Why America Needs a New Space Station: Russia's Module Is Leaking


The International Space Station is 26 years old. Born with Russia’s launch of a Zarya power and propulsion module in 1998, the ISS today is comprised of 43 separate modules and other “elements,” such as airlocks, robotic arms, and other major tools. Six of the seven countries that built the ISS plan to finally retire the space station after 2030 (Russia wants out by 2028).

NASA has already hired SpaceX to build a special deorbit spacecraft to push the ISS into Earth’s atmosphere where it will first burn up, then plunge into the sea, in 2031. NASA’s also sponsoring at least four separate teams of space companies that hope to build replacement space station(s) for when the ISS goes away.

Start Your Mornings Smarter! Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free »

Now, NASA may need to accelerate both of those plans — because the ISS is leaking. That’s bad news for NASA, but it may be good news for the several U.S. companies hoping to build a new space station.

Astronaut looking at Earth out of a huge window on a space station.
Image source: Getty Images.

A September 2024 report from NASA’s Office of Inspector General warned of “on-going cracks and air leaks in the [Zvezda] Service Module Transfer Tunnel” that connects Zvezda to its docking port. The leaks were first noticed in 2019. NASA noted this April that the leaks had reached their “highest level to date” (rated 5 out of 5 on the danger scale), costing the ISS valuable atmosphere and putting its astronaut and cosmonaut crew at risk. NASA calls this leak a “top safety risk” to continuing use of the ISS.

Neither NASA nor Roscosmos have been able to identify the root cause of the problem. And with the leak rate currently up to 3.7 pounds of air per day, it’s costing NASA more than $4,000 per day (or $1.6 million per year) to replace the air lost to the leak. That’s admittedly only a fraction of a percent of the $4.1 billion NASA spends to operate the ISS annually — but it’s not nothing.

It gets worse.

MSN reports that there are actually a total of four active leaks in Russia’s sections of the ISS, and 50 “areas of concern” (apparent scratches, imperfections, and internal and external welds) that may or may not be leaking. The crew has been advised to “confine themselves to the American section” of the space station, and even to “brace for evacuation.” So in addition to building a spacecraft to dispose of the ISS years from now, Elon Musk’s SpaceX has also been contracted to “come up with a contingency plan to evacuate American astronauts” in the event of a disaster.



Source link

About The Author

Scroll to Top