NASA Gives Thumbs-Up to Cosmonauts’ Leak-Repair Work
Flight controllers at Johnson Space Center say preliminary data show the slow but troublesome atmospheric leak in the aft-facing docking corridor has been tamed. The patchwork, carried out by Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station this week, now awaits confirmation tests before NASA signs off on a long-stalled departure for a commercial crew.
What Was Fixed
- Location: a small vestibule just forward of the aft Russian docking port
- Suspected Cause: micro-cracks in a pressure seal slowly venting station atmosphere
- Repair Method: layered sealing tape and an overlying polymer filler applied during a pair of night-shift maintenance sessions
Next Hurdle: Verification & Flight Clearance
Engineers plan to keep the hatch to the docking port closed for 48 hours while they monitor internal pressure. If readings remain steady, the station can re-open the corridor—an important step because that very port is scheduled to greet Axiom-4 as soon as Thursday, depending on final launch-vehicle readiness.
Key Remaining Milestones
- Continuous pressure telemetry review
- Axiom spacecraft final inspections at SpaceX’s Florida hangar
- Weather briefings early Wednesday morning
A green light on any of those fronts could slide the private research mission’s liftoff forward by one or two days; a snag could push the schedule deeper into May.
Axiom Four: Next SpaceX Flight Set for Early-Thursday Launch
Updated Schedule Puts Docking on Friday Morning
Roscosmos has opened a fresh landing slot beginning at 04:53 a.m. EDT Thursday. If everything lines up—orbital mechanics, weather windows and hardware health—the four-seat Crew Dragon will slide nose-first into the forward-facing port on Harmony module at 10:30 a.m. Friday.
Crew Snapshot
- Commander: Dr Peggy Whitson (three-time resident of the station, former NASA chief astronaut)
- Pilot: Shubhanshu Shukla, India’s first professional astronaut aboard ISS
- Mission Specialist-1: Sławosz Uznański, materials researcher representing Poland
- Mission Specialist-2: Tibor Kapu, systems engineer from Hungary
Why the Delay?
Two red flags kept the rocket on the Cape Canaveral pad last week. First, stiff coastal winds forced offshore recovery crews to wave off the attempt. Next, technicians discovered a pin-hole oxygen leak in the Falcon 9’s first stage plumbing. SpaceX replaced a faulty check valve, re-tested the load sequence and handed the launcher back to NASA for flight readiness review.
Meanwhile, station managers pressed pause for an unrelated reason: persistent air leakage inside the Russian PrK vestibule—the narrow passageway linking Zvezda’s aft port with any visiting Progress or Soyuz supply craft. Detected as early as 2019, the seep had remained stubborn despite multiple patch attempts, prompting new inspections every time another vehicle came knocking.
Good News From On-Orbit Repairs
On Friday, cosmonauts wrapped yet another repair session, swapping a hatch gasket, tightening bolts to a new torque spec and repositioning the internal sensors. Overnight telemetry showed the PrK pressure flat-lined—no further sign of loss. NASA followed with a weekend blog post: “Based on real-time data, the small air leaks appear to be sealed.”
A Two-Week Agenda Packed With Purpose
Once the hatch swings open, Whitson will lead the team through a tightly scripted flight plan that mirrors a full ISS increment:
- Science First
- Osteocyte cultures from each crew member’s country, examining bone loss in micro-g
- Cloud–aerosol lidar prototype test, a pathfinder for future weather satellites
- Fire suppression fluids on 3D-printed polymer fuels
- Education Everywhere
- Live STEM broadcasts to classrooms in Delhi, Warsaw and Budapest
- Virtual-reality tours for regional science centers
- Technology Demonstrations
- Self-assembling solar panel tiles
- A next-gen spacesuit cooling garment
Unlike tourist joyrides, the foursome trained for over 1,300 hours in orbit operations, medical proficiency and emergency drills. They will float freely throughout the U.S. operating segment, treating the space station as a full-fledged laboratory.
What Comes Next
This mission marks Axiom Space’s fourth commercial charter and the first to fly astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary in a single package. As Whitson reflected, “Beyond the science headlines, we’re opening doors for countries that have waited decades to reach low-Earth orbit.” All eyes now shift to Thursday’s pre-dawn east-coast sky as the countdown resumes—this time with seals tightened and weather holding.
