ISS crew isolated in the Russian module to search for air leaks on the American segment

Moscow. August 20. INTERFAX - The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday will close in the Russian module Zvezda while checking the pressure in the American segment of the station, the press service of Roscosmos told Interfax.

According to the ISS Russian Segment Main Operational Control Group (LOCT RS), on Friday, the crew members of the station will move to the Zvezda module in order to organize pressure control in the American segment modules, "the state corporation said on Thursday.

"During the period of stay (three days) on the Russian segment, the crew is scheduled to carry out regular work. There is no threat to the crew and the station," said Roskosmos.

The press service said that this procedure is reflected in the onboard documentation and is a joint decision of the control groups of the American and Russian segments of the ISS.

The previous time an air leak on the ISS was detected on the night of August 30, 2018. Then the crew checked all the compartments and found a man-made hole in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. It was located in the utility compartment, and not in the descent vehicle, therefore it did not threaten the return of the spacecraft to Earth. Later, Russian cosmonauts injected a sealant into the discovered hole and covered it with patches, then using ultrasound they confirmed that there was no air leak.

In December 2018, Russian cosmonauts went into outer space to examine the hole from the outside and take samples of the sealant. The astronauts cut out parts of the spacecraft's micrometeorite shielding, then delivering them to Earth. The samples were handed over to investigators and sent to the FSB laboratory for study.

The commission to investigate the causes of the hole considered all possible versions of the incident. "However, until now, experts were inclined in favor of the version that the hole was unintentionally drilled without malicious intent during the preparation of the spacecraft for launch at the cosmodrome," a source familiar with the investigation said earlier.