Russian Cosmonauts Find 'Superficial Fissures' In ISS Module, Say It Could Widen: Report
Vladimir Solovyov, chief engineer of rocket and space corporation Energia, had earlier said ISS equipment has started to age and that there could be an ‘avalanche’ of broken equipment after 2025.
New Delhi: Russian cosmonauts have discovered new cracks in a segment of the International Space Station (ISS). It is learned that these "superficial fissures" can widen in the future.
"Superficial fissures have been found in some places on the Zarya module," news agency RIA reported quoting Vladimir Solovyov, the chief engineer of rocket and space corporation Energia.
"This is bad and suggests that the fissures will begin to spread over time," he added.
He, however, did not mention if the fissures had caused any leak of air.
Solovyov had earlier said that much of the ISS’ equipment was starting to age, warning of an "avalanche" of broken equipment after 2025.
In July, Jet thrusters on Nauka, the Russian research module onboard ISS, inadvertently reignited a few hours after it had docked to the space station. This had caused the entire orbital outpost, carrying seven crew members, to pitch out of its normal flight position.
The mission flight director had immediately declared a spaceflight emergency and attitude control over the ISS was lost for 45 minutes, NASA told reporters.
Russian officials had then blamed a software glitch and a possible lapse in human attention for this.
Russia's space agency Roscosmos also reported a drop in pressure, caused by an air leak, in the Zvezda service module last month. The module provides living quarters for the crew members on the ISS.
Two Russian Spacewalks On September 3, 9
The Russian crew, meanwhile, is preparing for two spacewalks, or extravehicular activities (EVA), in September.
NASA said on Tuesday that two Russian cosmonauts would venture outside the ISS on September 3 and 9 to conduct the first of 11 spacewalks to prepare the new Nauka multipurpose laboratory module for operations in space.
NASA is set to provide live coverage for the two spacewalks on NASA Television, on the NASA app, and on its website.
It said the first spacewalk, Russian EVA 49, is scheduled to last up to seven hours, while the second, Russian EVA 50, could last about five hours.
According to NASA, Expedition 65 Flight Engineers, Oleg Novitskiy, and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos would exit the Poisk module on ISS’ Russian segment.
During the spacewalks, the cosmonauts are scheduled to install handrails on Nauka, “and connect power, ethernet, and data cables between the recently arrived module and the Zvezda service module”.
This is going to be the second and third spacewalks for Novitskiy and Dubrov, and the 10th and 11th at the space station in 2021, the agency said.
Roscosmos has said it will remain part of the ISS until 2024 and is open to extending its participation after that, Reuters reported.
Top Headlines
