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WASHINGTON — NASA says it’s learning a long-running air leak on a Russian Worldwide Area Station module that lately doubled in magnitude, however that the leak doesn’t at present pose a security threat.
At a briefing Feb. 28 in regards to the upcoming Crew-8 mission to the station, now scheduled for launch on the night of March 2, Joel Montalbano, NASA ISS program supervisor, mentioned the leak within the Zvezda service module elevated a couple of week earlier than the Feb. 14 launch of the Progress MS-26 cargo spacecraft to the station. That spacecraft efficiently docked to the aft finish of Zvezda two days later.
“The groups are watching it. We’re working with our Russian colleagues on the following step,” he mentioned. “It’s not an impression to crew security or car operations.”
Montalbano mentioned later that the leak has elevated to a charge of greater than 0.9 kilograms of air misplaced per day, double the earlier charge detected in that a part of Zvezda. When Progress docked to the station, he mentioned they saved the hatch closed for about 24 hours “to let all the pieces dampen out” and see if that affected the leak. “Nothing modified.”
The leak is in a vestibule often known as PrK between the docking port and the remainder of the module. That part will be sealed off to attenuate the lack of air from the remainder of the station.
Montalbano mentioned that, as soon as the hatch was opened after the Progress docking, it was saved open for about 5 days to permit crews to unload the spacecraft, then it was closed. The hatch will stay closed till early April. “We’re working with our Russian colleagues on the following steps,” he mentioned, together with future plans to entry the vestibule and methods to check the leak.
The PrK leak was first detected in 2019 and has been extensively aanlyzed by Roscosmos and NASA. That included apply Kapton tape to attempt to plug the leak, in addition to putting in gauges to measure stresses on the module that may very well be inflicting cracks.
In a November presentation to the NASA Advisory Council’s human exploration and operations committee, Robyn Gatens, ISS director at NASA Headquarters, famous the PrK leak charge on the time, about 0.45 kilograms per day, was “manageable” and may very well be addressed with measures like closing the hatch. “It’s nonetheless nicely beneath our spec leak charge on the area station, however a bit greater than our historic leak charge.”
She performed down at that assembly any considerations a couple of catastrophic failure. “There’s a priority any time a construction is leaking and that’s why the crew continues to research this and attempt to perceive it,” she mentioned. “The worst-case state of affairs could be the lack of that port for the area station, however not a catastrophic, existential concern for the Worldwide Area Station itself.”
The PrK leak has additionally been monitored by NASA’s Aerospace Security Advisory Panel, which in some previous conferences has talked about its considerations in regards to the leak and its implications for the station. The problem didn’t come up on the panel’s most up-to-date public assembly, additionally held Feb. 28, as a result of the panel didn’t get a briefing on the station at this quarterly assembly.
