NASA Alerts: Urgent Air Leak on International Space Station Raises Safety Concerns Amid U.S.-Russia Disagreement

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A part of the Russian-controlled International Space Station (ISS) is under pressure and leaking air. The situation has reached a fever pitch as cosmonauts scramble to resolve the problem areas and officials at the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and NASA disagree about the severity of the problem.

The football field-sized space lab must remain pressurized and full of breathing gases to accommodate a rotating crew of astronauts, which has been operating since 2000 in separate but connected sections of Russia and the SA. The leaking problems were first identified in 2019 in a tunnel that connects a Russian module, called Zvezda, to a docking port that accommodates spacecraft carrying cargo and supplies.

But the rate at which the model is losing air has reached a new high this year.

According to a recent report from NASA’s Office of the Inspector General, US management officials now consider this issue to be the most important problem facing the aging space station and one which could endanger crew safety.

The US space agency raised “concerns about the structural integrity of the [módulo com fugas] and the possibility of catastrophic failure,” said former NASA astronaut Bob Cabana, chairman of the agency’s ISS Advisory Committee, at a Wednesday meeting on the issue.

But while Roscosmos ordered its cosmonauts to look for and deal with problem areas – which reduced the extent of leaks – the Russian team “does not believe there is a catastrophic collapse… reasonable,” Cabana said.

“The Russians believe continued operations are safe — but they can’t prove it to our satisfaction,” Cabana said. “And the U.S. believes it’s not safe, but we can’t prove it to the Russians’ satisfaction.”

Disagreement continues despite a meeting held in September, which Cabana said took place in Russia.

Now, the US is pushing for independent experts from both parties to assess the issue and help the two space agencies reach a consensus on the cause and severity of the leak.

The United States has already taken steps to create its own team of experts, Cabana said. Russia has not yet complied with the proposal. However, Cabana assured that the meeting in September with Russia was “very successful”.

Roscosmos did not respond to an email request for comment.

Meanwhile, the astronauts and cosmonauts – the Russian term for an astronaut – aboard the space station had to take precautions, such as keeping the leaky patch at all times, but a- only when it needs to be opened to unpack cargo from the arriving spacecraft. the nearby dock port.

When astronauts need to open that section, they close the hatch that separates the American and Russian parts of the station, NASA astronaut Michael Barratt said at a press conference on November 8.

“We took a very conservative approach,” Barratt said. “It’s not a comfortable thing, but it’s the best compromise between the smart people on both sides – and it’s something we as a crew live with.”

As the orbiting laboratory ages, both organizations are currently faced with the need to make critical decisions about how and when to cease operations and safely decommission the station . The current leak problem raises serious questions about the security of the station – and the ability of NASA and Roscosmos to reach a consensus.

Identifying leaks on the International Space Station

NASA and Roscosmos have known for years that the Russian model was gradually developing leaks.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the suspected cracks are “tiny, invisible to the naked eye, and flanked by supports and ducts, making it difficult for inspection tools to penetrate.” to those areas,” NASA explained in a statement to CNN on Thursday.

Efforts to mitigate leaks have stopped the problem for now. However, the leakage rate is still “from 900 to 1,300 grams [de ar] per day above the space station’s baseline,” according to NASA. For context, the space station is designed to be pressurized to more than six kilograms per square inch of total space—which is similar to the pressure of the atmosphere at ground level. the sea here on our home planet.

The space agency did not respond to a request to compare the current leak rate with the highest rate recorded earlier this year.

According to Cabana, the US and Russian technical teams do not agree on what could be causing the problem.

Russian experts believe that the vibrations – which may be caused by mechanical systems such as those used for energy storage – on the space station cause stresses in the walls, causing “high cycle fatigue” ,” ie, a phenomenon in which a relatively mild force begins to crack and wear metal to the point of failure over a long period of time.

NASA, on the other hand, believes that the situation is more complicated, involving several factors such as mechanical stress, environmental exposure and “residual stress” or problems that may result from the manufacturing of materials. which was used in the transfer model, according to Cabana .

A report published in September by the NASA auditor’s office also notes that, while NASA and Roscosmos agree that the troubled sector may have to be closed permanently if the leak rate reaches a level of “no -sustainable” – the two parties did not reach an agreement on the exact thing. definition of “unsustainable”.

However, while space agencies remain conflicted about the severity of the problem, Cabana and Barratt — and NASA’s ISS program manager Dana Weigel said in a statement — that NASA and Roscosmos remain in close communication about the issue.

“We have a very open and transparent relationship with our Russian cosmonaut compadres,” said Barratt, who returned from a 232-day stay on the International Space Station at the end of October. it is.”

NASA’s response to astronaut escapes and safety

While NASA and Roscosmos are working to solve the leak problem, the American space agency has taken steps to ensure the safety of astronauts.

In addition to asking astronauts to close the entrance to the Russian sector when the Zvezda transit tunnel is open, the US agency is now putting an extra “suitcase” on board the Crew spacecraft Dragon at SpaceX.

The briefcase sits on top of an area of ​​the spacecraft normally used for cargo storage and is essentially a piece of foam that an astronaut can attach themselves to if they need a Crew capsule. Bringing a dragon home in an emergency.

Specifically, the suitcase seats are reserved for NASA astronauts heading to the space station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, as they have done for years as part of a seat swap agreement between the US and Russia .

NASA astronaut Don Pettit, for example, is currently at the space station after arriving aboard the Soyuz MS-26 spacecraft on September 11. However, if the space station is deemed unsafe and Pettit is unable to access the spacecraft attached to the Russian module, NASA said the expert has the option of returning home via the SpaceX Crew-9 vehicle, on briefcase, along with the four astronauts assigned to him. this vehicle – Sunita Williams from NASA, Butch Wilmore and Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov.

Problems in the vicinity of the space station

NASA has emergency measures in place for crew safety, but the space agency is also grappling with whether the leaking Russian module could pose a threat to the safety and longevity of the space station.

In their report, the General Inspection Office clarifies: “Although the ISS is capable of operating if the [para a área afetada] permanently closed, this could affect cargo delivery as there would be one less cargo delivery port,” the report says. “Closing the hatch permanently would require additional movement to maintain height and visibility [ou orientação] of the station.”

The space station regularly needs an attached spacecraft to move the outpost into orbit to maintain its trajectory, preventing Earth’s gravity from pulling it back down. Typically, these maneuvers are performed by tethered Russian spacecraft. But NASA is already testing the use of an American spacecraft for this task.

The leak problem comes at a critical time for the orbiting laboratory, which NASA hopes will continue to operate with its five partner agencies until at least 2030. In addition to Roscosmos, these agencies including the Canadian Space Agency, the European Space Agency and Japan. Russian officials, however, have not committed to the space station beyond 2028 and are unlikely to provide definitive answers about Roscosmos involvement beyond that period until at least 2025, which according to the report of that office.

NASA’s goal is to continue conducting essential research in the orbiting laboratory until another space station is operational. The American space agency plans to create and operate this new space laboratory to the private sector – and currently several commercial companies are designing and developing their own platforms. These companies include Jeff Bezos-backed Blue Origin and SpaceX partner Vast.

The space agency aims to launch lucrative contracts for the work in 2026.

However, it is unclear whether commercial terminals will be ready before the space station retires.

“The station is not young,” Barratt recalls. “Expect more wear and tear in several other areas.”