NASA is functioning to isolate alittle air leak within the US segment of the International orbiter.
Astronaut Chris Cassidy will join cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin within the Russian Zvezda service module from Friday night into Monday morning, the space agency said, during a statement on its website.
“Since September of 2019, specialists are tracking a really slow decrease within the International orbiter stack pressure, and tryto spot the source,” a NASA spokesman told Fox News, via email. “The leak rate has increased slightly from measurements taken in September, 2019, but still is within overall specifications and presents no immediate danger to the crew or artificial satellite.”
NASA and its international partners can carefully monitor the atmospheric pressure in each module, the spokesman added.
“All the artificial satellite hatches are closed this weekend so mission controllers can carefully monitor the atmospheric pressure in each module,” NASA said, in its statement. “The test presents no safety concern for the crew. The test should determine which module is experiencing a higher-than-normal leak rate. The U.S. and Russian specialists expect preliminary results should be available for review by the tip of next week.”
Space station commander Cassidy, a naval forces captain who spent 11 years as a member of the Navy’s SEALs, launched to the orbiting space lab on April 9, 2020.
