Crewmembers Patch A Small Leak On The ISS

For months crewmembers aboard the International Space Station have been working to pinpoint the source of the leak that has been very annoying for the crew aboard the station and ground workers. Crewmembers have worked to figure out where exactly the leak is located and patch it. NASA has been clear that the crew members aboard the ISS were never in danger from the leak.

After searching for the leak's source since September 2019, cosmonauts aboard the space station have finally tracked down the source of the leak this week and attempted to patch it. Reports of the attempted patch come from Russian government-owned news service Tass. The source of the leak was determined to be in the Russian Zvezda module.

Past tracking had suggested that it was the location of the leak. Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner called the source of the leak inside the module a "scratch," according to the Tass report. As for the success of the patch, it appears that it's not expected to hold.

Mission controllers say that the air leak has slowed, but the module is still losing pressure. One suggestion has been made is to reach out to the American astronauts aboard the space station for a different type of patch mechanism. Another problem has arose with the same module with a failed oxygen supply system.

The oxygen system failed on Wednesday of this week after the three new crew members arrived at the station. Ground controllers say that the failed oxygen supply system poses no hazard to the crewmembers. Both issues are attributed to the space station's age. It has been in orbit continuously staffed for the last 20 years. The oldest part of the space station was placed in orbit in 1998.