The ISS Is Leaking Air—And NASA and Russia Can’t Agree Why

NASA elevated the air leak to the highest level of risk, but Russia isn't convinced it's that serious.

For the past five years, air has been escaping through a Russian section of the International Space Station (ISS) at an increasing rate. NASA and its Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, are still in disagreement over the root cause of the leak, as well as the severity of the consequences.

The leak was first discovered in 2019 in the vestibule (named PrK) that connects a docking port to the Russian Zvezda module, which Roscosmos had launched to low Earth orbit in July 2000. Earlier this year, NASA elevated the leak to the highest level of risk as the rate of air escaping from the module had doubled from one pound of air per day to a little over two pounds.

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