A deteriorating air leak on the International Space Station (ISS) led to five astronauts seeking shelter and preparing for evacuation for approximately two hours on Friday while Russia worked on fixing a crack in its section of the orbital laboratory, as per NASA. The four Crew-12 mission astronauts — two American astronauts, one astronaut from France, and a Russian cosmonaut — along with another U.S. astronaut were instructed by NASA mission control at 9:04 a.m. ET on Friday to enter their SpaceX-built Crew Dragon spacecraft attached to the station, said NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens.
About two hours later, NASA rescinded the order and allowed the astronauts to return to the station as both the agency and its Russian counterparts assessed the air leak rate. NASA and Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, the primary operators of the station, have been in discussions for months regarding the cause and potential solutions for minor air leaks on Russia’s Zvezda service module, a crucial component of the ISS where astronauts reside and work in space.
Roscosmos stated on Friday that its experts identified two leaks on the ISS but assured that there was no immediate danger to the crew. The first leak was swiftly sealed, and efforts were underway to seal the second leak, with no threat to the spacecraft’s systems, as confirmed by Roscosmos. The air leaks had been relatively minor in recent months but escalated on Friday from one pound of air per day to two pounds, according to a senior NASA official.
The ISS accommodates seven astronauts from two missions, including the Crew-12 team who arrived in February and another crew that arrived in November. Amid the emergency, Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev, two of the crew members, were planning to access the crack causing the air leak using a saw, a method contested by NASA officials leading to the safe-haven procedures being activated by mission control in Houston.
Safe-haven orders are uncommon on the ISS, typically triggered by factors such as space debris threats or changes in air leak rates. The crew members are required to shelter in place in the designated emergency vehicle or “lifeboat” in such situations. Stevens mentioned that NASA revoked the safe-haven order once Roscosmos paused its repair efforts, emphasizing collaboration with Roscosmos to address the leaks.
Efforts are ongoing to extend the life of the space station until 2032 through legislation in the U.S. Congress to allow more time for developing a replacement. The bill is supported by Senators Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell and is part of the broader focus on competing with China’s expanding presence in space by the Senate and House of Representatives leaders.
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