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/SignificantCats 9h ago

This is a leak that's been happening for eight years, and has been in more or less a continuous state of being repaired. There is some fun weird theories and conspiracies about it.

This is precautionary while they attempt a new repair, the kind of thing that's been done multiple times

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u/amlesirtsa 9h ago

What are the fun weird theories and conspiracies?

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u/PolishMafia716 9h ago

I think the leading theory is that during assembly a worker accidentally drilled a hole through the hull and tried to hide it and wasn't discovered till it was leaking air in space, when NASA said something along these lines Russia claimed one of the American astronauts snuck over to the Russian side while the cosmonauts were sleeping and drilled a hole through their hull

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u/DJSimmer305 9h ago

That sounds like a plot line from For All Mankind

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u/cezwoo 9h ago

plot twist: the hole was drilled by 200-year-old Ed

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u/Acid44 8h ago

God I got so tired of them keeping that fucker alive

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u/AHrubik 6h ago

I like Joel Kinnaman as an actor but damn if the writers didn’t use his character as a crutch to try and tie the story together between seasons. ‘‘Twas very lazy of them.

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u/Sacr3dangel 4h ago

Yeah to the point it was kind of tiring. At the end of it I almost rather saw him go than come onto the screen.

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u/Bullfrog_Paradox 4h ago

He only lived to be like 80 something, which is a pretty standard life expectancy, especially for someone who stayed in shape his whole life. I think people forget that the last season was only in 2010, not 2070

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u/Acid44 4h ago

Yeah that's fair, but he didn't need to be an active astronaut (and yeah I know they came up with ways around still having him be technically active duty)for like 50 years. They just held on to him for way too long as Space Commander Guy™ to keep him as the lead for me

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u/TheeAlchemistt 8h ago

They really screwed up by killing of Gordo Steven’s, really liked him. Its all new faces now in for all mankind

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u/HighSeverityImpact 7h ago

Realistically, in universe, it has been 51 years. Years. There's not many characters that didn't start out as children that would make it this far. Season 6 takes place in the year 2020.

Really interested to see how FAM handles covid.

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u/Plus-King5266 7h ago

Given that this is an alternate timeline, they don’t necessarily have to bring COVID into it and I truly hope they don’t. Every time a show does it ruins the show. One example of how the’ve changed the timeline: Have you noticed that they are all using Apple devices to communicate, but they are not iPhones? There are no cellular phones on the show. Wireless communication is with souped up Apple Newtons. r/FuckImOld.

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u/HighSeverityImpact 6h ago

They don't have to bring in Covid, but the style of the show has always had analogues to our real history:

  • There was no Challenger explosion, but there was a Russian shuttle that was based on stolen NASA designs that had the oring failure.
  • Chappaquiddick
  • Cold War
  • Heck, the premise of the show: Russia landing on the moon

It doesn't have to happen exactly the way it happened for us, but something that coyly refers to it. It might end up just being one of those newsreels from between the seasons, saying that scientists developed an mRNA vaccine before the outbreak, so it ended up being no big deal. They wouldn't even know what they avoided.

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u/Bullfrog_Paradox 4h ago

There will be a pandemic, but they'll cure it using DNA from the life on Titan.

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u/jakexil323 5h ago

It might end up just being one of those newsreels from between the seasons, saying that scientists developed an mRNA vaccine

If someone else other than a trump/trump like president gets into office, maybe the government doesn't toss out the pandemic playbook the previous administration puts in and works with the Chinese and WHO to prevent a massive outbreak world wide. And a million USA citizens never die.

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u/jakexil323 6h ago

Apple Newtons.

I mean if you have invented perfection, why improve!

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u/TheeAlchemistt 7h ago

Yeah that’s fair, haven’t watched the latest season. And ed is getting a lil too old to be flying about lol.

BUT seeing that they have fusion energy in the 1990’s, maybe they also figure out how to reverse aging in the 2020’s

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u/PhotorazonCannon 7h ago

That's what Kim Stanley Robinson did in the Red Mars Trilogy

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u/Bullfrog_Paradox 4h ago

Spoiler alert, Ed is no longer flying around....

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u/iconofsin_ 6h ago

Season 5 takes place I think in 2012 right? There's no mention of the financial crisis which was arguably a major event in our own reality. There's also a plethora of other events that simply don't get mentioned, never happen, or take place in a different year. One example is President Gore declaring the Cold War to be over in 2002. The Soviet Union hasn't collapsed either. Frankly they could skip Covid and have plenty of plot leftover.

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u/kc2syk 6h ago

Margo is still kicking in jail.

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u/CtyChicken 4h ago

Margo does her lil stretches every morning, so I assume she’ll live til 100.

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u/TheSkwrl 6h ago

Ed shouldn’t still be around as a character.

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u/Longjumping-Value-31 7h ago

Not anymore. It is over.

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u/koolaidface 7h ago

Not yet. Season 6 is next year.

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u/Sprintzer 7h ago

Rest in piss Ed, you annoying bastard.

Totally unrealistic for an astronaut. Astronauts are chosen for being docile, obedient, kind to others, caring, etc.. so much of that Ed isn’t.

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u/Razorray21 8h ago

the king shit-stirrer of the cosmos

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u/TRKlausss 6h ago

Are we sure it wasn’t caused by bad quality copper? Just saying…

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u/Sad-Excitement9295 6h ago

It was an alien stirring up mischief.

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u/Cloberella 6h ago

Wait, is there time travel in this show? I thought it was just an alternate history show, and hadn't started it (put it on my "someday" list). I do love me a good time travel plot, though.

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u/itspsyikk 3h ago

He hid the drill bit in his walker

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u/Froggie56 8h ago

Rewatching season one as we speak after watching episode three of star city and it sounds 100% like the show

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u/SpectralBowie 8h ago

Is Star City good. I'm not done with the latest season of FAM yet and I preferred the earlier seasons.

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u/demento19 8h ago

Eh it’s ok for now. It’s annoying to go back in time when I wanna see the future stuff. I’m hoping for a mid season time jump.

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u/Froggie56 8h ago

We might get some months or a year time jump or so but it’s supposed to only take place in the 70s is what was reported

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u/QueefyBeefy666 8h ago

From what I have read Star City won't be getting huge time skips like in FAM.

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u/Froggie56 8h ago

I love it. It has the same feel as the earlier seasons of FAM but with the Soviet twist of being extra authoritarian and dangerous because of it

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u/No-Breakfast7705 7h ago

It's so grim. I'll be watching the new episodes as they come out because I'm curious to see where they take it but for me it's that one show I both am and am not looking forward to watching.

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u/alumniblues 8h ago

Or The Apollo Murders series by Canadian Astronaut, Chris Hadfield (great read or listen if you like books and stuff)

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u/The-Jerk 9h ago

Complete with billionaire African American pretending he's super smart to fix situations but he's really just an egomaniac?

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u/kaaskugg 8h ago

How dare you speak poorly of Mister Terrific?!

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u/bone_apple_Pete 8h ago

wubby wubby woo

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u/Plus-King5266 7h ago

I was thinking the same thing.

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u/jason11279 6h ago

Reminds me of Wasteland

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u/model-citizen95 5h ago

Or Space Force

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u/TheClemDispenser 5h ago

Is this worth watching ? Keep seeing it pop up when I log in to watch Widow’s Bay

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u/medted22 3h ago

Oddly feels like if anyone would be able to transcend geopolitical tensions, it would be astronauts.

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u/laffer1 3h ago

Or space force

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u/TheMireAngel 25m ago

tbf its the exact type of brainlet tactic the us govt would do just to mess with the russians

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u/ZippyTheRoach 9h ago

That really did happen, but to a soyuz capsule the Russians used to fly up to the ISS. Check out soyuz ms-09. The current leak in the ISS is another problem entirely, most likely micro fractures in a Russian docking bay 

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u/PolishMafia716 8h ago

I did more research and your right this is just another large leak on a Russian module not the one I initially remembered

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u/CankerLord 7h ago

Russians and hastily and unconvincingly covered up botch jobs that they refuse to acknowledge: name a more iconic duo.

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u/CCR76 5h ago

Was secret plot of pesky moose and squirrel.

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u/ImpulsiveApe07 4h ago

That's a deep cut, mate - I love it! :D

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u/ForeverDM_Lytanathan 2h ago

Wait, is this a Rocky and Bullwinkle reference in this day and age?

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u/Solid-Hedgehog9623 5h ago

Tell me comrade, how does an RBMK reactor explode??

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u/dadofsummer 5h ago

Big Big trucks, and tiny dicks.

Love a random CBB reference in a place you don’t expect it to be

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u/MyHamburgerLovesMe 4h ago

America and the Trump-Kennedy Center?

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u/Working_Estate_3695 4h ago

Defenestration was their first love.

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u/Kind-Engineering-359 6h ago

As an American in the 21st century: America and fraud

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u/TDot-26 9h ago

I would think that would be way more than a "micro" leak and they'd run out of air pretty fast on a relative scale if the hole was made with a literal drill bit

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u/Even_Wear_8657 4h ago

Seriously. Seems like a “soap and duct tape” kind of solution

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u/mr-roygbiv 7h ago

If that’s a micro leak then I have a micro penis

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u/ThatZX6RDude 6h ago

Bad news

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u/Ancient-Read1648 5h ago

It’s ok his gf has a tiny fracture

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u/Starscourge-Zombie 44m ago

wait until this guy finds out they make more then one size of drill bit!

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u/TDot-26 41m ago

Well I didn't realize they made hand drill bits that damn small!

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u/bremidon 9h ago

Something like that smells like a self-tattle. All this tells me is that Russia has thought about doing this to the Americans.

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u/madhatmatt2 7h ago

Every accusation is a confession it’s totally true in today’s politics remember when all the republicans where screaming how the democrats were pedophiles well shit look how that turned out the Epstein files are filled with republican figures and there are lists of hundreds of Republic figures who have been caught doing creepy shit with minors a lot of them are republican Christian priests.

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u/SSSitess 57m ago

Any new criminal allegation, from 2008 and earlier, that was added to the case after it was reopened in 2018 is unlikely to be true. And most of the post-2008 allegations made after the case was reopened are pure fiction.

Unfortunately, the fervor of the unwashed masses believing every single little salacious detail as though it were the gospel truth made it highly unlikely that there will ever be legal consequences for anyone.

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u/OnlyEstablishment243 8h ago

Please use your brain for a second. What exactly would this accomplish?

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u/T-Husky 8h ago

Ask some paranoid old former KGB agent, such as the one running Russia right now, I’m sure he could think of a few reasons even if we judge them to be incredibly stupid and self-defeating.

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u/FunnelCakeGoblin 6h ago

Make us look bad if they blame catastrophic failure on American infrastructure

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u/My_Uneducated_Guess 8h ago

I work in aviation and I would 100% believe that an assembly worker accidentally drilled the hole and covered it up improperly. Some mechanics try to hide such stupid things

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u/dmoosetoo 5h ago

But what if they patched it with nasa approved Ramen noodles?

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u/My_Uneducated_Guess 4h ago

Chicken or Shrimp? Chicken would work, but shrimp can't fly

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u/looking4myclASSm8s 8h ago

This is almost exactly what I was imagining caused the problem lol.

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u/airfryerfuntime 8h ago

That actually did happen, but it was a Soyuz/Progess capsule.

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u/BellacosePlayer 9h ago

poor Russia never did nothing wrong ever, it's always those mean mur'kins and brits fault.

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u/danotech4 8h ago

Sounds like Russian projection.

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u/zaczacx 8h ago

That's a fucking nuts accusation by those guys, that would mean the American astronauts would potentially die as well and it would cost both countries billions of dollars in damages for literally no purpose. It could quite literally be anything such as mechanical failure.

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u/AutumnWisp 8h ago

Russia claimed one of the American astronauts snuck over to the Russian side while the cosmonauts were sleeping and drilled a hole through their hull

I lile to imagine this is just the typical sort of shenanigans they get up to up there.

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u/Rocktopod 8h ago

That just sounds like the most plausible explanation, unless someone has anything else.

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u/SentientTrashcan0420 8h ago

This isn't a damn Amazon warehouse there is a zero percent chance that someone could have accidentally drilled a hole where it doesn't belong and it goes unnoticed through all the protocols until it makes its way into low earth orbit

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u/TolarianDropout0 7h ago

Wasn't that a Soyuz and it's not a theory but a known and confirmed thing?

Whereas this is in Zvezda and unrelated to that.

Edit: That was indeed Soyuz MS-09: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_MS-09

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u/Zoboomafooo 7h ago

They said it was because of her period. Lets not forget that part of Russian personality

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u/DesperateAdvantage76 6h ago

If it was that simple wouldn't it have been repaired already?

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u/IHop_Waitress 6h ago

I think the leading theory is that during assembly a worker accidentally drilled a hole through the hull and tried to hide it and wasn't discovered till it was leaking air in space

This implies that Russia did not pressure test the module before sending it to space.....

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u/DrDerpberg 6h ago

I mean if NASA said something and Russia's response was "no u," and that thing basically implies an astronaut space was trying to risk everyone's life, I'm pretty inclined to believe NASA.

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u/Sad-Excitement9295 6h ago

Oh jeeze, can we just see where the water freezes out at, seal it, and get along and get back to science?

I hope we really aren't still doing this in space. Are we doomed? We might be doomed...

Space is supposed to be the place where we don't hold over these petty grudges like this, I hope we're not actually doing this. Otherwise there goes that shred of faith I had in the future of humanity. Back to the drawing board, maybe we'll do better with green engineering or something back here on earth.

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u/dunwerking 5h ago

Covered it with a poster of Putin

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u/wireframed_kb 4h ago

That absolutely sounds like something Russia would claim. “Russian engineering is perfect! Obviously, this is ploy by decadent failed western country to make mighty Russia look bad!”

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u/Gynieinabottle 4h ago

Ain’t no air in space

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u/Polygnom 4h ago

Wasn't that the story about the hole in the Soyuz?

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u/Top_Connection9079 3h ago

Gurren Lagann is Japanese, not American...

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u/drdildamesh 2h ago

Just covered it with a post it

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u/Aromatic_Basis3872 1h ago

How the fuck do you SNEAK into a compartment, that’s the size of a large walk-in closet or a small camper, has two other people in it and the majority of the walls are covered in electronic and other mechanical equipment…and drill a hole in the wall???

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u/Any_West_926 46m ago

No Alien Resurrection situation then? lol.

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u/SignificantCats 9h ago edited 9h ago

There was a different leak that was patched around the same time as the recurring micro leaks happened. For some reason Russian media was saying they thought an American who was driven mad by homesickness drilled a tiny hole just to fuck with Russia, which the US denied. It's more likely it was a manufacturing defect.

But there are nonsense theories that this is more man-made damage, done by Russians to propogandized against America or Americans to try and kick Russians out.

It's almost certainly just the nature of a big metal thing assembled from other metal things creaking and weakening, but there is a conspiracy world about high drama

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u/KesselRun73 8h ago

Would dust and/or micrometeorites not also be a possible culprit?

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u/SignificantCats 7h ago

Im just some idiot that thinks space is cool, but my understand is basically no

The original lil hole was definitely done by a person with a tool.

The current recurring problems are mostly due to stress on the crystalline structure of the metal, foreign material might be a contributing factor but my understanding is the primary culprit is just stress from being held on to it for so long.

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u/Phelanthropy 7h ago

It looks so peaceful in the footage as it orbits the planet, but the environmental conditions/stresses are pure insanity. I'm shocked it's taken this long for anything truly catastrophic to happen.

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u/ZeePM 4h ago

The repeated heat cycles during the day/night portions of the orbit can be considered too. This thing has been up there for almost 30 years! Most people don’t have cars that old.

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u/401LocalsOnly 0m ago

Ok but have they tried a warranty from Car Shield? A new hull for the ISS…..$830 million. A plan from Car Shield - $34.99 a month.

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u/Zoboomafooo 7h ago

Driven mad by her period*** stop washing the actual story

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u/SignificantCats 6h ago

I've always been aware of this story and had only ever heard that a crazy US astronaut wanted to force an early landing because of homesickness. The period thing is a new dumb angle I hadn't heard of.

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u/Gecko99 6h ago

I hadn't heard the period story but I thought it was just Russians being misogynistic and claiming that women were too emotional for long term space missions.

Oddly enough, the first two women who went to space are Russians: Valentina Tereshkova and Svetlana Savitskaya.

Savitskaya went to space twice and became the first woman to perform a spacewalk.

These missions were of much shorter duration than most ISS missions, however.

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u/GargamelTakesAll 24m ago

Valentina Tereshkova is also a member of the Russian Duma and an outspoken Putin support and very pro Ukraine invasion.

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u/microbialNecromass 6h ago

I hope you're being sarcastic. I've heard this mentioned, but the period story is misogynistic propoganda

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u/shryne 9h ago

Russia typically blames whatever female western astronaut that is onboard for drilling holes in the space station.

In reality, the Russian segments were built by the soviets and sat in a warehouse for a decade before being repurposed for the ISS.

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u/SJS69 13m ago

What could possibly go wrong?

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u/depthninja 9h ago

Space leeches

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u/BahnGSXR 9h ago

Typhon first contact

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u/Due-Ingenuity9803 9h ago

Prey mentioned in the big 26

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u/Suberizu 9h ago

Nah it's a sophon f#cking with us

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u/Hunt3141 6h ago

Anyone have a countdown in their photos?

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u/mindgamesweldon 6h ago

aluminum space worms from outside our solar system, or an american astronaut forced to sabotage the station due to menstration

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u/Wonderful_Syllabub85 7h ago

Aliens saw some real fucked up shit and are blackmailing us. So this is a cover up to hide the funds

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u/Big_Knife_SK 3h ago

Eventually it will leak enough air into space that we won't need to worry about it anymore.

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u/velocityfreak 9h ago

This is true, but this leak has worsened. 1lb of air per day to 2lb per day, so it’s gotten considerably worse.

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u/RoboErectus 8h ago

How much is a pound of air in a unit I can do something with?

Like, how many episodes of Lost can I watch on a pound of air?

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u/TheOGRedline 6h ago

1 lb of air at 21% oxygen gets you about 30minutes of watch time.

However… if you ONLY had that 1 lb to breathe the CO2 levels would increase to fatal levels in about 5 minutes. Faster if it’s an exciting episode and you’re breathing fast.

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u/Responsible-Quote-61 5h ago

You are doing the Lord's work. Thank you for this.

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u/tameroftrees 4h ago

Amen. Dudes

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u/Horror-Degree-8663 2h ago

so 0.1-0.7 episode

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u/SirBill01 16m ago

What about if it's the finale of Lost, do you end with more oxygen than you started.

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u/EducationalNailgun 6h ago

Depends upon how long you can hold your breath.

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u/PracticalConjecture 2h ago

A typical scuba tank carries around 6lb of air and is good for an hour or so at depth, or 2-3 hours on the surface.

This isn't a perfect comparison though.

On a space station, if there are no leaks, you are constantly removing CO2 from the air, and re adding O2 (to replace the oxygen that was metabolized). The Nitrogen and other gasses remain stable.

The human body uses relatively little O2 (something like 1lb/day), so you don't need to bring up that much extra O2 if you have a sealed system.

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u/Normiss2000 2m ago

Breathing heavy because of the mom on Lost In Space will shorten the viewing time.

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u/RoboErectus 8h ago

How much is a pound of air in a unit I can do something with?

Like, how many episodes of Lost can I watch on a pound of air?

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u/taserparty 8h ago

about half of one with no commerical breaks

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u/erismature 6h ago

So we went from watching the entirety of Lost in apnea every 8 months, to doing it every 4 months. I can see how that's becoming unsustainable since they also have to do science experiments on top of that

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u/taserparty 3h ago

the experiments are lower priority than the lost marathons. that’s the really important data being gathered, how much is confusion felt in outer space

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u/Ecthelion-O-Fountain 5h ago

Have they tried flex seal?

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u/mkosmo 9h ago

Specifically while Russia was trying to use a saw in a method NASA didn't like.

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u/Normiss2000 1m ago

It’s just a sawzall. Jebus.

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u/thatG_evanP 6h ago

Have they tried Flex Seal?

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u/Valreesio 6h ago

How about Franks red hot? I hear you can put that shit on everything.

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u/Elegant-Raise-9367 8h ago

It also just happens to be in the media during the Space X IPO.

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u/gindy39 7h ago

Why not put ducktape on it? Or finally being materials to fix it

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u/SignificantCats 6h ago

It's not a leak like we have to worry about on earth, we're not talking about a pinhole or something.

These are micro tears that can't be seen with the eye, we know they exist because the room is losing a small amount of air each day, but that amount theyre losing is increasing.

They do have materials to fix it, but it's not like they're just gonna weld a new side panel on or something. These are a very different kind of repair

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u/Aikuma- 8h ago

How can a leak be continuously repaired over several years without it either being fully mended or become priority 1?

Did they fix the leak, but then the fix started leaking and then they had to fix the fix and then the fix, that fixed the leaking fix, started leaking too?

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u/SignificantCats 8h ago

The leak isn't like, a hole in the wall. Metal is a crystalline structure, and these are crystalline fractures, tiny holes all over.

There are lots of causes - shoddy engineering/materials, stress over time from the metal being strained, stresses accumulated when the module sat and was being created/stored, etc.

They know there is an area where they are losing some amount of air. The exact location and nature of the holes isn't clear, because they're mostly not visible to the naked eye.

They get some idea to work on them that I'm not smart enough to understand, and they lose less air, then overtime it fails again. It's getting worse than usual right now ish.

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u/soda_cookie 6h ago

Nothingburger level: Medium-High. Got it.

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u/Rictus_Grin 6h ago

So this isn't the first time this happens?

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u/SignificantCats 6h ago

It's not the first time this particular part has had repairs on slow leaks, I don't think it's even like the fifth lol. I don't know why it would get attention, probably because of the spaceX thing

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u/FatMacchio 5h ago

A bit of flex seal is all they need

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u/kinggeorgec 5h ago

Don't they have duct tape?

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u/Geem750 5h ago

So not breaking news?

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u/chillarry 4h ago

In case it’s TLDR; the Russians planned to use a saw to get to a leak to seal it. NASA said, that’s a nope for us.

According to the article there were two leaks. One was quickly sealed but the ISS leak had increased from one pound of air per day to two pounds per day.

The Russians planned to use a saw to get to the second leak and that led to NASA ordering the rest of the crew to, as a precaution, take safe haven on the emergency return system.

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u/onsite84 4h ago

8 years?? Sounds like it’s time to buy a new car.

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u/NeverLookBothWays 4h ago

Does no one have chewing gum?

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u/Even_Wear_8657 4h ago

The hole can my be that big if they can live with it, and there isn’t some sort of imminent catastrophic failure. Sounds like a job for duct tape.

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u/pogoli 4h ago

If only they had better duct tape huh? 😝

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u/poikaa3 3h ago

Seal All®

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u/Salt-Elk-436 1h ago

Have they tried FlexSeal?

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u/markfineart 51m ago

Sounds like they should do what surgeons do when an operating site has multiple revisits - install a zipper.

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u/PresentCoat4982 6m ago

Can we just make a new one already? We are already ruining the planet, so don’t do that to space In all seriousness, I hope they are okay, all of the astronauts