ISS crew traces probable air leak on orbital outpost

MOSCOW, October 15. /TASS/. The Russian cosmonauts have traced the probable area of an air leak in the transfer compartment of the Zvezda module on the International Space Station (ISS), Cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin reported to Russia’s Flight Control Center, according to a live broadcast on NASA’s website on Thursday. "We have found the possible place of the air leak," Ivanishin said. The Flight Control Center suggested that the cosmonauts patch up the possible air leak with the tape when they have free time. The flight controllers also requested the crew to send the photos and the video of the possible air leak area. A source told TASS in August that the space station’s Russian-American crew was working on tracing an air leak aboard the orbital outpost. As Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos later told TASS, the cosmonauts had come to the conclusion that the air leak was located in the Russian Zvezda module but it posed no threat to the crew’s life and health. Cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov said during a pre-flight press-conference on Wednesday that the crew of the Soyuz MS-17 manned spacecraft would bring additional equipment to the orbital outpost to trace the air leak in the transfer compartment of the Russian Zvezda module and a special sealant. The Soyuz MS-17 manned spacecraft launched from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan at 08:45 a.m. Moscow time on October 14 docked to the International Space Station at 11:48 a.m. Moscow time on the same day, making a super-fast flight to the orbital laboratory within three hours and three minutes. Read more