Space Station Experiencing Possible Leak

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Flight controllers assured the two men aboard the international space station on Tuesday that they are trying to chase down the source of a slow loss of air pressure and said the problem could take weeks to solve.

American and Russian space officials stressed there is no immediate danger to the crewmen or the operation of the orbiting outpost. If the pressure were to fall dangerously low, astronaut Michael Foale and cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri could abandon the space station in the docked capsule and quickly return to Earth (search).

"We're going to take a very measured and methodical approach to sort through this problem," said Mike Suffredini, the station's operations and integration manager. "If this was in fact a leak, which we're not certain that it is, we have, oh, about a little over half a year's worth of gas on board to feed it and so we're in no particular hurry to overreact."

Foale and Kaleri spent a second day looking for the potential leak. They used an ultrasound leak detector to check hatches, windows and valves throughout the complex, but found nothing suspicious. On Friday, they will inspect a Russian-built air purifier that engineers believe may be the culprit.

"Let's keep our fingers crossed that we're narrowing in on this guy," Foale said.

Suffredini said the space station has lost 2 pounds of air a day over the past two weeks. That is 34 pounds gone out of the roughly 900 pounds of air normally inside the complex.

The space station is now down to 14.2 pounds per square inch of pressure, the point at which flight rules call for replenishment, Suffredini said.

But equipment does not start malfunctioning until 13.9 pounds per square inch, and the real cutoff point for both systems and humans is about 10.2 pounds per square inch, Suffredini said.

Russia's old Mir space station (search) was often plagued by air leaks. Kaleri was on board for some of them, and Foale was present when Mir was rammed by a supply ship in 1997. The ruptured lab module had to be sealed off.

The international space station is larger than Mir, however, and it could take longer to find a leak. This is the biggest prolonged loss of air pressure ever seen aboard the space station.

If the Russian carbon-dioxide removal unit and other equipment check out fine, the next step would be for Foale and Kaleri to close the hatches between the U.S. and Russian sides of the space station in an attempt to isolate any leaks. If that does not work, then individual compartments would be sealed off one at a time. And if that still does not turn up any leaks, then a more specific point-to-point search would be conducted.

Flight controllers notified Foale and Kaleri about the pressure drop on Monday. Although first detected around Jan. 2, the falling and fluctuating pressure has been traced back to Dec. 22. It coincides with the malfunction and ultimate breakdown of the primary oxygen generator on board and could be related to the use of backup oxygen-producing canisters. The canisters just exceeded their expiration date, but Russian space officials recertified them for use for another year.

NASA (search) said the falling pressure also could be related to drastic changes recently in the amount of sunlight exposure to the space station, rather than an actual leak.

Whatever the reason, the problem comes at a bad time. With NASA's space shuttles grounded indefinitely because of the Columbia tragedy, there is no way to send up all the necessary spare parts. Russian spacecraft are too small to carry large equipment.

The crew has been reduced from three to two until shuttle flights resume.

Foale, who is the station commander and turned 47 on Tuesday, moved in with Kaleri in October for a six-month stay.

A Russian psychic has offered help with the pressure problem. The man claimed he has been living aboard the space station for the past month, invisibly, and knows exactly where the leak is.

"A complete nutcase," Vladimir Solovyov, the chief of Russia's Mission Control, told the crewmen in orbit. "Anyway, don't spend too much time looking for the guy." The reply from space: "Understood."