American space officials don’t like to talk about the dangers of astronauts flying on the aging International Space Station, whose elements are now more than a quarter-century old.
However, a new report confirms that NASA officials responsible for operating the space station are seriously concerned about a small Russian part of the station, essentially a tunnel connecting a larger module to a docking port, that is leaking.
Russian and American officials know that this small PrK module, which sits between an airlock on the Progress spacecraft and the Zvezda module, has been leaking since September 2019. A new reportreleased Thursday by NASA’s inspector general, provides details not previously released by the space agency that underscore the severity of the problem.
New details about the leak
For example, in February of this year NASA identified an increase in the leak rate from less than 1 pound of atmosphere per day to 2.4 pounds per day, and in April this rate increased to 3.7 pounds per day. Despite years of investigation, neither Russian nor American officials have identified the underlying cause of the leak.
“Although the root cause of the leak is unknown, both agencies have focused on internal and external welds,” states the report, signed by Deputy Inspector General George A. Scott.
The plan to mitigate the risk is to keep the hatch in the Zvezda Module leading to the closed PrK tunnel. Over time, if the leak worsens further, this hatch may need to be closed permanently, reducing the number of Russian docking ports on the space station from four to three.
Publicly, NASA has tried to downplay concerns about the cracking problem because, to date, it remains confined to the PrK tunnel and has not spread to other parts of the station. However, Ars reported in June that the cracking issue had reached the highest level of concern in the space agency’s 5×5 “risk matrix” for ranking the likelihood and consequences of risks to spaceflight activities. The Russian leaks are now rated “5” in terms of both high probability and high consequences.
At the time, NASA declined to comment or confirm the space agency’s concerns about the risk matrix rating. However, the new report confirms the agency’s concerns.
“In May and June 2024, officials from the ISS Program and Roscosmos met to discuss growing concerns about the increasing leak rate,” the inspector general’s report states. “The ISS Program subsequently raised the Service Module Transfer Tunnel leak risk to the highest risk level in its risk management system. According to NASA, Roscosmos is confident that they will be able to monitor and close the Service Module hatch. Service before the leak. The leak rate reaches an unsustainable level. However, NASA and Roscosmos have not reached an agreement on the point at which the leak rate is unsustainable.”
An uncertain future in low Earth orbit
The report comes as NASA is considering the future of the space station. The U.S. space agency and Russia have an agreement to continue flying the station until 2028, and NASA would like to extend operations until 2030. NASA had anticipated agreeing to this extension more than a year ago, but so far it has not come to fruition. to no agreement. been finalized.
Once the station reaches the end of its useful life, NASA intends to move its low-Earth orbit activities to private space stations, and has funded initial development work by Axiom Space, Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin and Voyager Space. Northrop has since abandoned the competition, determining that it would not be a profitable business. There is general uncertainty about whether any of the private space station operators will be ready by 2030.
NASA’s other potential option is to extend the life of the space station beyond 2030, but this would require a lot of work to ensure the space station structure remains viable and yet another extension agreement with Russia. The United States’ partnership with that nation has been severely affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Extending the ISS beyond 2030 will require significant funding to operate and maintain the station, acceptance of increased risk arising from its aging components and structures, and assurances of continued support from NASA’s international partners,” it states. the new report. “Further complicating matters is the likelihood that NASA will continue to face a flat or reduced budget, inflation, and supply chain challenges.”
This story originally appeared on Ars Technique.