The International Space Station's skeleton crew has just crawled back inside after sealing a potentially catastrophic air leak. Sources confirm two astronauts spent four hours in the void, sweating over a cracked seal on a UK-built life support module. The module, a piece of kit financed by taxpayers and assembled in Stevenage, is being called 'vital' by mission control.
But let's cut through the PR spin. This was a close call. The leak was detected eight days ago by a junior engineer watching pressure data dip by 0.
2 millibars per hour. A tiny drop. But in the vacuum of space, a tiny drop is a death sentence.
The astronauts suited up, clipped tethers, and floated out into the darkness. They found the breach in a valve assembly on the UK module. A manufacturing defect?
Fatigue? Nobody's saying. But a source close to the inquiry tells me paperwork shows the part was inspected just three months ago.
Clean bill of health. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the company that built the module is already spinning this as a triumph. A triumph?
They nearly lost two people. And this isn't the first time. Uncovered documents show three separate anomalies in the same valve type over the past year.
All dismissed as 'minor deviations'. So who signs off on these things? The money trail leads to a government contract awarded without competitive tender.
A cozy deal between a minister and a former board member. This is how it works. A small leak becomes a big scandal when you follow the paper trail.
The astronauts are safe. For now. But the module is still up there.
And so is the next disaster waiting to happen.
