A small air leak on the ISS has prompted astronauts to relocate to the Russian segment for the weekend, allowing NASA to pinpoint the source.
Expedition 63 crew members face no immediate danger. This minor leak was first detected in September 2019, but its low air loss rate did not pose a significant threat at the time. NASA continued routine operations while monitoring the issue closely.
The agency has been occupied with major milestones in recent months, including the first SpaceX commercial crew mission (Demo-2) and multiple spacewalks for maintenance. These included repairs to a dark matter detector and battery replacements on the station.
With Demo-2 successfully completed weeks ago and Crew-1 not slated until October at earliest, NASA now prioritizes resolving the leak. "Now that we have a relatively quiet period in operations (spacewalks, vehicle traffic), the crew will be closing the hatches of each module," NASA spokesman Dan Huot told Space.com. "Operators on the ground can then monitor the pressure of each module to isolate the source of the leak."
The leak's location—U.S. or Russian segment—remains unknown until tests conclude on Monday.
Thus, Expedition 63 astronauts will spend the weekend in the Russian segment's Zvezda service module, the same module that housed early crews during ISS assembly in the early 2000s. It supports vital station life systems and typically accommodates two crew members.
The current crew—NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy and cosmonauts Anatoli Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner—will also access the adjacent Poisk mini-module, where Soyuz MS-16 is docked.
For context, a similar leak was found two years prior in a docked Soyuz spacecraft. Expedition 56 identified a two-millimeter-wide hole in the hull. NASA notes this current leak is significantly smaller than the 2018 incident.
