Space Forum / Shuttle / April 2004

Leak Reported On Spacecraft That Will Bring ISS Crew To Earth

NASA Says Leak Poses No Threat

POSTED: 6:35 am EDT April 28, 2004

http://www.local6.com/news/3245116/detail.html

MOSCOW -- The Russian Soyuz spacecraft that will return three
astronauts to Earth from the International Space Station this week is
leaking helium, Russian space officials said Wednesday.

The leak is very minor and does not pose any danger, Vera Medvedkova,
spokeswoman for Russian Mission Control, told The Associated Press.
NASA also said the leak poses no threat.

"There are absolutely no safety concerns," said Debbie Rahn, a NASA
spokeswoman currently in Russia.  

Russian Mission Control, NASA and the Russian space agency,
Rosaviakosmos, said there is no need to modify the landing, which will
be carried on as scheduled on Friday.

"This leak doesn't present any kind of danger for the landing of this
crew, and the landing will be carried out according to plan," Vladimir
Solovyov, the chief of Russia's Mission Control, was quoted by the
Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies as saying.

The helium is used to pressurize the Soyuz craft's fuel tanks for its
de-orbit descent, Rahn said.

"There is plenty of helium there to pressure the propellent tank," she
said, adding that the Soyuz also has a backup system available.

Solovyov told Interfax that the leak was found several months ago, but
that specialists didn't consider it significant enough to delay the
landing. Rahn confirmed that it had been found earlier and that
extensive talks between NASA and Russian flight teams had taken place.

"Similar small leaks of helium have been found earlier in other Soyuz
crafts, but they have had no effect on the cosmonauts' return to
Earth," Solovyov was quoted as saying. "In all similar cases, the
landing has been successful."

The Soyuz TMA-3, which has been in space for six months, is scheduled
to return two International Space Station residents, American
astronaut Michael Foale and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, to
Earth on Friday. European Space Agency astronaut Andre Kuipers of the
Netherlands will also be returning after a nine-day mission on the
station.

The U.S. manned space program has been entirely dependent on Russia's
Soyuz crafts since the grounding of U.S. shuttles following the
Columbia disaster in February 2003.