Space station staff got up to hunt for air leaks

The astronauts woke up at night to continue the hunt for the plane crash at the International Space Station (ISS).

Team members have been hunting the source for several weeks.

But the search reached a climax on Monday when the level of the leak appeared to grow; This misreading was caused by a temperature change in the ISS.

Analysis of the ground teams found a leak to the main work area within the Russian ISS block called Svesta.

The module includes life support equipment for the space station and residences for two crew members.

Further analysis will be required to identify the exact area of ​​air escape.

NASA stressed that this does not pose an immediate risk to the crew at the current leak rate And will only cause a small deviation in the team’s current work schedule.

• Leaked astronauts at the space station
• Spacewalk astronauts investigate the hole

NASA astronaut and station commander Chris Cassidy and Russian space agency (Roscosmos) astronauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Wagner were instructed to collect data at various locations in Russian orbits to enter Russian orbits.

One by one, the team used an ultrasonic leak detector to collect data, along the paths leading to other boxes and blocks, between the rear and forward sections of the Svesta.

This is the third time in a month that the Russians have had to isolate themselves on the side in an effort to find a growing leak.

Throughout the night, pressure gauges were analyzed to try to isolate the source of the leak. Once the checks were completed overnight, the crew reopened the chicks between the U.S. and Russian stations and resumed their normal operations.

This is not the first time ISS team members have hunted down a leak themselves.

In August 2018, astronauts discovered a 2mm drill in an area of ​​the Russian Soyuz spacecraft that arrived at the space station at the time.

The hole, with nearby drill marks, appeared to be a production defect. The rest of the time the crew attached it to the Soyuz space station it was bonded with epoxy resin.