The pressure on the Russian service module of the International Space Station has decreased due to an air leak, said the head of Russia’s Roscosmos Space Agency on Saturday.
About two weeks ago, a pressure decline due to an engine failure occurred in the Nauka Russian module that threw the station out of control.
However, the two incidents were not related, said Roscomos head Dmitry Rogozin on Thursday.
Roscosmos stated that the pressure drop was due to a minor air leak in the isolated transfer chamber of Zvezda’s service module, and pressure will return to normal over the next 24 hours.
“It was an expected and not a ‘sharp’ drop in the still problematic Zvezda and it is not linked to the research module,” Rogozin said via Twitter.
Rogozin tweeted that the pressure in the service module dropped on July 29 to about one-third of that on July 14, the day when Nauka’s research module was landed but will increase.
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Last year, an air leak was detected in the Zvezda module, which provides the crew with their chambers and life support systems.
The leak persists even after trying to seal the cracks. However, it does not pose a risk to the crew.
Software glitches and possible human errors were the reason behind the emergency as the jet thrusters in the Nauka module were accidentally reignited, Russia said on Friday.
After the air pressure was tested and cleaned on Saturday, the Russian crew entered the research module, Rogozin tweeted.
On Saturday, Russia arranged a scientific meeting to discuss the Russian part of the space station in the future.
The module went into orbit in 1998 and is expected to work until 2028.
“The chief constructors’ council noted after considering the current condition of the Russian ISS segment that the use of the Russian ISS segment after 2024 creates additional risks due to the ageing of equipment,” Roscosmos said.
Tags: Space station, Russia, Zvezda, Air leak
