ISS astronauts woken up by Nasa to hunt for mystery hole that’s now ‘leaking air faster’
NASA has admitted that a mysterious air leak that has plagued the International Space Station for months is getting worse.
The location of the cabin breach has been narrowed down to a Russian workstation but investigators remain stumped over its exact whereabouts.
The problem was publicly disclosed last month and briefly forced the station's three crew members into its Russian segment while Nasa scouted for clues.
US astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Anatoly Ivanishin are said to be in no danger as the hunt continues aboard the ISS, which orbits roughly 250 miles (400km) above Earth.
Investigators had said they wanted to solve the problem within a few days but recently admitted the search is taking longer than expected.
In the latest update to the space saga, Nasa said that it now believes the leak is located in the main work area of the Zvezda Service Module – the same one crew were evacuated to as a safety precaution in August.
The station's crew scanned the US and Russian segments of the station with ultrasonic leak detectors as part of urgent efforts to identify the source of the problem.
"Late Monday night, the Expedition 63 crew was awakened by flight controllers to continue troubleshooting a small leak on the International Space Station that appeared to grow in size," Nasa said.
Russia's space agency head Dmitry Rogozin — a close ally of Vladimir Putin — then raised the possibility of sabotage.
In other news, Nasa has finally set a date for its first proper crewed flight from US soil aboard a SpaceX rocket.
SpaceX blew up a Starship rocket tank on purpose last week during a dramatic "pressure test".
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The rocket company completed its second successful Starship test flight earlier this month.
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