American astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been stranded in space for several months. SpaceX’s Crew-9 has also left to take both of them back, with the help of which both of them will return to Earth in February next year. Initially, both the astronauts were to go to the International Space Center only for a week, but later due to a problem with the spacecraft, the time of their stay there increased. During this time, a big problem arose at the International Space Center. Actually, air was leaking in the Russian segment of the space center since 2019, which increased later. Due to Sunita’s stay at the space station, people’s concerns have increased, but the matter of relief is that the problem of air leaking is not so big that it can cause any major problem to both the astronauts. The space from where air is leaking has been closed.
Due to this leakage happening at the space station, about 1.7 kg of air is being lost every day. Taking this seriously, NASA has started investigating it. The problem, which first emerged in 2019 in the PrK vestibule of the Zvezda module, has been thoroughly investigated. NASA’s Office of Inspector General recently reported that leakage had increased to about 1.7 kilograms per day by April 2024. Because of this increase the ISS program has described it as a high priority risk. However, the leak rate has been reduced by about one-third following NASA’s repair efforts.
Are astronauts at space center in danger due to air leaks?
Even though air is leaking at the space center, it does not pose any immediate threat to the astronauts living there. At present there are seven members, who are closely monitoring this matter. The crew keeps the area where this gas is leaking closed, due to which its impact on the space station is not much visible. At the same time, due to the repairs, the rate of air leakage has also reduced by about one-third. It has been welded inside and out and investigation is underway to find out the root cause of the leakage.
