NASA instructed five crew members on the International Space Station to take refuge inside a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft while they work to fix a leak in the Russian-operated segment of the station. This air leak, which was first detected in 2019, is associated with tiny fractures in the Zvezda transfer tunnel. Recently, NASA reported that the rate of the leak has surged to approximately two pounds of air daily, raising alarms regarding the structural integrity during the repair efforts. The ISS has been continuously inhabited for over 25 years, but this situation is intensifying scrutiny on the long-term strategy for the aging space laboratory.
