- XMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian and U.S. space officials,
locked in a new spat over the International Space Station, will seal off
their own parts of the complex to verify the cause of a loss in air pressure,
a Russian space official said Friday.
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- NASA officials believe the orbital platform is continuing
to lose air pressure because of a possible leak, while Russian officials
say the pressure has stabilized at a normal level. Both agree the two-man
crew aboard is not in danger.
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- "There has been a suggestion from the United States
to separate the two modules from each other, the U.S. and Russian segments,
to look where the pressure is dropping," Vyacheslav Mikhailichenko,
spokesman for Russian space agency Rosaviakosmos, told Reuters.
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- "Americans know their systems well and Russian academics
know their systems and therefore they need to be separated to see where
the pressure loss is occurring, in which section of the station."
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- Previous rows between the two space powers have included
U.S. safety concerns ahead of the current crew's launch and Russia's belief
the United States should contribute more funds to the project.
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- Russia has assumed full responsibility for launching
manned and cargo ships to keep the station in orbit since February 2003,
when the United States grounded its shuttles after the Columbia shuttle
broke apart, killing seven astronauts.
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- Mikhailichenko said there had been a decline in air pressure
between Dec. 31 and Jan. 5 and it had now stabilized. NASA says the fall
started on Dec. 22 and is continuing.
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- "Today we can establish the fact that the pressure
is within a normal range," Mikhailichenko said, adding small weekly
fluctuations were normal and depended on oxygen and humidity levels and
other factors.
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- He said scientists would monitor barometer readings in
each of the sealed-off air-tight sections to determine which one was losing
pressure.
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- "We're hoping that in the next week something will
be explained," he said.
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- Officials say the drop in pressure poses no immediate
threat to the two astronauts on board because there are adequate air supplies.
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- "Even if we take no measures, it will be possible
to work on the station for several more months," Mikhailichenko said.
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- Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri and NASA astronaut
Michael Foale, aboard the station since October, have been inspecting the
valves and hatches since Monday when they first heard about the atmosphere
problem. Nothing has been found.
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- In an emergency, the crew can return to Earth in a Russian
Soyuz capsule docked at the station. But Mikhailichenko said such talk
at the moment was "ridiculous."
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- NASA and its station partners in Russia, Europe, Japan
and Canada opened the orbiting laboratory to long-term crews in 2000.
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