He crew of the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft, which will launch on Wednesday bound for the International Space Station (ISS), will deliver equipment to detect and eliminate an air leak detected in the Russian Zvezda module, the crew's commander, Sergey Ryzhikov, said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th October, 2020) The crew of the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft, which will launch on Wednesday bound for the International Space Station (ISS), will deliver equipment to detect and eliminate an air leak detected in the Russian Zvezda module, the crew's commander, Sergey Ryzhikov, said on Tuesday.�
"We will take additional equipment with us that will allow us to, more accurately and in more detail, determine the location of this increased leak ... And we will also take with us additional modernized hermetic material that will allow for the leak to be eliminated," Ryzhikov said during a pre-launch videoconference held at the press center of the Rossiya Segodnya international press agency.
A small air leak was detected in September 2019 on board the ISS. By August 2020, the leakage rate had increased five-fold, from 270 grams to 1.4 kilograms (9.5 ounces to 3 Pounds) of air per day, although the leak does not pose a risk to the crew on board.
The Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft is scheduled to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Wednesday. The three crew members on board will be delivered to the ISS in an estimated record time of 3 hours 7 minutes, owing to the proposed ultrafast two-orbit flight plan.
Ryzhikov will be accompanied on board the spacecraft by fellow Russian cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and NASA astronaut Kathleen Rubins.
