Moscow (AFP)
Several outages affected the Russian segment of the International Space Station overnight from Monday to Tuesday, but the Russian Space Agency held the situation under control, despite the multiplication of failures in recent weeks.
One outage took Russia's Elektron-VM oxygen supply system out of service, while another disrupted toilet operation, and a vacuum cleaner smelled like it was burnt, according to state-run RIA Novosti news agency, citing a exchange between cosmonauts from the ISS and the Space Flight Control Center (Tsoup).
"The failures that occurred on board the ISS during the night of October 19 to 20 were fully repaired in an operational manner by the crew," Roskosmos said in a statement sent to AFP.
"All the station's systems are functioning normally, nothing threatens the safety of the crew and the flight of the ISS," he said.
However, failures have been increasing in recent weeks on the Russian side of the orbital station.
A toilet breakdown lasting several hours affected this segment on October 11, and its oxygen supply system had already been taken out of service on October 14, before being repaired.
An air leak was also observed at the end of August in a Russian module of the ISS.
On Monday, Roskosmos announced that the crew had finally succeeded in temporarily sealing it.
This black series led Gennadi Padalka, record holder for the number of days spent in space and a leading figure in Russia, in mid-October to say that the Russian segment was quite simply dilapidated.
"All modules in the Russian segment are at their end," he told RIA Novosti, noting that the 20-year-old equipment had already exceeded its scheduled lifespan by five years.
The Russian space sector has gone through a series of scandals of corruption and embezzlement, but it is also undermined by budget cuts.
The current ISS crew includes the American Kathleen Rubins and the Russians Sergei Ryzhikov and Sergei Kud-Svertchkov.
They arrived on October 14 on board the station to replace their colleagues Chris Cassidy, Anatoly Ivanichine and Ivan Vagner who are due to return to earth on Thursday.
© 2020 AFP