Is the International Space Station starting to break down? Russian astronauts noticed cracks

 

Nasa

Astronauts from Russia have discovered new cracks in a segment of the International Space Station (ISS). Worryingly, a senior space official warned on Monday that these cracks could widen in the times to come. Speaking to RIA news agency Vladimir Solovyov, chief engineer of Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, said that surface cracks have been observed at some places of the Zarya module.

ISS has time till 2025

Could air leak through these cracks? The official has not clarified anything regarding this. Earlier, the space official had said that most of the equipment of the ISS is now out of date. He also warned that after 2025 these devices could break which would be a very frightening situation. The space station has gone through a variety of events recently. Russian officials last month blamed software glitches and "human error" for the ISS being out of control.

Russia will remain on the space station until 2024

Russia's space agency Roscosmos reported a drop in pressure in the Zvezda service module last month. The Russian space agency has said it will remain part of it until 2024. The International Space Station (ISS), built for scientific experiments in space, went out of control for some time last month due to Russia's negligence. After which the scientists of the American space agency NASA re-established control over the ISS with great difficulty.

narrowly avoided major accident

The incident happened when Russia's Nauka Lab module was connecting to the ISS. During this, the module's jet thrusters were inadvertently kept on for a few hours. Due to which the entire space station deviated from its path. NASA said the crash began three hours after Russia's Nauka science module connected to the space station. Meanwhile, scientists from the Russian Space Agency were doing some reconfiguration work after the module was docked.

US space agency officials said the module's jets inexplicably restarted, forcing the entire station out of its normal flight position about 250 miles above Earth. Due to this incident, the mission flight director had to declare even a spacecraft emergency. According to NASA's Space Station Program Manager Joel Montalbano, the station's unexpected drift was detected by automated ground sensors. After which NASA scientists started several other thrusters and brought the ISS back to its orbit.