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Pat Duggins
Pat Duggins
Senior News Analyst
pduggins@wmfe.org


 

November 29, 2007—The crew of the International Space Station may not have to hold their breath after all. NASA is investigating a possible air leak on the new Harmony compartment. But at this point, the Agency is leaning toward a false alarm being the culprit.

The Italian Space Agency built the new crew Harmony cabin, which weighs thirty thousand pounds on Earth. It was installed by the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery this month, and the crew of Atlantis plans to snap the European built Columbus science lab onto Harmony during a space mission set to start next week. If the air leak on Harmony turns out to be true, it might postpone the liftoff, or seriously alter the flight plan. The Station crew checked for leaks and found nothing. Air pressure in the compartment also stayed constant, which might support the idea of a false alarm. Back in 1998, when the older MIR space station was rammed by a robotic cargo craft, the Spektr module was punctured as the crew knew immediately. Astronaut Michael Foale felt the pressure difference in his ears at once.

On a completely separate note, if you’re visiting the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitors Complex on the afternoon of Saturday December 22, the bookstore there has invited me out to sign copies of "Final Countdown". I hope to meet a lot of "future astronauts" like this youngster from Sarasota. I'll be in the main gift shop from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m

More to come.

 

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