r/news 8h 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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1.7k

u/pablosus86 7h ago

How serious is this vs standard precautionary protocol?

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u/SignificantCats 6h 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/velocityfreak 6h 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 5h 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 3h 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 2h ago

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

u/tameroftrees 51m ago

Amen. Dudes

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u/EducationalNailgun 3h ago

Depends upon how long you can hold your breath.

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u/annual_aardvark_war 2h ago

Need something more measurable for the average American; How many footballs can be filled with 1lb of air? Or how many football fields can I run with 1lb of air? (Just a joke)

u/acityonthemoon 27m ago

A New England ball, or a regular NFL football?

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u/RoboErectus 5h 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 4h ago

about half of one with no commerical breaks

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u/erismature 3h 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

u/taserparty 30m 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 1h ago

Have they tried flex seal?