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MOSCOW, October 30 / TASS /. The crack found aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the air leak it caused could have been caused by an external impact, members of the Russian space station crew said during a conference with the Mission Control center.
Speaking to the flight director of the Russian ISS segment Vladimir Solovyov, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov said: “If you take a closer look at the image, there are color changes in the middle of the crack.”
“We suspect an external impact,” Ryzhikov said, adding that the location of the suspected impact should be examined during the crew’s next spacewalk, which is scheduled for November 18.
Solovyov said that such an adventure can be very complicated: “You know well that it is very difficult to get to this place during the spacewalk as there are numerous cables and you will also have to remove thermal insulation. So it will be difficult to get to this place from Exterior “.
A source told TASS in August that the Russian-American crew of the space station was working to trace an air leak aboard the orbital post. Later, the State Space Corporation of Russia, Roscosmos, confirmed this information.
The place of the air leak
The ISS crew informed the Russian Flight Control Center on the morning of October 15 that the cosmonauts had found the possible air leak point in the intersection compartment of the Zvezda module with the help of a tea bag. As the cosmonauts said, possibly air was leaking through a fracture. The crack was no more than 4 cm wide and did not pose a threat to the security of the space station, Roscosmos specified.
Cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin told a post-flight press conference on Wednesday that the air leak point looked more like a 2-3 cm long curvilinear scratch.
The air leak point has now been sealed with temporary means. Meanwhile, a source from the space industry told TASS that the air leak would be completely eliminated after the Soyuz MS-16 spacecraft landed. As the source explained, this measure was necessary to perform some measurements with the hatches closed.
