ISS Crew Starts Repair Work On 2nd Crack Causing Air Leak In Russia's Zvezda Module

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd March, 2021) The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) has begun sealing the second crack in the Russian Zvezda module, which was behind a leakage of air, according to the ISS crew's communications with the ground control, broadcast by NASA on Tuesday.

The crew was initially scheduled on Tuesday to start the final sealing of the 1.8-inch crack � the first one detected in the intermediate chamber of the Zvezda module last October. However, the cosmonauts were asked instead to install a patch on the second crack in the Zvezda intermediate chamber, as well as to examine another location of a possible leak with a microscope.

"Today, we are working on the second crack," an expert from the Moscow-based Mission Control Center could be heard initiating the change during communication with cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov.

A small air leak was first detected at the ISS in September 2019 but increased in intensity only in August of 2020. Russian cosmonauts have since established the source of the leak and sealed it. According to Russia's space agency Roscosmos, the air leak posed no threat to the crew. Later in December, the agency said that there might be other cracks.