The saga of the International Space Station air leak took a worrying turn Friday
The saga of the International Space Station air leak took a worrying turn Friday
国际空间站漏气事件周五出现令人担忧的转折
Five of the seven crew members on the International Space Station briefly sought refuge inside a SpaceX return capsule Friday morning as two Russian cosmonauts worked on an air leak on the other end of the complex. 周五上午，国际空间站七名机组成员中的五人短暂躲进了 SpaceX 的返回舱内，当时两名俄罗斯宇航员正在空间站的另一端处理一处漏气点。
NASA ordered US astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft around 9 am EST (14:00 UTC) on Friday. The foursome launched aboard the SpaceX crew capsule on the Crew-12 mission in February, and the ship serves as their lifeboat until the crew’s scheduled return to Earth in September. NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who flew to the station in a Russian Soyuz ferry ship, joined the Crew-12 astronauts inside the Dragon spacecraft. 美国东部时间周五上午 9 点（世界标准时间 14:00），NASA 指令美国宇航员 Jessica Meir 和 Jack Hathaway、法国宇航员 Sophie Adenot 以及俄罗斯宇航员 Andrey Fedyaev 进入 SpaceX 的“载人龙”飞船“自由号”。这四人于今年 2 月搭乘该飞船执行 Crew-12 任务，在他们 9 月计划返回地球之前，该飞船一直作为他们的救生艇。搭乘俄罗斯“联盟号”飞船抵达空间站的 NASA 宇航员 Chris Williams 也加入了龙飞船内 Crew-12 宇航员的行列。
“All USOS (US Orbital Segment) crew members need to execute … Emergency Procedure 3.4: Crew Dragon, establish Safe Haven,” NASA mission control radioed to the station crew around 9 am. “If we need (you) to suit up, we will do that once we’re inside the Dragon.” “所有美国轨道段（USOS）机组成员需要执行……紧急程序 3.4：载人龙飞船，建立安全避难所，”NASA 任务控制中心在上午 9 点左右向空间站机组人员发出无线电指令。“如果需要（你们）穿上宇航服，我们会在进入龙飞船后再进行。”
A short time later, a NASA spokesperson posted a statement on X attributing the shelter order to a repair on persistent air leaks on the Russian segment of the space station. For more than half a decade, engineers from Roscosmos and NASA have tracked the leak rate from a transfer tunnel on the back end of Russia’s Zvezda Service Module. The tunnel, known by the Russian acronym PrK, leads to a docking port for Progress resupply and refueling freighters. Engineers believe the leaks are caused by microscopic cracks in the module’s structure. 不久之后，NASA 发言人在 X 上发表声明，将此次避难指令归因于对俄罗斯舱段持续漏气问题的修复工作。五年多来，俄罗斯国家航天集团（Roscosmos）和 NASA 的工程师一直在监测俄罗斯“星辰号”服务舱后端一个过渡舱的漏气率。该过渡舱（俄语缩写为 PrK）通往“进步号”补给和加油货运飞船的对接端口。工程师认为，漏气是由该舱体结构上的微小裂缝引起的。
Russian cosmonauts have repeatedly inspected and attempted to seal the cracks, but a permanent fix has eluded them. After a few months of pressure stability inside the PrK earlier this year, Roscosmos confirmed in May that the air leaks had returned. 俄罗斯宇航员曾多次检查并试图密封这些裂缝，但一直未能彻底解决问题。在今年早些时候 PrK 内部压力稳定了几个月后，俄罗斯国家航天集团在 5 月确认漏气现象再次出现。
“Following new leaks, Roscosmos has elected to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday, June 5,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens wrote on X. “Out of an abundance of caution, NASA has directed all four of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-12 members and NASA astronaut Chris Williams to assume an elevated safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is underway.” “由于出现新的泄漏，俄罗斯国家航天集团决定在 6 月 5 日星期五进行更广泛的维修作业，”NASA 发言人 Bethany Stevens 在 X 上写道。“出于谨慎考虑，NASA 已指示该机构的所有四名 SpaceX Crew-12 成员以及 NASA 宇航员 Chris Williams 在维修期间进入龙飞船，采取更高等级的安全防护姿态。”
Back to normal
恢复正常
After about 90 minutes, the communications officer at mission control in Houston told the crew that they could reopen hatches and reenter the space station. The specific repair task that caused NASA to issue the shelter order was off. “Our Russian colleagues have elected to perform measurements only today. So, with that, we are comfortable backing out of the safe haven config,” mission control told the crew. 大约 90 分钟后，休斯顿任务控制中心的通讯官告知机组人员，他们可以重新打开舱门并返回空间站。导致 NASA 发布避难指令的具体维修任务已被取消。“我们的俄罗斯同事决定今天只进行测量。因此，我们认为可以解除安全避难状态，”任务控制中心告诉机组人员。
“We don’t have help from our counterparts?” Crew-12 commander Jessica Meir asked mission control. “Affirm,” mission control replied. Those counterparts—Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev—were working at the leak area on the opposite end of the station, some 200 feet away from the Crew Dragon. “我们不需要协助我们的同行吗？”Crew-12 指挥官 Jessica Meir 问任务控制中心。“是的，”任务控制中心回答。那些同行——俄罗斯宇航员 Sergey Kud-Sverchkov 和 Sergei Mikayev——当时正在空间站另一端的漏气区域工作，距离“载人龙”飞船约 200 英尺。
Stevens soon posted an update on X, writing that Roscosmos had “paused” the “structural repair efforts” inside the PrK to take more measurements and assess data. “We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks,” Stevens added. Stevens 随后在 X 上发布更新，称俄罗斯国家航天集团已“暂停”了 PrK 内部的“结构性维修工作”，以便进行更多测量并评估数据。“我们期待与俄罗斯国家航天集团合作，共同探讨解决漏气问题的方案，”Stevens 补充道。
Ars asked two NASA spokespersons for details on the proposed leak repair and why the agency decided that the repair was risky enough to order the US crew members into the Crew Dragon lifeboat. They did not provide answers to these questions as of the time of this publication, but we will add any information we receive to this story. Ars 向两名 NASA 发言人询问了有关拟议漏气维修的细节，以及为什么该机构认为维修风险大到需要命令美国机组成员进入“载人龙”救生艇。截至本文发布时，他们尚未提供这些问题的答案，但我们会在收到任何信息后将其补充到报道中。
Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, typically keeps the PrK sealed off from the rest of the space station to isolate the leak from the crew’s living quarters and workstations. This allows the transfer tunnel to be maintained at a lower pressure than the rest of the station. When cosmonauts need to access the area, such as for inspections, repairs, or transferring cargo to or from a docked Progress supply vessel, they pressurize the PrK to match the pressure inside the rest of the station. This allows the cosmonauts to open up the PrK to complete their work. 俄罗斯航天局（Roscosmos）通常会将 PrK 与空间站的其他部分隔离开来，以使漏气区域与机组人员的生活区和工作站隔绝。这使得过渡舱可以保持比空间站其他部分更低的压力。当宇航员需要进入该区域（例如进行检查、维修或向对接的“进步号”补给船转运货物）时，他们会给 PrK 加压，使其与空间站其他部分的压力保持一致。这使得宇航员可以打开 PrK 完成工作。
A statement posted by Roscosmos on its Telegram channel suggests this is what was happening early Friday. “Specialists from the Russian ISS segment’s main operations control team detected a leak in the chamber” during pressurization of the PrK. “Upon inspecting the transfer chamber, cosmonauts identified two potential air leak sites,” Roscosmos said. “The first site was promptly sealed by applying an initial layer of the two-component sealant compound Germetall-1. The second site is located on the conical section of the transfer chamber; preparations to seal it are currently underway.” 俄罗斯国家航天集团在其 Telegram 频道上发布的声明表明，周五早些时候发生的情况正是如此。“俄罗斯国际空间站舱段主操作控制团队的专家在对 PrK 加压过程中检测到舱内有泄漏。”俄罗斯国家航天集团表示，“在检查过渡舱后，宇航员确定了两个潜在的漏气点。第一个漏气点已通过涂抹一层双组分密封胶 Germetall-1 迅速密封。第二个漏气点位于过渡舱的锥形部分；目前正在准备对其进行密封。”
Russian and NASA officials also did not say what compelled Roscosmos to plan an immediate repair after discovering the two potential leak sites on Friday. They also did not say when cosmonauts might try again to patch the leak, or if any future repair effort might again force the US crew members to take shelter. Roscosmos said there is “no threat to crew safety or onboard systems,” and the pressure inside the station “remains stable and is being maintained at the nominal level.” 俄罗斯和 NASA 的官员也没有说明是什么促使俄罗斯国家航天集团在周五发现两个潜在漏气点后计划立即进行维修。他们也没有说明宇航员何时可能再次尝试修补漏洞，或者未来的任何维修工作是否会再次迫使美国机组成员避难。俄罗斯国家航天集团表示，“对机组人员安全或机载系统没有威胁”，空间站内部压力“保持稳定，并维持在额定水平”。