The International Space Station experiences a malfunction.

According to Gizmodo, the International Space Station (ISS) has confirmed an air leak exceeding safe levels. The agency said it is conducting a space expedition to inspect the space station's surface for any damage.

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and other interdisciplinary international organizations first detected the air leak in September 2019. The ISS also loses some air over time, but the current rate of leakage is somewhat high and it has been ongoing for the past year.

According to NASA, the astronauts managing the ISS have not yet been able to pinpoint the exact location of the air leak because they need to spend a lot of time operating the entire massive machine. While finding the leak requires astronauts to perform spacewalks and carefully inspect the area.

Despite a higher-than-normal level of air leakage, NASA confirmed that "parameters remain under control and do not pose a current danger to the crew or the space station." NASA stated that they are preparing to "locate the fault, isolate it, and repair it."

Specifically, NASA will send three astronauts, Chris Cassidy, Ivan Vagner, and Anatoly Ivanishin, to inspect the Zvezda region over four days, from August 21-24. During this process, all hatches of the ISS must be closed to monitor pressure, in order to identify areas where air loss is exceeding normal levels.

In 2018, a serious incident involving an oxygen leak occurred on the ISS. A small crack caused by a micrometeorite impact on the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft then led to a fatal accident for the astronauts as the crack widened, causing a significant loss of oxygen. The astronauts had to use space tape to seal the crack as an emergency precaution.