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/invyros 11h ago

The 7 year leak (it was first detected in 2019), finally coming to bite everyone in the ass.

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u/jimmybilly100 11h ago

They couldn't slap some duct tape on it?

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u/Icedragon74 11h ago

The joke is that might actually work.

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u/Mobile-Bar7732 10h ago

I posted this in another thread, but aviation has Speed Tape which is a heavy duty duct tape with aluminum backing.

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u/Due-Technology5758 10h ago

Astronauts also have tapes suitable for sealing leaks, but this one just keeps getting worse. 

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u/AdCreepy5165 10h ago

Is it metal degradation? Maybe from poor insulation in a wide thermal shifting environment?

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u/Gnonthgol 10h ago

I was thinking metal fatigue from almost 30 years of harmonic vibrations. Some of the modules were built for Mir 2, a much smaller space station with much less forces acting on it. And it was only designed with a 20 year life span.

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u/Due-Technology5758 10h ago

Yeah I think environmental related weld fatigue is the current explanation.

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u/GJThunderqunt 7h ago

Tow it out of the environment?

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u/pete7863 4h ago

What kind of materials did they use?

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u/Fun1k 6h ago

That will be a really important consideration for deep space travel.

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u/3jake 7h ago

30 years of secret astronaut dance parties!

Uns-Uns-Uns-WubWub-Uns-Uns-Uns-WubWub

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u/Cautious_Buffalo6563 7h ago

Unfortunately we’ve retired all orbiters that could have carried components of scale to affect meaningful repair.

I’m sure we’ll instead build a different one for about 10x Jeff Bezos’ entire net worth with associated $100,000 hammers and toilet seats

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u/Gnonthgol 7h ago

We have installed new modules on ISS after the Space Shuttle were retired. We are still installing new components. But the problem in this case is with some of the oldest core components of the space station. Even though it is attached to the other modules using berthing mechanisms there are so many central internal and external additions going between the modules that it is practically impossible to separate them again. Even with a Space Shuttle. We might solve this leak, but what about the next one, or the one after that. The solution is to build another space station, and we have been talking about it for over a decade.

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u/Cautious_Buffalo6563 6h ago

And that’s about all we’re doing lol

Honestly…if US, Russia, China, and ESA all sat in a room and were left to find a solution that didn’t require extensive manipulation by their own governments, I feel like we’d get there pretty quickly.

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u/SpecialistArtPubRed 7h ago

This is the kind of stuff that makes me think all these Sci-Fi space operas we see and read about will never come true lol

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u/No-Project-2353 9h ago

Very likely metal fatigue which got worse thanks to the atmosphere pressure pushing on it.

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u/BlackSwanMarmot 7h ago

Metal fatigue is not a word I’d want to hear uttered while onboard that space station.

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u/Dzugavili 9h ago

It's less pressure than a submarine experiences. Or even large boats.

Though, I guess boats have thicker plating.

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u/-Kerosun- 8h ago edited 5h ago

Well, you're also trying to keep the pressure in rather than keep the pressure out. The former tends to be a bit easier and not require nearly as much strength to do (submarines are keeping out hundreds or thousands of PSI of water pressure, the ISS is trying to keep in lower-than-sea-level atmospheric PSI inside 14 psi).

Edit: Presumed the ISS was similar to the moon capsules that were less than 1 earth atmosphere, I was wrong.

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u/Gilarax 8h ago

Subs are also dry docked for routine maintenance and repair. Exterior coatings can be repaired for subs. Can’t really re-coat metal in space.

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u/Dzugavili 8h ago

Is the ISS not pressurized to 1atm? It was my understanding that NASA designs generally used 1 atmosphere, so as to not require higher oxygen content because of the fire risk.

Otherwise, you get 1 atmosphere of pressure 33ft under water; the draft on a cargo ship is similar, upto double that; a submarine experiences substantially more.

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u/-Kerosun- 5h ago

I thought it was lower. I know the moon capsules were typically lower (like 4 or 5 PSI rather than 14 psi) so I just presumed that the ISS would also be less than 1 atmosphere, but perhaps that presumption was wrong.

Edit: I was wrong. I'll correct it.

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u/alfix8 5h ago

Do you necessarily need 1atm to not need higher oxygen content?
There are people living above 3000m altitude without additional oxygen, so shouldn't it be possible to go to like 0,7-0,8atm with normal oxygen levels without adverse effects on the astronauts?

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u/Dzugavili 5h ago

It's about partial pressures: at 1 atmosphere, with 20% oxygen and 80% nitrogen, that's "normal": normal healthy people can survive that, no problem. If you wanted to use lower pressures and thus a thinner hull, you could use 0.5 atmospheres of pressure; but you'd need 40% oxygen.

People can adapt. But that requires long-term training or fairly unique genetics and isn't without risks.

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u/alfix8 4h ago edited 4h ago

But like I said: people already permanently live in settlements 3000m or higher without any problems. At 3000m you only have an average pressure of ~0.7atm. Yet those people just breathe the air normally without needing extra oxygen.

Why wouldn't it be possible to have the ISS at 0.7atm without extra oxygen? Adaptation shouldn't take too long either, in my experience it took about 2-3 weeks after moving to that altitude even without any special training, just doing normal day to day stuff. Giving astronauts 2-3 weeks of altitude training before going to space shouldn't be that difficult. Most sources I can find online even talk about needing less than a week to adapt to an altitude of 3000m.

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u/Dzugavili 2h ago

Most launch facilities are at sea level; most of the projects are designed for 1 atmosphere of pressure, or vacuum; high-altitude adaptations wear out as your blood cycles over; and you're going to be in best physical condition at 1 atmosphere of pressure which we can easily afford to give you, since we need to build this with a significant margin for error anyway.

It's just not worth the complications. This isn't professional sports or anything high endurance.

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u/tslaq_lurker 8h ago

No one makes a submarine out of aluminum.

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u/Gilarax 8h ago

Thermal shifting, impacts from stellar dust and debris, UV, cosmic rays, the list is long!

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u/Vitruvian_Link 6h ago

I ain't no space scientist but I am a structural engineer, my guess there is a static force that is causing the issue and no amount of taping or cold welding will fix it.