NASA has discovered the source of a leak aboard the International Space Station, the space agency said.
On Tuesday, NASA officials said astronauts and staff on the ISS and on Earth had been searching for the leak, which appeared to be getting larger, for several weeks before finding it in one of the work areas of the space station’s Russian module.
“The size of the leak identified overnight has since been attributed to a temporary temperature change aboard the station with the overall rate of leak remaining unchanged,” NASA said in a statement.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos said the leak was in an area that contains “scientific equipment.”
NASA added that the leaked at no point posed a threat to the three astronauts, one American and two Russians, who are aboard.
The leak was first documented more than a year ago but had grown in recent months.
Both space agencies said operations at the space station were not affected by the leak and a scheduled cargo delivery was going forward. The delivery will likely include nitrogen tanks that the astronauts will use in repressurization efforts.
A joint NASA-SpaceX launch which will take three American astronauts as well as a Japanese astronaut to the ISS is also still scheduled for Oct. 31.
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