The oxygen supply system has failed in a very module on the Russian segment of the International orbiter (ISS) but the crew is in no danger, Russian space agency Roscosmos said Thursday.
The oxygen supply system on the Zvezda module on the orbital lab failed late on Wednesday but a second system on the American segment is working normally, a Roscosmos spokesperson told AFP.
"Nothing threatens the protection of the crew and also the ISS," said the spokesperson, adding this repair work to mend the difficulty would be applied on Thursday.
The issue arose after three new crew - two Russian cosmonauts and an American astronaut - reached the ISS on Wednesday to bring the amount of current crew onboard to 6.
The problem is that the latest incident on the ISS - whose first module was launched over 20 years ago in 1998 - after the crew in August detected an air leak on board.
Roscosmos emphasized at the time that the leak wasn't significant and posed no danger. But a part of the matter was detecting precisely where it came from.
The crew believes that they need now found the source of the leak. The Roscosmos spokesperson said that they'd receive precise instructions from mission control to hold out future work on the matter.
Quoted by the RIA Novosti news organization, veteran Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka said that the Russian equipment aboard the ISS was well past its use-by date.
"All modules of the Russian segment are exhausted," said Padalka, who holds the planet record for many days spent in space.
He added that the equipment should only be used for 15 years whereas it had been now twenty years old.
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