The International Space Station has been a font of good news and scientific progress since it received its first human residents at the start of the millennium, but now it may be starting to show its age. The current crew reported seeing damage to the vessel's truss structure yesterday and NASA has since confirmed there's been a leak of ammonia from the station's cooling system. The Agency says the problem isn't dangerous and that regular ISS-style activities are continuing as normal while earth-bound helpers figure out a way of re-routing power channels before part of the cooling system shuts down. If you want to hear what unflustered voices sound like at an altitude of over 200 miles, check out the audio of Commander Hadfield's initial report of the leak at the source link below.
Update: Commander Hadfield has also confirmed on Twitter that there's been a "big change in plans," and that astronauts Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn will perform a spacewalk today to fix the leak.
Filed under: Transportation, Science
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Via: SlashGear, Spaceflight Now, CBC News
Source: NASA
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