ISS Crew Analyses Dust Movement to Locate Air Leak in Russian Module

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) has located moving dust, which could indicate the point of an air leak that they have been searching for in the Russian Zvezda module, Anatoly Ivanishin, a Russian cosmonaut, said on Tuesday.

"Together, we have reviewed the images from GoPro cameras. There is an interesting situation. These images show dust particles flying from left to right, and both of them move toward an area that is located on the starboard side", Ivanishin said, as broadcast by NASA.

In response, an employee of the control mission centre of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos promised the cosmonauts that the centre would review the GoPro images.

On Sunday night, Russian cosmonauts Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner placed GoPro cameras in the Zvezda module to find the site of air leakage by analysing the movement of thin strips made of confetti and plastic.

A small air leak was detected in September 2019, and by August 2020, the leakage rate had increased five-fold — from 270 grammes to 1.4 kilogrammes (9.5 ounces to 3 pounds) of air per day. The leak does not pose a risk to the crew.

The current ISS crew includes Ivanishin, Vagner and NASA astronaut Christopher Cassidy.