Breaking News English

Astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have [fixed / fixing] a hole in the shell of its [other / outer] wall. The ISS is a large satellite in space that scientists live in to do scientific [experiences / experiments] . The first part of it was put [onto / into] space in 1998. Last week, NASA [alerted / averted] astronauts on the ISS that the station was slowly leaking air. Astronaut Alexander Gerst and five [another / other] astronauts started [looked / looking] for the leak. Mr Gerst eventually found it and quickly used a [simply / simple] and effective way of stopping the leak - he put his finger [over / above] the hole. Luckily, the hole was only two millimeters wide so it was not a major emergency, but it did need [fixed / fixing] .

The hole was in a [decked / docked] Russian Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. NASA said it could have been [caused / causes] by a small piece of space junk or a small meteorite [colliding / collides] with the spacecraft. The ISS travels [up / at] speeds of around 28,000 kph. Even a tiny [subject / object] hitting it can cause a lot of damage. Flight controllers in the USA and Russia worked together [within / with] the crew to fix the hole. The Soyuz commander, Sergey Prokopyev, used a heat-[resistant / resistance] "space tape" and a special glue [to / for] plug the hole. These are part of a "necessary space repair kit". A NASA [officially / official] said the crew on the ISS are safe after the repair. He said: "The crew are healthy and safe with weeks [of / off] air left in the International Space Station reserves."