This International Space Station has been leaking oxygen for the past year, but in September 2019 Cosmonauts tracked it to the Russian Zvezda module.
Russian cosmonaut Ivan Vagner suggested using tea bags in search of the leak. After searching for the better part of two months, they tried Ivan’s idea. The teabags almost always floated to a scratch on the wall.
Once the scratch was confirmed to be the leak, it was sealed with the heavy-duty tape they had aboard the ship, yet the leak has only slowed, and the module is still losing air pressure, according to Russia’s government-owned news service, Tass.
The leak was detected in August 2019, but no immediate actions were taken to seal it because of the lack of severity. The leak became more severe over the past year. In August 2020, the leak was placed on the NASA priority list after air started leaking at an increased rate.
This has not been the first leak on the station and it probably won’t be the last. The station is not airtight and constantly loses oxygen, but oxygen is always replaced quickly enough to pose no harm to any astronauts or cosmonauts. This is a special case where the oxygen coming in could not keep up with oxygen leaving.
The ISS has been in orbit for 22 years and astronauts have found multiple air leaks over the last two decades. Many leaks were human made errors from construction and have only recently been found. Astronauts are always updating and repairing the station. Maintenance will always be necessary, and there will probably always be leaks and repairs, but all astronauts and cosmonauts are working to advance the human race into the future.