ISS nearing end of life?
The good news is that three new crew members — two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut — reached the International Space Station in record time this week — bringing the total crew on board to six.
But in what may affirm that the ISS may have but a few more years left in its lifespan, yet another problem emerged, this time with the oxygen supply system failing.
The oxygenation issue cropped up on the Zvezda module on the orbital lab Russian segment of the ISS, but the crew members were not placed in danger, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.
A second system on the American side kicked in.
Quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency, veteran Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka said that the Russian equipment aboard the ISS was well past its use-by date.
“All modules of the Russian segment are exhausted,” said Padalka, who holds the world record for most days spent in space.
He added that the equipment should only be used for 15 years whereas it was now two decades old.
“Nothing threatens the security of the crew and the ISS,” said Roscosmos, adding the repair work would be carried out the next day.
Russian segment ‘exhausted,’ says cosmonaut.
The problem is the latest incident on the ISS — whose first module was launched over two decades ago in 1998 — after the crew in August detected an air leak on board.
Roscosmos emphasized at the time that the leak was not significant and posed no danger. But part of the problem was detecting precisely where it came from.
The crew believe that they have now found the source of the leak.
The Roscosmos spokesperson said that they would receive precise instructions from mission control to carry out future work on the problem.