Ageing space station leaks air

October 9, 2024 - NASA is playing down concerns raised in a report about a long-running air leak that has plagued the International Space Station for five years, saying they have recently reduced the leak rate.

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A report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released September 26 noted that, in June, the ISS programme had elevated a leak in a section of the Russian Zvezda module “to the highest level of risk in its risk management system.”

NASA rates the likelihood and severity of a risk on a scale of one to five. The leak was rated a five on both.

NASA reports that the leak is in a hatch of the PrK service module, which separates a docking port from the rest of the Zvezda module.

The leak was first detected in 2019 but has recently doubled. According to the OIG report, it had grown to nearly 1.7 kilograms of air per day by April, the highest rate recorded yet.

At a September 27 briefing, Robyn Gatens, director of the ISS program at NASA, said recent repair work had reduced the leak rate to about 1.13kg air/day.

The OIG reports that Russian space agency Roscosmos is confident they will be able to “monitor and close the hatch to the Service Module prior to the leak rate reaching an untenable level.”

“However, NASA and Roscosmos have not reached an agreement on the point at which the leak rate is untenable.”