The Right People Z

American space officials are reluctant to talk about the risks of flying astronauts to the aging International Space Station, elements of which have been in place for more than a quarter century.

Still, a new report confirms that NASA managers responsible for station operations are deeply concerned about a small Russian portion of the station — essentially a tunnel that connects a larger module to the docking port — that is leaking. Russian and U.S. officials have known that the small PRK module, located between the Progress spacecraft’s airlock and the Zvezda module, has been leaking since September 2019. A new report released Thursday by NASA’s inspector general provides previously undisclosed details that highlight the severity of the problem.

For example, in February of this year, NASA recorded an increase in the leak rate from less than 1 pound of atmosphere per day to 2.4 pounds per day, and in April, this figure rose to 3.7 pounds per day. Despite years of investigation, neither Russian nor American experts have been able to determine the exact cause of the leak.

"While the root cause of the leak remains unknown, both parties have narrowed the search to internal and external welds," said the report, signed by Deputy Inspector General George A. Scott.

The plan to reduce the risk is to keep the hatch on the Zvezda module that leads to the PrK tunnel closed. Eventually, if the leak gets worse, that hatch could be permanently closed, reducing the number of docking ports on the Russian side of the station from four to three.

Publicly, NASA has sought to minimize concerns about the problem, since the cracks are currently confined to the PR tunnel and have not spread to other parts of the station. However, the crack problem has reached the highest level of concern on NASA's 5x5 "risk matrix," which classifies the likelihood and consequences of risks to spaceflight. The Russian leaks are now classified as a "5" for both high likelihood and high consequence.

At the time, NASA did not comment or confirm the agency's concerns about the risk matrix ranking. However, the new report confirms those concerns.

“In May and June 2024, representatives from the ISS program and Roscosmos met to discuss increased concerns related to the increasing leak rate,” the inspector general’s report said. “The ISS program subsequently increased the risk of a leak in the service module transfer tunnel to the highest level in its risk management system. According to NASA, Roscosmos was confident that it could control the situation and close the hatch to the service module before the leak rate reached a critical level. However, NASA and Roscosmos did not reach agreement on at what point the leak rate would become unacceptable.”

https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/nasa-confirms-space-station-cracking-a-highest-risk-and-consequence-problem/


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Upon further reflection admin you’ve got the names mixed up. The IFV you’ve posted is the Lazanski where as you’ve used the name Lazar which is a different platform.

https://armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2023/partner-2023-yugoimport-presents-serbia-lazanski-8x8-infantry-fighting-vehicle-with-57mm-rcws