What happened on the international space station?

When will astronauts leave US soil?

Flight controllers in Russia have increased oxygen supply to the Soyuz as a protective measure. The astronauts covered the opening with Kapton tape, an adhesive film that remains tacky at extreme temperatures, as a temporary solution. Later in the day, Russian cosmonauts plugged the hole with a sealer and gauze. They photographed and filmed it for official archives and monitored the conditions every hour. The pressure inside ISS has finally stabilized.

He is lucky that the leak has been detected now, and not in December, when three of the astronauts enter the Soyuz capsule and return to Earth.

After an investigation in Soyuz, another started. Roscosmos, the Russian Space Agency, convened a committee to determine the cause of the hole. According to an update published Friday on the Roscosmos website, an international group of space agents will meet on 10 September. Among them, Tom Stafford, former astronaut of NASA

The Russians first wondered if the hole had been created by a type of micrometeoroid called space rock. The micrometeoroids are tiny, some smaller than a grain of sand, but in the space they travel thousands of kilometers at the hour and can easily cross the metal. For decades, they have left their mark on various spacecraft and satellites. In 2013, one of these rocks left a visible hole in one of the solar panels of the ISS:

Ball hole – a small stone from the universe has crossed our solar panel. Happy to have missed the hull. pic.twitter.com/iBHFVfp1p8

– Chris Hadfield (@Cmdr_Hadfield) April 29, 2013

But this week, they threw the explanation of micrometeoroid. After examining the hole, the officials determined that the impact was probably caused by the inside of the capsule, said Dmitry Rogozin, the Roscosmos chief.

"It is too early to say clearly what happened. But, it seems, the situation seems to have deteriorated, "Rogozin said at the beginning of the week, according to the Russian news agency TASS. "It is a technological mistake of a specialist. It was done by a human hand. There are traces of a drill sliding along the surface. We do not reject any theory. "

What should we do about the International Space Station?

And the most scary part? They do not know if the hole was made when the Soyuz was still on Earth or while he was in space.

Rogozin promised that officials will "find the one who is responsible for it, to know if it was an accidental defect or a deliberate deterioration and where it was done, on Earth or in the space .

Here is a picture of the hole that NASA tweeted this week but was later removed, according to Chris Bergin, editor of NASASpaceflight.com.

Summary on the leak of the ISS:

The first thought was the strike of the MMOD.

So NASA has published photos. Many people: "Hmmm, do not look like MMOD". NASA has deleted the photos.

The main Russian news site RIA NOVOSTI reported – via sources but apparently confirmed by Mr Rogozin – that it was a borehole. pic.twitter.com/520kHK0TMc

– Chris B – NSF (@NASASpaceflight) September 3, 2018

The quick response to the mysterious malfunction and the seemingly concerted effort to investigate it is a reminder of the good relations between the United States and Russia with regard to the International Space Station. This kind of thing is quite rare on Earth. Neither country would be able to fulfill this task – to operate and maintain the largest artificial structure in low Earth orbit – alone. They need each other's technology and need money from each other.

Operations on the ISS are divided in two, one part being led by the Americans and the other by the Russians. (That does not stop them from staying, of course, they spend a lot of time together and are trained to speak both English and Russian.) The Soyuz was docked on the Russian side of the ISS, and it was empty at the time that the Pressurized air began to escape. But a malfunction of the station, if it were serious, would put everyone in danger.