Por Jackie Wattles, CNN
A private mission of astronauts that has just begun has exposed a new turn in a persistent problem – and potentially dangerous – in the destiny most visited by humanity in space.
The Axiom 4 space mission, or AX-4, took off from the NASA Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:32 am Miamo time this Wednesday after a prolonged delay generated by leak-related tests that affect the international space station.
For years, the air has slowly filtered a module controlled by Russia, which normally remains isolated from the rest of the space station. However, recently, the station operators realized that the gradual and constant escape had stopped. And that raised an even greater concern.
It is possible that the efforts to seal the cracks in the outer wall of the module have worked, and that the patches are finally retaining the air as planned. However, according to NASA, engineers are also worried that the module maintains stable pressure, since it is possible that a new leak has been formed in an inner wall, which has caused the air of the rest of the orbital laboratory to begin to filter towards the damaged area.
Basically, space station operators are worried because the entire station is beginning to lose air.
It is very unknown to this problem. NASA revealed concerns in a June 14 statement. The agency indicated that it would delay the launch of the AX-4 private mission, carried out by Spacex and the Axiom Space company, based in Houston, while the station operators worked to identify the problem.
“When changing the pressure in the transfer tunnel and monitoring it over time, the equipment is evaluating the condition of the transfer tunnel and the hack seal,” reads the statement.
More than a week later, the results of that research are not entirely clear. After revealing the new launch objective on Monday night, NASA declared Tuesday that it collaborated with Roscosmos officials to investigate the problem. The space agencies agreed to reduce the pressure in the transfer tunnel, and “the equipment will continue to evaluate the problem in the future,” according to the statement.
NASA postponed any additional comments on the problem of escape to the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, which did not answer a list of questions sent by email.
The leaks, first identified in 2019, are found in a tunnel that connects a Russian module called Zvezda to an coupling port that receives spacecraft that transports load and supplies.
The cracks are lowercase and mostly invisible to the naked eye, hence the difficulty of trying to repair the problematic areas.
The situation charged new urgency last year when the leak rate reached its highest level to date. And it was clear that the technical teams of the United States and Russia did not coincide in the exact cause of the problem, according to Bob Cabana, president of the NASA Advisory Committee for the EEI, during a meeting on the topic held in November.
“The Russians believe that the continuation of the operations is safe, but they cannot demonstrate it to our entire satisfaction,” added Cabana. “And the United States believes that it is not safe, but we cannot demonstrate it to Russia’s satisfaction.”
Neither NASA nor Roscosmos responded to comments requests last week on how they currently evaluate the risk of leaks.
While NASA and Roscosmos tried to solve the problem, the four crew companions who now fly in the AX-4 remained locked in quarantine in Florida for approximately one month, waiting for their opportunity to take off.
The private mission includes the NASA Display Whitson, who is now an Axiom Space employee, as well as three rookies on space flights that will become the first of their respective countries to visit the space station: Shubhanshu Shukla de India, Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu de Poland and Tibor Kapu Hungary.
The group is expected to be in space for approximately two weeks, helping to perform approximately 60 scientific experiments before returning home.
It is not still clear if the Zvezda transfer tunnel leak could affect the broadest operations in the space station, or how.
Although the missions financed with private funds to the space station, such as AX-4, are quite rare events, NASA and Roscosmos routinely send rotary crews of astronauts and cosmonauts to maintain the space station endowed with personnel.
Crew 11, which will mark the twelfth mission of crew rotation that Spacex carries out on behalf of NASA, is currently scheduled to take off in July.
This crew includes Nasa Zena Cardman and Mike Fincke astronauts; the astronaut of the Aerospace Exploration Agency of Japan, Kimiya Yui; and the Cosmonaut de Roscosmos, Oleg Platonov. It is expected to spend about six months in space, as usual in personnel endowment missions.
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