The four astronauts aboard the International Space Station are on evacuation alert as Russian crewmates work to fix a worsening air leak.
NASA is reported to have instructed the astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) to be ready to evacuate because of “air leaks.”
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International media, including the Daily Mail, are reporting the story. The US space agency is said to have told the crew to prepare for a possible evacuation. The issue concerns a leak in a Russian module of the station, which has been experiencing similar problems since 2019.
Bethany Stevens, a NASA press officer, said in a statement published on X that “the transfer tunnel of the Zvezda service module, known as the PrK, has long had cracks and leaks, which Roscosmos has contained as far as possible up to now.
Following new leaks, Roscosmos decided to carry out more extensive repair work on Friday 5 June. As a precautionary measure, NASA ordered the four members of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission and American astronaut Chris Williams to adopt maximum safety procedures inside the Dragon spacecraft for the entire duration of the operations.
We continue to work with our Russian counterparts and with the rest of the international community to support the International Space Station, with the aim of reaching a permanent solution.”
There are currently four astronauts from NASA’s Crew-12 mission on board (two Americans, one French national and one Russian), and the order from NASA mission control to board the Crew Dragon spacecraft is reported to have come at 9.04 a.m. US East Coast time last Monday.
A NASA official, the Daily Mail reports, specified that the crew were asked to put on their spacesuits for an emergency evacuation.
NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the two main operators of the station, have been discussing for months the cause and possible solutions to the small air leaks on board the Russian Zvezda service module, a key structure of the laboratory, which is the size of a football pitch.
The air leaks had been relatively minor in recent months, but on Monday they increased from half a kilo of air a day to a kilo. For comparison, an average adult inhales and exhales between 10 and 15 kg of air a day.
What happened
The astronauts of the Crew-12 mission have not left the International Space Station (ISS) and have not been evacuated to Earth, but were temporarily transferred to the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule as a precautionary safety measure during a critical phase of operations on the Russian Zvezda module.
The order was issued in response to a worsening of the air leaks in the PrK transfer tunnel, which led NASA to request “shelter” in the spacecraft docked to the ISS. After checks were completed and Roscosmos’s repair work had progressed, the situation was considered under control and the crew subsequently returned to their normal activities on board the station, which remains operational and inhabited.