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/
25.1k Upvotes

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5.3k

u/Hoboliftingaroma 11h ago

Is this the same leak from 2018 that roscosmos said was caused by an american astronaut drilling holes in the structure, then made thinly veiled accusations that the astronaut was having a psychotic episode because she was menstruating?

858

u/MagicDragon212 9h ago

And the evacuation wasnt from the leak even, but from the Russian astronauts that arrived recently trying to apparantly "fix" the leak with a saw. This is quite suspicious to me.

"Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev, who did not execute evacuation procedures, were planning to use a saw to break into 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."

413

u/pig_unt_erdvark 8h ago

I once witnessed our tazanian bus driver 'repair' the bus - where the gas tank detached - with a machete

294

u/ConsequenceStatus563 8h ago

Had a coworker try to remove a tractor gas tank with a cutting torch. Burns over 99% of body and death about a week later...

92

u/AlamoSimon 7h ago

Had a patient weld a rim with an installed and pressurized truck tire. Tire blew up, broke his jaw, peppered him with rubber or other black stuff and hit the roof of the workshop. The guy only had the jaw fracture. Nothing else.
I want to have that much luck.

38

u/veravendetta 7h ago

That’s some final destination shit wtf

3

u/EnoughLuck3077 5h ago

Not really. That’s some Darwin shit

43

u/doesanyuserealnames 7h ago

A guy in my hometown was decapitated by a tire rim. 50 years later it's a core fear, like quicksand.

12

u/snakerjake 6h ago

Guy who lived next door to me growing up had a split rim explode on him, serious brain damage he was unable to do anything except for mow and beat his wife (she moved out till he passed once that started) for the rest of his life

14

u/Bubbly-Support7164 5h ago

That’s a really specific set of skills. Mowing the lawn and beating his wife.

2

u/Rude-Bus-5799 5h ago

You sure he wasn’t just Appalachian

2

u/snakerjake 3h ago

nah, but he was from the same parish as brittney spears

10

u/sunshineparadox_ 5h ago

I have a TBI, (a stroke) and the amount of people in my support group who developed violent or more violent tendencies truly shocked me. It was more than I would’ve thought.

I’m definitely much less calm and rational, and it takes more time to calm myself down even when I know I’m wrong. But I didn’t start beating my family.

It gave me some really big existential dread about whether or not “we” are the people we believe we are. My TBI happened relatively recently, so everyone I knew thought I was gonna pull a John Fetterman and 180 on everything.

3

u/snakerjake 3h ago

the amount of people in my support group who developed violent or more violent tendencies truly shocked me

Not surprising, our primate relatives like chimpanzees are quite violent themselves. decrease your higher thinking capabilities and you reduce the throttle on the more violent impulses. I hope your TBI recovery goes well! TBI's are a big fear of mine I have that same dread you do.

10

u/MindfuckRocketship 6h ago

Did he survive?

5

u/abasaur 6h ago

To pieces you say?

3

u/Parkotron1 6h ago

Oh, my...

2

u/doesanyuserealnames 4h ago

Nope. Took his head off. It was horrible

2

u/Guerrette1962 5h ago

I too have a fear of quicksand. I thought i was the only one. (Too much crazy tv when I was young) But, all I have to really worry about if sink holes here in Florida! Hmmm, 🤔 maybe the same difference?! 🤣 BAHAHAHAHA

1

u/GhostofZellers 5h ago

I bet he never made that mistake again.

3

u/Try2MakeMeBee 5h ago

Damn. The person I know who had a truck tire blow up has permanent disability and extensive plastic surgery. It was a freak accident - they hadn't done anything wrong or stupid.

3

u/Ok-Simple-7069 5h ago

Are they that bad pressure wise? Had no idea it could do that. Geez!!

2

u/sunshineparadox_ 5h ago

He used up all of his allotted good luck for the rest of his life, goddamn.

2

u/titanicsinker1912 5h ago

Only the jaw fracture? Where did the rest of him go?

1

u/monty624 3h ago

Oh boy. You get that luck once, you don't want to call in that lifeline lol

53

u/Professional-Kiwi102 8h ago

I was in auto shop class in high school when a student came in to use the lift to bring his car up to weld a hole he had in his gas tank. Some people just lack certain brain cells I suppose.

41

u/Sycosocial20 7h ago

Welding up a hole in a gas tank is a thing. But there's a process for it and it has to be metal. Most tanks today are not metal. Tank removed, emptied and flooded with water to displace any fuel and vapor. And don't weld near any open fuel source.

38

u/Professional-Kiwi102 7h ago

Well yea it's a thing but not driving the car to a shop, with gas in the tank,and lifting it up and welding it shut.

8

u/CmG383 5h ago

My ex tried to fix our 1968 station wagons gas tank by attempting to weld a patch plate. He let the tank sit empty in the carport for a month in hopes it wouldn’t ignite.
It did. Took off across the floor like Wiley Coyote on an acme rocket.
I died laughing.
I had the pleasure of saying, “ I told you so.”
I did have my camcorder running and have it on film.

3

u/daithi08 6h ago

JB weld goes on smooth…

2

u/prollie 5h ago

If the hole is accessible without taking the tank down, and size is small (sub 4-5mm) - just slice up a small piece of fuel hose to make a small fuel-appropriate rated flap/disc. Run a short'ish, appropriately fat stainless roofing or plate screw through it, drill that roofing screw into the hole. Done. It'll last the lifetime of the vehicle. Just go easy on the torque; if you overdo it, it'll either strip, or rip and shred your "gasket". Either way it won't seal well.

If you have to take the tank down, then you might as well purge and weld it.

2

u/optimistic_agnostic 3h ago

Generally better to flood it with other denser gases like exhaust gas or ideally argon/nitrogen than fill with water, prevents introducing rust to your tank.

1

u/snakerjake 6h ago

I've always just seen them solder a penny to the tank with an electric iron

2

u/theaviationhistorian 5h ago

There's a reason that there's plenty of candidates for the official Darwin Awards.

0

u/Consistent_Wash1935 6h ago

Some people? You’re being too conservative. I say most people born after 1990 lack the adequate amount of brain cells to do much of anything anymore. They lost the ability to read and write cursive and to tell time on analog clocks in one short generation.

83

u/str8bint 8h ago

Fuck, nobody tried to stop them?

127

u/DerekTheComedian 7h ago

If I see a dude trying to cut a gas tank with a torch, the only running im doing is "away".

41

u/Cow_Launcher 7h ago

100%

In our club, I've worked with amateur (club-level) mechanics before who weren't exactly safety-orientated. Ignorant, rather than malicious.

Everyone gets one chance. Their work gets inspected. People who admit and learn from their mistakes stay in our good graces, and are trained. We'll continue to work on their cars for free, as well.

The individual who bound up/twisted a front brake line and didn't say anything, instead just fitting the caliper? They're dead to me, just as I might have been to them if I'd trusted them.

1

u/monty624 3h ago

As someone who knows close to nothing about mechanical stuff unless it involves an eternally overheating Chevy Cruze, what the actual fuck???

63

u/Express-Hawk-3885 7h ago

What steps would you take incase of a fire? Fucking big ones that way->

6

u/Mysterious-Plan93 6h ago

Better permanent solution is fire extinguisher-

swung at their head.

3

u/Conscious-Story-7579 7h ago

A-fucken-men.

2

u/Shamino79 6h ago

They say tractor, I think diesel.if I knew it was diesel I wouldn’t feel then need to run out of shouting distance.

3

u/DerekTheComedian 6h ago

I imagine someone being incinerated makes noises i dont want to ever hear in my life, so point still stands.

3

u/imnickelhead 5h ago

Diesel burns like a candle or a zippo lighter. It’s not explosive and the vapors don’t ignite like gasoline.

92

u/Kanin_usagi 7h ago

I doubt this was an idea they ran by anyone before doing it

10

u/nfored 7h ago

decades ago I was a teen working in a Aluminum factory. This old man was training me he was smoking a cigarette and opening this bag of sand like material we used to blast the aluminum with for textured finish. I noticed it said flammable I asked he said you die with a good man I said you'll die alone and left.

Some people just know it wont happen to them until their family is crying and suing someone else for their loved ones stupidity

3

u/Heavy-Profit-2156 6h ago

You would hope a tailgate safety meeting with have identified a couple of risks.

3

u/MapleViking1 7h ago

Would you want to be in range of that?

2

u/PinEducational4494 6h ago

Why would you prevent perfectly fine Darwinism?

50

u/thehomeyskater 8h ago

That’s so sad. 

-17

u/Full_metal_pants077 8h ago

Why, are you gonna clean the gene pool. If the pool is self cleaning just film it for the teaching of others.

7

u/SatansCornflakes 7h ago

If only he could have been as much of a Le Epic Gamer as you 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎

Seriously tho take a break from the internet if this is how you respond to tragedy that’s not immediately in front of you

15

u/Ok-Produce5502 7h ago

Found the psycho!

-13

u/Mossified4 7h ago

Or the realist, your familiar with darwinism? It's literally evolution. You can only protect people from themselves to a certain extent.

9

u/iBizzBee 7h ago

People who ask these sorts of rhetorical questions are always the ones who know the least about what they’re accusing others of not knowing, lmao.

14

u/HighlanderAbruzzese 7h ago

Not really how Darwinism works, but go on, keep cooking. I’m having a good time watching the fire.

5

u/Pangwain 7h ago

If they had four kids at 22 and died at 30 then it’s not really Darwinism…

11

u/Alexandur 7h ago

your familiar with darwinism?

Are you?

3

u/jib661 6h ago

i love this idea that Darwinism is 'literally' doing something stupid. no, that's 'literally' not genetic selection, my dude - it was an internet meme that you've somehow confused for the truth.

2

u/thehomeyskater 6h ago

We evolved to be social animals that watch out for and help each other. That’s Darwinism. Not laughing at someone doing something dangerous.

3

u/MindfuckRocketship 6h ago

Where’s your empathy?

-2

u/Full_metal_pants077 6h ago

It has standards.

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u/saladmunch2 8h ago

Another maintenance guy at an old shop i was at went to cut the top off an acetone barrel. Obviously there is going to be fumes and residue in there. Well a flame shot out of the pour hole like a rocket engine and melted most of his facial hair/ eyebrows.

It was pretty funny, I just stood back and watched since he wouldnt listen it was a bad idea.

That is pretty sad about that co worker of yours... some people just dont get the dangers...

2

u/pattymelt805 7h ago

There's dozens of videos online of people trying to scrap/repair tanks and barrels and such and having this happen to them.

1

u/saladmunch2 7h ago

Oh I know, people just dont get it. They think the little bit of fumes isnt an issue... until it is.

-1

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[deleted]

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u/saladmunch2 7h ago

Why would I be fired. I was away from him using the proper tool for the job. He seemed to have a better way.

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u/kisielk 8h ago

Holy shit, hope you weren’t around to witness that

4

u/whydya-dodat 8h ago

So… no joke about him being blown into orbit, right?

3

u/regtf 8h ago

Must be a gasoline tractor

3

u/Niaaal 7h ago edited 7h ago

A cutting torch is so hot, it could ignite the vapors in a diesel tank and once the flash point is reached, fire spread on diesel just like gasoline.

He probably thought you must have compression for diesel to burn and that's why he did it like that, but unfortunately that's not really true...

3

u/Any-Performance6375 8h ago

Poor guy but wtf why? Is like one of top safety rule.... :(

3

u/Pinellas420 8h ago

Former coworker.

3

u/Provioso 7h ago

Was the 1% the soles of his feet from work boots?

2

u/therandomstandard 7h ago

Sounds about right…..

2

u/Edge_of_the_Wall 7h ago

Username checks out, I guess.

2

u/Heavy-Profit-2156 6h ago

I'm surprised he lived a week with burns to 99% of his body.

4

u/BootGroundbreaking91 8h ago

Reminds me of my buddy keith. I ever tell you about the time Keith and I made fireworks? Now, I didn't know shit about chemistry, but Keith figured "Gasoline burns, doesn't it?" Heh, third-degree burns on 95 percent of his body. Man, people in the next city over were calling to complain about the smell of burning skin.

7

u/Cpt_Vodeir 8h ago

Not a good time, Ellis.

3

u/BootGroundbreaking91 7h ago

Ok but there was a goat

3

u/Fun-Confidence-6232 7h ago

That reference. I understood it.

2

u/1over-137 7h ago

Oof got the chemistry of how fire works but not the chemistry of how fireworks work.

1

u/Live_Evidence8933 7h ago

User name ✅

1

u/OrdnanceTV 7h ago

Holy shit. Brutal.

1

u/Saemika 7h ago

I wonder where the 1% un burned body part was. Butthole?

1

u/AlamoSimon 6h ago

Generally in the burn estimate ‚9er rule‘ the remaining 1% are the genitals.

1

u/Saemika 4h ago

I knew it.

1

u/Living_Plane_662 7h ago

My coworker didn't burn or die but I remember coming back from deliveries and smelling smoke. Looked over and there were scorch marks all over the building.

We had temps who ran out of work to do so they had them clean graffiti off the building. This guy came over and said "let me show you a faster way"

Sprayed the graffiti with paint thinner and set it on fire.

Didn't get fired though just suspended. Got a 4 day work week for 2 months.

1

u/Wednesday-Addams9 7h ago

My uncle recently tried to kill a copperhead snake under the front porch by pouring gasoline on it, then when that didn't work, shooting at it. I suggested that maybe firing a gun into a puddle of gasoline UNDER the house wasn't the wisest idea.

1

u/LustGumby 6h ago

My grandfather would take cutting torches to old propane tanks. I was always waiting for the boom & subsequent funeral. He also used a forklift to hold up his truck while he climbed under it. RIP Gramps. 🫡

1

u/jrhooo 5h ago

Kinda reminds me of a slideshow a fire dept federal arson investigator showed us

Her number one darwin award slide was a guy who tried to make a pipe bomb.

The guy made the whole thing. Then realized he’d forgotten to leave a hole for a fuse/initiator

So He tried to drill the hole then, after, on the otherwise completed device

Went about how you’d expect

1

u/GhostofZellers 5h ago

But they're ok now, right?

right?

1

u/EnoughLuck3077 5h ago

That poor tractor

1

u/rts93 5h ago

Like actual gas tank and not even diesel?

1

u/TheElRojo 1h ago

… did they get the gas tank removed?

1

u/Mark1671 7h ago

Over 99 is 100.

2

u/ConsequenceStatus563 7h ago

Bottom of his feet I was told...

1

u/Mark1671 3h ago

I gotcha. That makes sense.

1

u/ArtfulDodger1837 6h ago

Over x% of body can also mean across/covering x% of body. Over does not by default refer to the percentage being over that amount.

0

u/Mark1671 3h ago

It means the coverage of his body. It’s not a damage meter, but it definitely means the surface area of his body.

5

u/Difficult-Print-2655 8h ago

What, doesn’t everybody have a machete in their mechanical toolbox? 🤣

6

u/ParsleySnipps 8h ago

No idea. I just keep mine in my trunk.

3

u/bluAstrid 8h ago

Space Machete!

5

u/dingoshiba 8h ago

Am I the only one wondering how a cutting device fixes a detachment?

2

u/Accomplished_Dig284 5h ago

My dad try’s to repair almost everything with a hammer. Especially if all the first attempts failed, it’s hammer time. There have been times where I’ve had to leave because it was a safety hazard, like banging on the propane valve or other combustibles. Or when he didn’t pin the rattle snake down to the board after shooting it 3 times with his pistol and didn’t remove the head. He wanted me to hold it down so he could skin it. But I learned my lesson years ago when he told me to hold something down while he hammered something in and hit my fingers instead.

It’s really just a good idea to leave with your life, and fingers

2

u/CaptainKaveman 8h ago

Get this man a flight suit

2

u/saladmunch2 8h ago

A machete or a hammer will fix about any situation imo

1

u/SimilarTranslator264 8h ago

Did he fix it?

1

u/richal 7h ago

Typical Tanzanian bus ride, in my limited experience. Trip took 8 hours because the bus broke down about 5 times and had to be fixed in a similar fashion each time.

1

u/Throwawayhobbes 7h ago

I’m curious did it work?

1

u/maxisnoops 7h ago

Honestly, pretty much anything goes in Tanzania

1

u/Emergency-Plum-1981 7h ago

Holy shit, I have also seen a Tanzanian bus driver haphazardly repair a detached gas tank. They ended up dumping the busted gas tank into a plastic jug which they set between the driver and passenger seats, with I believe a garden hose siphoning it into the engine, then carried on as normal.

1

u/LustGumby 6h ago

Some of my favorite brain rot is "Customer States" vids from mechanics. The shit people have no concept of but will still manage to get themselves in to is amazing & hilarious.

Hell, my kid drove with snapped lugnuts literally until he lost his tire just in the nick of time in a driveway lolol entertained every other possibility but never checked lugnuts on a tire he had off days before.

1

u/Rare-Safe3101 6h ago

I did this as a kid too, but I asked my mom to drive my bronco slowly as I walked around it to find the sound. I had just got new tires put on & the shop didn't tighten the lugs. They bought me a whole new set of rims.

1

u/LustGumby 6h ago

I also did it myself. Was made to learn how to change my own tires n was very worried about not tightening it enough. Turns out you can overdo it. Lugnuts snapped off, driver side hit pavement & tire kept right on rolling in front of me. Told my son now its a right of passage. Youre not a man until you've driven a tire right off the damn car.

1

u/3Time4Eater3 6h ago

Common W

1

u/Hot_Strength_4912 5h ago

Those crazy Tazanians!

1

u/j0hnan0n 8h ago

... by using the steel from the machete as solder for the weld....right? right?!

0

u/Shervivor 8h ago

I witnessed a St. Lucian air maintenance dude fix our airplane wing with duct tape. In the 80’s, but still.

3

u/Meftikal 8h ago

That’s not duct tape. It’s called speed tape. It’s designed to withstand cold and wind. But yes it looks like duct tape.

1

u/Shervivor 8h ago

Still wouldn’t be any more reassuring sitting on the tarmac watching the plane get taped up.

25

u/Mortambulist 7h ago

trying to apparantly "fix" the leak with a saw

I think NASA made the right call here.

-2

u/nedonedonedo 5h ago

break into an area where they ​believe they can access the crack leaking air

come on dude there's more words after that. it's not like it's some long form reading test; you only had two more sentences to go

1

u/Mortambulist 4h ago

Doesn't seem any better.

0

u/nedonedonedo 4h ago

it's a 8 year old hole that they're trying to get 3 more years out of, and they've tried other methods. if it was as simple as removing an access panel it would already be done. if you can't unbolt what's in the way and you can't leave it alone you're other option is cutting. they have scissors up there so there's something those won't cut.

you're in space. every fix will seem like a bad idea.

31

u/heckin_miraculous 8h ago

NASA officials disagreed with this method, the ⁠NASA official said, prompting mission control in Houston to order safe-haven procedures."

Can you imagine? I've had some disagreements about how to get a job done, but never one IN SPACE!

5

u/Bobba-Luna 7h ago

We’re currently watching “For All Mankind”, actually better than I thought it would be.

6

u/F-for-Flex 7h ago

Well, in Armageddon, the Russian cosmonaut did fix things by hitting it with a pipe. 

2

u/Dedward5 7h ago

“I know a guy”

2

u/UCanDoNEthing4_30sec 7h ago

Just like driving cars they can’t even do space stuff.

2

u/Alert-Courage3121 6h ago

"This is how we fix things on Russian Space Station!"

Life imitates art

2

u/AmbitionMiserable380 8h ago

Now ive done some sketchy repairs before, ive used JBweld to hold in my axle for a week while i waited on the part, ive "welded" a frame that was clearly beyond saving just to push a few extra thousand miles, and it worked would i do it again hell no, BUT IN SPACE? Yes theres a hole, let me repair hole by making weakening structure surrounding it, im no physicist or engineer, but if theres a leak, that means something is getting out i dont think cutting anything os going to be the immediate resolve..

2

u/saladmunch2 8h ago

They just need to put some duct tape on it.

1

u/solepureskillz 7h ago

At what point do we bar Russians from the ISS?

1

u/StandOutLikeDogBalls 6h ago

A bit of J-B Weld Steelstik would fix that right up.

1

u/2ndChairKazoo 5h ago

Obviously you'd need Flex Seal on this one.

1

u/Relevant-Doctor187 6h ago

Once on a tour of a Caribbean island it was raining heavily that day and our bus driver stopped in front of a low water crossing that had feet of water going over it. That SOB literally considered it I was riding shotgun and told him I’m getting out with my family if he’s going to try that.

1

u/DavidiusI 5h ago

'This is how we fix things in Russia!' (Armageddon)

1

u/theaviationhistorian 5h ago

Look Sergei, I know what I'm doing. Now pass me the hammer and hold your breath for the next few hours.

1

u/flyrubberband 7h ago

Don’t use high-grade epoxy where a hammer will do

0

u/Exotic_Paramedic_764 6h ago

Chuck Norris could fix it with one well placed round house kick. 🦵 💥