Space station air leaks trigger delay

13/6/2025 6:32

NASA indefinitely delayed a

four-person crew's mission to the International Space Station on

Thursday over an escalating probe into air leaks aboard the

orbiting laboratory's Russian segment.



The U.S. space agency said it was working with Roscosmos,

Russia’s space agency, to "understand a new pressure signature"

detected by cosmonauts in the Zvezda Service Module, a more than

2-decade-old core compartment that for months has sprung small

leaks.

"Cosmonauts aboard the space station recently performed

inspections of the pressurized module’s interior surfaces,

sealed some additional areas of interest, and measured the

current leak rate," NASA said in a statement. "Following this

effort, the segment now is holding pressure."



The agency did not immediately respond to questions on what

the leak rate was.



Small cracks on the ISS in recent years, particularly on the

aging Russian segment, have contributed to the international

partnership's decision to retire the ISS by 2030.



Leaks of air from the cracks have been minor and posed no

immediate safety threats to the station's astronauts but are

increasingly worrisome signs of aging that NASA and Roscosmos

have been investigating, while having crew members patch the

leaks with tape, glue and other solutions.



Scheduled to be aboard the Axiom Mission 4 is Shubhanshu

Shukla, an Indian Air Force pilot and one of four

astronauts-in-training picked by the Indian Space Research

Organization to fly on India's own debut crewed mission, the

Gaganyaan mission planned for 2027.



Shukla, 39, will be the first astronaut to go to the ISS

from India's astronaut corps.