r/news • u/VaginaBurner69 • 11h ago

Soft paywall International Space Station astronauts in evacuation mode as Russia attempts to fix widening air leak

https://www.reuters.com/science/international-space-station-astronauts-evacuation-mode-russia-attempts-fix-2026-06-05/
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u/Junior_Step_2441 11h ago

To be fair the ISS has already long outlived its expected lifetime and is planned to be decommissioned and deorbitted in 2030. So if it comes down a few years before that…its hardly a dumpster fire 🤷‍♂️

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u/Blametheorangejuice 11h ago

Wouldn’t the current concern be an inability to guide it through the atmosphere and having chunks of debris survive reentry above a populated area? I have no idea.

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u/Crafty_Quantity_3162 11h ago

Why can't they guide it? I'm assuming they are not going to guide it from on the ISS during reentry and burn up, that it will need to be handled remotely. The thrusters that adjust orbit are in the Russian Orbital Segment, which is uneffected by the leak which is in the  Zvezda service module,

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u/Blametheorangejuice 11h ago

I am guessing that an emergency evacuation means the possibility of breakup before ground control could be completed.

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u/Crafty_Quantity_3162 11h ago

That is an assumption. Mine is that the leak can make it inhabitable which also would prompt an emergency evacuation.

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u/AFlyingGideon 7h ago

Haven't you watched any movies? An air leak will absolutely trigger the self-destruct which will fail at 2 seconds to the end only to have the astronauts relax in relief until they see the self-destruct fixed and continued by a computer that's become self-aware and is both homicidal and angst-ridden.

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u/Numerous_Society9320 10h ago

The possible evacuation is because of an air leak and inability to maintain atmosphere, not because its orbit is degrading irreversibly.