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WASHINGTON, 28 Feb – RIA Novosti. NASA is interacting with the Russian side in connection with the previously revealed leak of unknown nature on the International Space Station (ISS), there is no threat to the crew, NASA’s ISS programme manager Joel Montalbano said at a briefing on Wednesday.
NASA engages with Roscosmos to fix ISS leak
Montalbano
“We are monitoring the pace of the leak <…>, the hatch leading to the leak site is now closed, <…> we are working with our Russian colleagues on the next steps,” the NASA official said. According to him, the situation “does not pose a threat to crew safety or station operations.” He specified that the leak, of what kind – he did not specify – is located “in the aft part of the Russian service module,” where Russian Progress cargo ships dock. The compartment, less than a metre long, is currently capped and the leak in it has no impact on the rest of the station’s modules, NASA assured. “There have been leaks there before, we were fixing cracks there,” a NASA spokesman said.
He meanwhile said that “a week before the launch and docking” with the ISS of the Russian cargo ship Progress ( arrived at the ISS on 17 February – ed.), experts noticed “an increase in the rate of leakage”. “We are monitoring its status,” he said.
In December, the press service of Roscosmos said that Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are regularly busy searching for possible locations of air leaks from the Russian segment, and the data obtained is passed on to specialists on Earth for analysis.
Earlier in October, Roscosmos reported a leak of a different kind – the coolant was leaking from the external (backup) circuit of the radiator of the multipurpose laboratory module “Nauka”. It was specified that the main circuit of thermal regulation of the module works in normal mode, providing comfortable conditions in the living area. In Roscosmos emphasised that nothing threatens the crew and the station.
As then explained Roscosmos executive director Sergei Krikalyov, the leak occurred from the backup circuit of the additional radiator on the module “Nauka”, delivered back in 2012. The circuit worked alternately with the main circuit and was not active at the time of the leak.
