introduced the leaky spacecraft house again to Earth empty for evaluation.
Three astronauts spent 12 months on the ISS as a substitute of the deliberate six whereas the substitute spacecraft was despatched up. NASA astronaut Frank Rubio ended up spending 371 days on the lab as a result of leak and delays in getting a substitute despatched up, setting a brand new American file for longest steady spaceflight.
Then, in February 2023, one other Russian cargo spacecraft (Progress 82) sprang an ammonia leak whereas docked on the area station. One other leak occurred seven months later, this time within the Russian Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module.
Consultants say Russia’s battle on Ukraine has prompted lasting injury to cooperation in area between Russia and its worldwide companions. Shortly after the invasion, Russia signaled it needs to develop its personal area station in low Earth orbit and go away the ISS someday after 2028.
