The fissure in the Russian sector of the International Space Station (ISS) is between 2 and 4 centimetres (0.7 -1.5 inches) and was temporarily patched up with Kapton tape, a source from the space industry said.

"The analysis of the photos suggests that the tear in the Zvezda Service Module is between two and four centimeters long. Cosmonaut [Sergey] Ryzhikov taped it with Kapton [a special tape]," the source said.

Earlier in the day, one of the crew members, cosmonaut Ivan Vagner reported to the ground force that the crew had found a makeshift solution for the leak which would be to tape it with Kapton, an adhesive film developed by DuPont in the late Sixties which can exist between -269 and 400 degrees centigrade.

In September 2019, an air leak was detected on the ISS. In August 2020, the speed of the station's air leak increased. Eventually, the air leak was traced to the Zvezda module, but the precise location of the leak, which is very minor, was not found at the time.

Russia's Roscosmos agency has repeatedly said that the safety of the ISS crew has never been put at risk by the air leak. Executive director for the agency's manned space programme, Sergey Krikalev, added, however, that additional air could be delivered to the ISS if the crew failed to patch up the leak.

Source: RIA Novosti

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

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media 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.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Thomas prepares for Time in space
Houston TX (ESA) Oct 14, 2020
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet trains for the Time experiment at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA ahead of his Alpha mission to the International Space Station in 2021. This European experiment on the International Space Station investigates the hypothesis that time subjectively speeds up in microgravity and was first run in space in 2017. Whether an activity takes seconds or hours depends on your point of view. For astronauts living off-planet and experiencing roughly 16 sunrises a ... read more