MOSCOW, November 19. /TASS/. The crack in the previously isolated intermediate chamber of the module Zvezda remains, cosmonaut Sergei Ryzhikov told the Mission Control.

Earlier, the crew locked the hatches into the intermediate chamber. The Mission Control asked whether the crew had measured the pressure before the hatch into that chamber was opened. The crew reported that the pressure went down considerably in the smaller part of the compartment while it remained isolated from the rest of the station by an airtight hatch.

"The pressure in the intermediate chamber went down from 723 mm of the mercury column to 685 millimeters," Ryzhikov said.

On Tuesday, the crew placed a new patch over the crack. The Russian space corporation Roscosmos later told TASS that several measurements would be made with the aim of eventually identifying the cause of the leak.

On October 15, the ISS crew told the Mission Control that the leak spot was tentatively found in the intermediate chamber of the Russian module Zvezda. Cosmonaut Anatoly Ivanishin later said that the possible crack looked like a curvilinear scratch 2-3 centimeters long. The cosmonauts later specified that the crack was about 4.5 centimeters long.

During a space walk on Wednesday the area of the suspected leak was photographed from outside. The cosmonauts noticed no external damage in the area of the crack.