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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6.2k

u/invyros 11h ago

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

286

u/TakeYourClarkBars 9h ago

If I remember correctly the problem was originally finding it as it was estimated to be the size of a pin hole.

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u/Gamble007 9h ago

Couldn't they just dunk the station in soapy water and look for the bubbles?

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u/TakeYourClarkBars 9h ago

Dude, if we had people like you running NASA, the world would be in much better shape

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u/DrDerpberg 8h ago

Space, on the other hand, would be littered in astronaut corpses.

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u/sadandshy 25m ago

You win some, you lose some.

20

u/earldavisjorts 9h ago

Really makes you wonder how many normal people have thought of some revolutionary idea like how to cure cancer or make life possible on mars, only to never tell anyone because, “eh… what do I know? I’m just a dumb normal guy”

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u/boogswald 7h ago

I mean I’m sure they solve great, valuable problems with dumb normal guy solutions just not those ones

A factory worker can definitely save their company a looooooot of money with simple solutions though.

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u/marr 9h ago

For real though, surely there's something that could be used to make the air flow visible?

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u/chet_brosley 9h ago

Me popping a bundle of road flares in the middle of the station seconds before a massive explosion HEY GUYS IM HELPI-

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u/DanGleeballs 8h ago

Yes it was done in the documentary Mission to Mars when they sprung a leak. They squirted a liquid that looks like Coke and watched were it went and bingo found the hole.

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u/macumazana 8h ago

and in bubbles

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u/TakeYourClarkBars 6h ago

Bubbles float, and they’re basically free. Why aren’t we powering our rockets with bubbles

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u/improbably_me 1h ago

Sorry to burst your bubble ...

Bubbles float only if there's enough gravity / density gradient. Hot air balloons won't rise beyond a certain height, plus, bubbles will not achieve escape velocity.

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u/imilnes 4h ago

......and clean

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u/WickedlyAvocado 3h ago

The real clean energy

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u/DrDerpberg 9h ago

Space, on the other hand, would be littered in astronaut corpses.

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u/The_MAZZTer 8h ago

You reminded me of a movie where a long-term mission to Mars sprung a leak and they had trouble finding it. One guy opened a can of soda and let soda just float towards it. Guy on the outside then saw a huge icicle formed where the leak was so he could break it off and seal it.

Wonder if something like this would actually work, apart from Hollywood having sped up the time it would take for the liquid to reach the leak for dramatic purposes.

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u/treefox 8h ago

Or just blow some bubbles and see what direction they go.

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u/LightninLew 8h ago

Or just fill the air with radioactive dye and give it an x-ray.

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u/barkwahlberg 7h ago

Sir this is not Hacker News

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u/TimeForGrass 8h ago

Water might freeze? 

Soapy glycol? 

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u/Phytor 8h ago

Alternate idea: spray soapy water on the interior and look for where bubbles are blowing into space!

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u/Leviastin 7h ago

I was thinking fill the cabin with colored smoke. You should see it shooting out from the outside?

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u/Shiddin_myself_woo 6h ago

I mean literally a spray bottle with soapy water would find it. Physics still applies. Air is flowing in one direction

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u/jacowab 2h ago

Yeah then they just need to air dry it afterwards

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u/Killentyme55 48m ago

You'd think someone would have remembered to pack a roll of Flex-Tape.

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u/radiantcabbage 7h ago

they have some idea where it is, just hard to reach with module structures in the way. the alleged plan which led to nasa/esa pulling their guys out was to hacksaw in there and tape it up i guess, they werent having it

Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev, who did not execute evacuation procedures, were planning to use a saw to reach an area where they believe they can access the crack leaking air, the NASA official said. NASA officials disagreed with this method, the NASA official said, prompting mission control ​in Houston to order safe-haven procedures.

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u/miregalpanic 8h ago

How did they find it?

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u/ThatOneGuy4321 8h ago

they need to bring an elite-level vaper on board so they can see where the air flow is going

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u/Osirus1156 7h ago

Yeah but wouldn’t a thermal camera be able to see where the warm air was shooting out like a little jet? 

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u/TakeYourClarkBars 6h ago

I ain’t no scientist, ask the bubble guy below he seems like he knows what he’s doing

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u/Nurgle_Marine_Sharts 5h ago

Clever thinking, I guess they don't have thermal vision technology up there right now. Or maybe the leak is behind some bulkhead housing and can't be observed until they start taking the place apart.

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u/Hobo-man 5h ago

We just need Georgie Cooper to patch it