Air pressure on the ISS continues to drop. Russian cosmonauts covered a crack with duct tape

A recent repair to stop an oxygen leak aboard the International Space Station (ISS) failed to prevent a drop in air pressure inside the orbiting laboratory, Russian cosmonauts quoted DPA as saying on Friday.

“Air pressure keeps falling, but not so fast,” said cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanisin, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.

The information was announced a day after the astronauts located the source of that oxygen leak, after weeks of searching, and sealed it with duct tape.

The ISS astronauts, who discovered the fissure by following a tea bag floating towards it in weightless conditions, now want to cover it up by sealing it with a better material.

“Perhaps we should use more efficient patches from our partners,” said the same Russian cosmonaut, referring to his American colleagues.

On Wednesday, the oxygen supply system in the Russian Zvezda module also failed, but the general system continued to function in the other segments of the space laboratory, which is more than 20 years old.

In another incident, a plume of smoke rose over a device used during an experiment in the Russian sector of the ISS. The power supply was cut off.

Currently, six astronauts are aboard the ISS. Three of them, the American Chris Cassidy and the Russians Anatoly Ivanisin and Ivan Vagner, will return to Earth on October 22.