A supply of nitrogen and repair materials will be delivered to the International Space Station (ISS) in December that can be used to fully fix the crack in the shell of the Zvezda module, ISS Russian Segment Flight Director Vladimir Solovyov said on Wednesday.

"The cosmonauts covered the crack with a tape. Specialists of the TSNIIMASH research centre and the Khrunichev research centre [both part of the Russian state space agency, Roscosmos] are currently clarifying the cause of the crack and determine the technology for its complete elimination. In December, we will probably deliver nitrogen and sealants to the ISS," Solovyov told Roscosmos' Russky Kosmos journal.

According to the official, the crack was the width of a hair and located in a hard-to-reach spot of Zvezda's shell.

Solovyov did not specify the spacecraft that will deliver the sealing materials to the ISS, but the only one scheduled to fly in December is Cargo Dragon, a reusable freight spaceship of US private company SpaceX. The soonest flight of a Russian cargo spacecraft - Progress MS-16 - has been postponed until December 2021.

A small air leak was first detected at the ISS last September, but increased in intensity only in August of this year. The crew self-isolated in the Russian segment of the space station for several days in order to figure out the source of the leak. Cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner eventually found a 4-centimetre (1.5-inch) crack in the so-called transfer compartment in the front of the Zvezda module.

Source: RIA Novosti

Related Links
Roscosmos
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Russia Ambassador hopes US-Russia space cooperation will help global challenges
Washington DC (Sputnik) Nov 04, 2020
The Russian ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, expressed hope for the two countries' successful cooperation in space to help resolve global challenges. "Over these two decades, about 250 people from 19 countries have been to the ISS. Many experiments and studies in biology, medicine, physics and chemistry have been conducted there. It is also important that for many years Russian cosmonauts and US astronauts have been closely cooperating shoulder to shoulder in an open and fruitful ... read more