The ISS, photographed from a Soyuz capsule after leaving the station in 2018. -
HO / NASA / Roscosmos / AFP
On the night of Sunday to Monday, the International Space Station (ISS) crew was awakened by NASA to find the origin of an air leak, spotted in August.
It would appear to come from a Russian module, Russian space agency Roscosmos said on Tuesday.
"It has been established that the problem is in the Zvezda service module, which contains scientific materials," Russia said in a statement.
The crew, Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanichine and Ivan Vagner as well as NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy, had been looking for the origin of this air leak since August.
The astronauts had previously searched unsuccessfully for the leak in the US section of the space station using an ultrasonic detector.
In the immediate future, the loss of air is "not dangerous"
NASA said the leak appeared to increase overnight Monday through Tuesday.
This is why she made the decision to wake up the whole crew to find the origin.
But it later turned out that the impression of a larger air leak was caused by a change in temperature.
The leak, the exact location of which remains to be located, "is not dangerous for the life and health of the ISS crew and does not prevent the ISS from continuing manned flights," Roscosmos added. .
The director of Russian manned flights, Sergei Krikaliov, wanted to be reassuring in statements on television, indicating that the space station was losing a little air because of its purification system.
"What is happening now is more important than the usual leak, and of course if it lasts a long time more air will have to be brought to the station," he added, however.
In 2018, the crew discovered a hole in the wall of a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the ISS.
The origin had not been revealed.
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