Axiom manned mission delayed further because of new Zvezda leaks on ISS
Figure 3 from September Inspector General report, showing Zvezda’s location on ISS.
According to a press update today by NASA, the launch of the commercial Ax-4 manned mission to ISS has been further delayed due to work by the Russians attempting to seal new leaks in the station’s Zvezda module.
NASA and Axiom Space are postponing the launch of Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station. As part of an ongoing investigation, NASA is working with Roscosmos to understand a new pressure signature, after the recent post-repair effort in the aft most segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module.
Cosmonauts aboard the space station recently performed inspections of the pressurized module’s interior surfaces, sealed some additional areas of interest, and measured the current leak rate. Following this effort, the segment now is holding pressure.
In other words, the Russians had recently detected an increase in leakage in the module, identified several more cracks inside Zvezda, and have been working to seal them.
The graphic above comes from a 2024 NASA inspector general report, which at that time noted a significant increase in the leak rate in 2024 (see the data in the lower right). Since then it has been NASA policy to close the hatch that connects the American and Russian sections of the station whenever anything docks with Zvezda, due to risk that the docking could cause the module to fail entirely.
Zvezda is one of the oldest modules on ISS, built in the late 1980s and launched in 2000. It is believed the leaks are due to stress fractures in its hull due to the many dockings and undockings that have occurred at its aft docking port.
If the NASA press release can be believed, the situation is under control and the repairs have been successful. If so, expect the Axiom mission to be rescheduled shortly.
If not, we could be witnessing the beginning of the end of ISS, five years earlier than planned by bureaucrats in Washington and Moscow.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Figure 3 from September Inspector General report, showing Zvezda’s location on ISS.
According to a press update today by NASA, the launch of the commercial Ax-4 manned mission to ISS has been further delayed due to work by the Russians attempting to seal new leaks in the station’s Zvezda module.
NASA and Axiom Space are postponing the launch of Axiom Mission 4 to the International Space Station. As part of an ongoing investigation, NASA is working with Roscosmos to understand a new pressure signature, after the recent post-repair effort in the aft most segment of the International Space Station’s Zvezda service module.
Cosmonauts aboard the space station recently performed inspections of the pressurized module’s interior surfaces, sealed some additional areas of interest, and measured the current leak rate. Following this effort, the segment now is holding pressure.
In other words, the Russians had recently detected an increase in leakage in the module, identified several more cracks inside Zvezda, and have been working to seal them.
The graphic above comes from a 2024 NASA inspector general report, which at that time noted a significant increase in the leak rate in 2024 (see the data in the lower right). Since then it has been NASA policy to close the hatch that connects the American and Russian sections of the station whenever anything docks with Zvezda, due to risk that the docking could cause the module to fail entirely.
Zvezda is one of the oldest modules on ISS, built in the late 1980s and launched in 2000. It is believed the leaks are due to stress fractures in its hull due to the many dockings and undockings that have occurred at its aft docking port.
If the NASA press release can be believed, the situation is under control and the repairs have been successful. If so, expect the Axiom mission to be rescheduled shortly.
If not, we could be witnessing the beginning of the end of ISS, five years earlier than planned by bureaucrats in Washington and Moscow.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Probably caused by Trump’s budget cuts.
/sarcasm on
An interesting exchange about this on X last night between Casey Handmer and Elon Musk:
Casey:
Elon:
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1933403255939510357
Does Elon think that SpaceX can have the Deorbit Vehicle ready in two years?
Richard M: None of this is news. The IG report I reference above described these problems in great detail, though it did so in a manner that attempted to soft pedal their seriousness. An honest read however hid nothing.
Musk himself has already gone on record on this. See this post in February: Musk: ISS should be de-orbited quickly! And he may be right.
I outlined all those issues then. Nothing has changed. I also noted however this fact:
This is the same attitude Cruz and many Congress critters now have about forcing the next Orion mission be manned, and go around the Moon.
Hi Bob,
Oh, I hope I did not come across as implying that there’s really anything new here. You have reported on this before. And Elon obviously was saying this five months ago.
I am just struck that it’s being brought up again, now. Especially with Elon going to such pains to be on good behavior this week. And I think Casey is hinting at things he hears from his friends at NASA that are not fit yet for public reveal.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the station had a failure which forced abandonment in the next year, or two years, or five years, and I can only hope that it does not cost lives. But clearly NASA is very unhappy with the politics of confronting this issue publicly. For the last five years, it has consistently tried to maximize ISS use, and consistently tried to keep the relationship with Roscosmos going no matter how bad things got with Ukraine; and now it works for a White House which has a keen interest in at least reaching a detente with the Kremlin. I wonder if staff in the ISS operations office are learning to pray the rosary now.
One has to wonder just what the Russians are actually doing on Zvezda to mitigate the cracks. Handmer is certainly correct in his description of the etiology of aluminum structure crack propagation. But it seems that there are steps that could be taken to keep the cracks from spreading. The simplest would likely be to do what Safelight does to fix windshield cracks – pull a vacuum on the affected area, force in a low-viscosity polymer precursor solution under minor pressure, then cure it with UV. One wouldn’t even need to – as Safelight does – polish the repair to match the contour of the part being repaired afterward.