Astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) high above the our planet unearthed an ammonia leak that NASA says does not pose a major threat, despite what some may say.
"The station continues to operate normally otherwise and the crew is in no danger," NASA commened in a statement.
The leak is thought to be coming from the Photovoltaic Thermal Control System, which helps monitor cooling for the electrical systems hooked up the space station's eight massive solar panels. Ammonia leaks have plagued the ISS in the past, including one from the same suspected area patched up just last year.
"Ammonia is used to cool the station's power channels that provide electricity to station systems. Each solar array has its own independent cooling loop. This ammonia loop is the same one that spacewalkers attempted to troubleshoot a leak on during a spacewalk on Nov. 1, 2012," NASA said. "It is not yet known whether this increased ammonia flow is from the same leak, which at the time, was not visible.
The ISS is a joint operation by the United States and other countries, one of which is Russia. Unlike NASA, however, flight director for the Russian portion of the space station Vladimir Solovyov was caught saying, "Indeed, they have a serious defect, very serious."
Given the past occurrences of similar incidents, most, including the astronauts aboard the ISS, don't seem too worried. NASA hopes to use the space station's robotic arm to help hone in on the leak, which could be located in the port truss. A spacewalk has also been ordered by mission control to help diagnose the problem.
"Plans are being developed to reroute other power channels to maintain full operation of those and other systems normally controlled by the solar array that is cooled by this loop," NASA explained.
The ISS is currently headed by Canadian Chris Hadfield, who commands five other astronauts from the United States and Russia.