PROGRESS CRAFT TO BRING IN NEW DRAINAGE HOSE FOR ISS WINDOW

MOSCOW, JANUARY 29 (RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ALEXANDER YAKOVLEV) - The Progress M1-11 spacecraft will bring a new flexible strip hose for the window drainage system in the American Destiny module of the International Space Station, Sergei Puzanov, NASA public relations coordinator in Russia, told RIA Novosti.

"Michael Foale and Alexander Kaleri will promptly install it instead of the cracked hose," he said.

The crack in the strip hose was the reason for the pressure drop in early January, he recalled. Only on January 11 crew commander Michael Foale discovered the crack with the help of a portable ultrasound unit. On the next day, together with his Russian fellow-crewman Alexander Kaleri he removed the hose and put an airtight plug instead.

To prove Destiny for air-tightness it was isolated from the ISS for almost two days.

Results of air-tightness measurements in different parts of the ISS let specialists in the American and Russian mission control centers say there were no more air leaks.

Before the reason was discovered, ISS air pressure was falling by approximately 1 millimeter of the mercury column a day.