The Expedition 63 team will invest the weekend in the Russian section’s Zvezda service module throughout a cabin air leakage test.
The 3 Expedition 63 team members living aboard the International Space Station will invest the weekend inside the orbiting laboratory’s Russian section. Commander Chris Cassidy and his crewmates Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin will remain in the Zvezda service module from Friday night into Monday early morning.
The station’s environment is kept at pressure comfy for the team members, and a little bit of that air leakages gradually, needing regular repressurization from nitrogen tanks provided on freight resupply objectives. In September 2019, NASA and its worldwide partners initially saw indicators of a small boost above the basic cabin air leakage rate. Because of regular station operations like spacewalks and spacecraft arrivals and departures, it took some time to collect sufficient information to define those measurements. That rate has actually somewhat increased, so the groups are working a strategy to separate, recognize, and possibly fix the source. The leakage is still within section requirements and provides no instant threat to the team or the spaceport station.
All the spaceport station hatches will be closed this weekend so objective controllers can thoroughly keep an eye on the atmospheric pressure in each module. The test provides no security issue for the team. The test must figure out which module is experiencing a higher-than-normal leakage rate. The U.S. and Russian professionals anticipate initial outcomes must be readily available for evaluation by the end of next week.
The 3 spaceport station homeowners will have lots of space in Zvezda this weekend. The module supplies the living quarters that made it possible for long-term human habitation to start almost 20 years back when the Expedition 1 team got to the station November 2, 2000. Cassidy, Vagner, and Ivanishin likewise will have access to the Poisk mini-research module and their Soyuz MS-16 team ship throughout of their stay.
