A warning was issued to astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) to seek shelter and prepare for a possible evacuation due to worsening air leaks in the Russian segment of the renowned space research facility.
Five astronauts, including three from the US, one French national, and a Russian cosmonaut, were instructed by NASA mission control to seek refuge in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, which was docked at the ISS on Friday afternoon.
Orders for sheltering in place are uncommon, and a complete evacuation of the space station has never been carried out since its launch into orbit in November 1998. NASA officials rescinded the order after two hours and allowed the crew to return to the ISS while Russia’s space agency Roscosmos investigated the air leaks.
Roscosmos halted repairs on the leak after the astronauts returned to the station. NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens mentioned that the pause was necessary for further measurements and data assessments.
Following this development, NASA directed the crew members inside the Dragon spacecraft to end the safety procedures and resume regular operations aboard the International Space Station, expressing readiness to collaborate with Roscosmos to address the leaks.
Roscosmos identified two leaks on the ISS, stating that they do not pose an immediate threat to the crew or the station’s onboard systems. The first leak was promptly sealed, and preparations are underway to mend the second one.
The persistent issue of air leaks at the ISS, which led to the emergency order, has been ongoing for at least seven years and is localized in the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel connecting the Russian segment to the rest of the space station.
Efforts are ongoing to find a lasting solution in collaboration with Russian counterparts and the international community supporting the space station, as mentioned by Stevens in a prior post on Twitter.
Initial concerns about the leaks were reported to NASA in September 2019 and have continued to be a recurring challenge. The ISS comprises multiple American and Russian segments, with additional modules added by the European and Japanese space agencies in 2008.
Currently, the space station accommodates seven astronauts involved in two separate missions. The Crew-12 team consists of NASA’s Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, the European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos’s Andrey Fedyaev, who arrived at the station in February.
Additional crew members, American Christopher Williams, and Russians Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, arrived in November to join the mission.