NASA
engineers are tracking a potential, albeit minor, leak aboard the International
Space Station (ISS), but do not consider it a concern for the orbital lab's astronaut
crew or an upcoming shuttle launch, the agency said Wednesday.
An inspection
of a vestibule bridging the station's new Harmony
connecting module and NASA's Destiny laboratory indicated a slight air leak
of about three pounds (1.3 kilograms) per day, NASA spokesperson Lynette Madison, of the agency's Johnson Space Center, told SPACE.com Wednesday. But whether the leak is genuine
or merely a phantom signal has yet to be determined.
A close-up
inspection of the vestibule seal by the station's three-astronaut Expedition
16 crew using an ultrasonic leak detector found no trace of a leak on Wednesday,
Madison said. Studies of the station's overall internal pressure
also found no signs of decay, she added.
Engineers
first recorded the potential leak during a "fine" check this week to ensure
Harmony is properly connected to its Destiny docking port, Madison said. A
less sensitive, "gross" leak check performed earlier this month
yielded no issues, she added.
"Nobody
is really concerned about this," Madison said.
Engineers
plan to check the seals between Harmony and its shuttle docking port for leaks
on Thursday, and may recheck the module's connection to the Destiny lab later
this week, she added.
Astronauts
delivered the school bus-sized Harmony node to the ISS in late October during NASA's STS-120
shuttle flight. The station's Expedition 16 crew outfitted the module with
a shuttle docking port earlier this month and performed three spacewalks in
15 days to move the nearly 16-ton node to its final perch at the front of
Destiny.
With its
multiple berthing ports, Harmony is designed to serve as the anchor point for European
and Japanese laboratories beginning with the European Space Agency's Columbus
module set to launch next week.
NASA's
shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts are slated to launch toward the ISS on
Dec. 6 to deliver Columbus and swap out one member of the station's Expedition
16 crew. Top shuttle officials will meet Friday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center
in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to set a firm launch date for the planned
11-day mission.
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