ISS faces another air leak — as concerning space station problem that sprang up in 2019 won’t seem to go away
The International Space Station is leaking air — again.
The latest leak was confirmed by NASA last week and it follows an recurring problem that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had hoped was resolved earlier this year, Ars Technica reported.
The 27-year-old orbiting space station has been plagued with air leaks since 2019 in a part of the station called the PrK module, a narrow transfer tunnel or vestibule on the Russian segment.
In January, NASA announced that the PrK module had finally reached a “stable condition” after multiple inspections and sealant applications.
But on May 1, the issue returned.
ISS/NASA / SWNS
NASA confirmed to the outlet that a “slow pressure drop” was noted within the PrK module, as Russian astronauts unloaded cargo.
The leak — which is a microscopic structural crack within the floating space station — indicated a loss of roughly one pound per day and is “being maintained at a lower pressure, with small repressurizations as needed,” NASA spokesperson Josh Finch told Ars.
While the leak is not impacting operations onboard the space station or the safety of the seven astronauts who currently call the ISS home, the possibility of “catastrophic failure” is reportedly discussed during internal meetings.
NASA uses a 5×5 “risk matrix” to classify the likelihood of and consequences of risks to spaceflight operations — and the Russian module leaks have been classified as a “5” on both high likelihood and high consequence, Ars reported.
The leak, which is a microscopic structural crack within the floating space station, allowed roughly one pound of air to escape into space each day, according to a NASA spokesperson. reddit/space
The agency, however, says that emergency evacuation procedures are maintained that would allow the astronauts to abandon the ISS if the situation were to deteriorate — including isolating impacted portions of the station and in the most dire of circumstances, evacuating the astronauts back to Earth, the Daily Mail reported.
Engineers from NASA and Roscosmos, Russia’s government space agency, have been tracking the leak rate from a small Russian module attached to the space station for over half a decade.
Trouble first began in 2019, when a small but persistent air leak in the PrK module was detected.
The International Space Station is set to retire in 2030 but NASA and Conrgess are considering extending its operation until 2032 or beyond. Adam – stock.adobe.com
By 2024, the leak rate had doubled, prompting NASA to elevate the issue to one of the most serious safety concerns on board and the highest risk currently facing the ISS, according to the Daily Mail.
This latest leak is raising concerns for the already-aging space station, which is due to retire in 2030 — but is being considered by NASA and Congress to extend operations to 2032 or beyond until commercial replacements are available.
“This further confirms the wisdom of returning the ISS in 2030 and replacing it with more modern, more cost-effective, and safer commercial platforms,” Phil McAlister, former director of commercial space flight at NASA told Ars.
The Post has sought comment from NASA.
