WASHINGTON – NASA says crews are limited to a single module there and are not sure about the source of the small air leak on the International Space Station after spending another week there.
Expedition 63 crew of NASA astronauts Chris Cassidy and Roscosmos Cosmonauts have been inside the Zvezda module in the Russian part of the station since the evening of September 25. September. Until 28 in the morning. Hatch between other modules. The stations were all closed in an attempt to identify what is a small, but not important, air leak.
28 September. In a briefing about the upcoming Northrop Grumman NG-14 Cygnus cargo mission at the station, a NASA official said Zwezda failed to find the source of the leak in the module over the weekend. “As of this morning, there is no clear indication of where this leak is,” said Greg Dorth, manager of the ISS program’s external integration office at NASA. “Teams are still looking at the data and evaluating it.”
This was the second time the ISS crew had confined themselves to Zvezda in an attempt to contain the leak. A month ago, the trio spent a week in Zvezda with other modules, which was shut down in an attempt to find the leak. “Three days later, there was no indication of where the leak was coming from,” Dorthe said.
He said that in this latest test the U.S. And although some “different configurations” were shown in both Russian parts, he did not elaborate on the differences between the two tests. In addition, Cassidy uses an ultrasonic leak detector to see if a leak is coming from Zizveda.
Leaks, he stressed, do not endanger the crew or the station itself. “It’s a very, very small leak. It has an effect on our consumables, but we have a plan for it. The leak will be addressed as we continue the investigation. “
Cassidy made the same point A series of tweets Just before the leak he and his crumates spent the weekend alone in Zvezda. “We as a crew have no harm or risk, but it is important to find the leak [so] We are not wasting precious air.
Space station controllers took advantage of the relatively quiet time on the station in an attempt to find the leak, which was first discovered a year ago. There are only three people at the station, which makes it possible for them to stay in the same module. In addition, no spacecraft has landed at the station since the HTV cargo vehicle departed on August 18.
However, that will soon change. The NG-14 Cygnus cargo spacecraft will launch on Oct. 1 from Wall Laps Island in Virginia and arrive at the station in early October, Dorthe said. The mission “marks the beginning of a very busy vehicle traffic month on the ISS.”
In that traffic, a new Soyuz spacecraft has been launched on October 14 on board with NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Roscosmos Cosmonauts Sergey Ryzykov and Sergei Kud-Sverkov. It is then currently at KTO. Cassidy, Evanishin and Wagner will return after unloading the Soyuz at the station on the 21st.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon is now set to launch Oct. 31 with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Waker and JXA astronaut Sochi Noguchi. It will bring the station crew to seven for the near future. The launch was scheduled for Oct. 23, but NASA said Sept. 28 that they are pushing the launch to deconflect from the Soyuz launch and landing operations and provide more time to ensure open work both on and around the ground. Crew-1 station before launch ”.
