INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

A FIRE AND CRACKS IN THE RUSSIAN ZVEZDA MODULE

A fire is said to have started in the Zvezda service module, which is part of the Russian wing of the station. The kind of thing you don't like to see 400 kilometers above Earth, in a capsule stuffed with oxygen and therefore highly flammable.

This incident, which certainly did not damage anything, follows several other incidents on board the ISS in recent months. In 2019 and early 2021, the Zvezda module had notably experienced air leakage problems. On the Zvezda module which dates from 1998, the oldest, two cosmonauts spotted mini-cracks at the end of August. Vladimir Soloviev, chief engineer of RKK Energuia - a company responsible for maintaining the Russian part of the station -, also shared the cracks detected on the Zvezda cargo module.

"About 80% of flight systems are at the end of their service life, which means that once all the systems have exhausted their service life, the next day irreparable breakdowns could occur," he said. -he adds. What revive the question of the obsolescence of the Russian module on which cracks appear.

However, Roscosmos does not plan to do major works in the ISS. And for good reason: Russia is clearly thinking of withdrawing from the ISS (United States, Canada, Japan, European Space Agency) in order to launch its own space station, or even a lunar base with China.

Who will therefore take care of the maintenance of this part of the ISS? On the western side, we plan to use the station at least until 2024....