Three astronauts reboarded the International Space Station this morning after sealing an air leak that threatened the orbital laboratory. The leak, traced to a hairline fracture in a pressurised conduit, was patched during an emergency six-hour spacewalk. Sources confirm the British-built node module, part of the station's critical life support architecture, was not compromised.
The repair team worked in silence for three hours, their breaths the only soundtrack to a high-stakes operation 400 kilometres above Earth. NASA officials are calling it a routine fix. But documents obtained by this desk reveal the fracture was flagged in a risk assessment nine months ago.
The report warned of 'microfracture propagation in welded aluminium joints' and recommended early replacement. That recommendation was shelved due to budget constraints. The astronauts are now running diagnostics on the repaired section.
The British module, delivered in 2018 as part of a £300 million contribution to the ISS partnership, remains fully operational. The same assessment described it as 'within design tolerances'. But when a senior engineer was asked off the record whether the module could withstand another decade in orbit, he said only: 'We're watching it.
' The astronauts will remain aboard until the next crew rotation in three weeks. The leak repair held through two pressurisation cycles overnight. For now, the ISS stays in the black.
But the documents suggest this was a close call, one that administrators chose to gamble on. The next leak might not get a warning.
