After a tense standoff, Russia has agreed to decommission the PrK module on the ISS to address long-standing crack issues, reducing the risk of a rapid depressurization event.
<p>Ten days ago, in a moment of very high drama in orbit, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/work-on-russias-leaky-space-station-module-causes-astronauts-to-take-shelter/">NASA directed its astronauts</a> living on the International Space Station to briefly seek emergency refuge in a Crew Dragon spacecraft.</p>
<p>Since then, neither the US space agency nor Roscosmos has provided additional public information about the situation in orbit. But according to sources who spoke to Ars, following the spectacle in space, the problem has been successfully fixed.</p>
<p>At issue were persistent cracks in a small area of the International Space Station attached to the Russian Zvezda service module, known as the PrK module. The problem has been ongoing since 2019, and Russian astronauts have been attempting various fixes, often using a sealant called Germetall-1.</p><p><a href="https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/russia-appears-set-to-finally-address-long-term-serious-space-station-cracks/">Read full article</a></p>
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# Russia appears set to finally address long-term, serious space station cracks
Source: [https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/russia-appears-set-to-finally-address-long-term-serious-space-station-cracks/](https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/russia-appears-set-to-finally-address-long-term-serious-space-station-cracks/)
“We threatened we would put astronauts in suits, in Dragon, to send a message to world that we disagreed,” one NASA official told Ars\. “They didn’t care\.”
## Reaching a resolution
The standoff continued into Friday morning, when Russian astronauts appeared to back off their plans, only to subsequently approach the PrK module with a saw and the intent to remove a load\-bearing bracket\. Meanwhile, Roscosmos officials continued to ignore communication with NASA officials on the ground\.
At this point, NASA directed Crew 12—US astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon*Freedom*spacecraft—along with US astronaut Chris Williams, who had flown to the station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft\.
“We felt there was a very high probability of a bad outcome happening if they sawed that bracket off,” a NASA source said\. NASA’s decision to send its astronauts into a safe haven prompted Roscosmos to finally back off\.
In the days since, there has been some additional back\-and\-forth, but Russia has now told NASA it will decommission the PrK module\.
Effectively, this means cosmonauts will no longer enter the PrK module or attempt to pressurize it\. Progress vehicles will still be able to use the docking port to transfer fluids or perform other functions, but Russia will need to use other ports to move supplies on board the space station\.
For NASA and the space station’s longevity, this agreement with Russia represents a significant step forward\. For years, NASA has reluctantly accepted the risk of a rapid depressurization event on board the space station due to the PrK module’s issues\. Now that risk should be retired\.
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