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‘Possibility of a catastrophic failure’: Inside the space station leak problem that has NASA worried

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2024-11-15 20:30:24

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A Russian-controlled segment of the International Space Station is leaking, allowing pressure and air to bleed out. The situation has reached a fever pitch as cosmonauts scramble to patch problem areas and officials from Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, and NASA disagree about the severity of the problem.

The football field-size space laboratory must remain pressurized and filled with breathable gases to host a rotating crew of astronauts, which it has done since 2000 in separate but connected Russian and US sections. Problematic leaks were first identified in 2019 in a tunnel that connects a Russian module, called Zvezda, to a docking port that welcomes spacecraft carrying cargo and supplies.

Oversight officials in the United States now consider this issue to be the most pressing problem facing the aging space station, one that could threaten the safety of the crew, according to a recent report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General.

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