In the worst case, the “leaking” intermediate chamber of the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) will have to be blocked, which will lead to the loss of access to the docking port for the Progress and Soyuz spaceships. transfers SpaceNews comment by NASA Assistant Administrator for Space Operations Katie Luders, included in report Office of the Inspector General of NASA.
According to the document, the cracks are in the “low stress part”, which is a major concern. “In particular, based on the design mission models and dynamic loads that NASA used to characterize the structure, cracks should not have occurred,” the Office of the Inspector General of NASA said.
The US space agency and Roscosmos continue to monitor air leaks in the intermediate chamber and hope to present their findings on the matter by the end of March 2022, Luders said.
According to the report, if the operation of the ISS is completed in 2030, then the United States should have at least one commercial near-earth station by 2028. It is also noted there that the latter is unlikely to be launched in 2028, in connection with which the ISS should continue to work after 2030.
In August, Vladimir Soloviev, General Designer of the Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) Energia, Flight Director of the Russian segment of the ISS, cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, said that a production error could have caused a leak in the Russian Zvezda module. According to him, during welding, the connecting seams could overheat. In this case, the joints of parts made of an alloy of aluminum and magnesium become porous after a long stay in zero gravity. Overheating could be caused by a welder’s mistake, who stayed at one point of the connection longer than necessary. “Vibration and resonance also affect the weld seam, which together can lead to air leakage,” added Soloviev. The corresponding leak at Zvezda was discovered in August 2019.
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