NEW YORK, February 28. /TASS/. The Russian segment of the International Space station started to leak more air recently but it is not affecting the safety of the crew, said Joel Montalbano, the ISS program manager at NASA.

"There's an area in the aft end of the International Space Station where we've seen a week and a small leak," he said. "We saw that leak increase about a week before the recent Progress launch and docking."

"We're working with our Russian colleagues on the next step. No impact right now on the crew safety," Montalbano said.

He made the comments at a news conference devoted to the launch of the Crew-8 mission, including Russian cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin, to the ISS.

The crew’s other members are NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt and Jeanette Epps. The mission is set to blast off onboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft on March 1.