NASA puts International Space Station astronauts on alert for departure after air leak worsens

View of the Space Station at the moment NASA announces air leak to astronauts NASA A growing air leak aboard the International Space Station led five astronauts to shelter and prepare for an evacuation for about two hours on Friday (5), while Russia attempted to repair a crack in its part of the orbital laboratory, NASA reported. The four NASA Crew-12 mission astronauts aboard the space station — two Americans, one French astronaut, and one Russian cosmonaut — along with another American astronaut, were ordered by NASA mission control to enter their SpaceX-built Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station, NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens reported. Approximately two hours later, NASA reversed the order and informed the astronauts that they could return to the station while the agency and its Russian counterparts examined the air leak rate. Now on g1 NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the two main operators of the station, have been debating for months the cause and possible solutions for small air leaks aboard the Russian Zvezda service module, a fundamental structure of the ISS, a football-field-sized orbital laboratory where astronauts live and work in space. Roscosmos reported on Friday that its specialists detected two leaks aboard the International Space Station (ISS), but that there was no immediate threat to the crew. The first leak was quickly sealed and preparations to seal the second were underway, Roscosmos added, further stating that there was no threat to the spacecraft's systems. The air leaks have been relatively small in recent months, but increased on Friday, rising from half a kilogram of air per day to one kilogram, according to a high-ranking NASA official who requested anonymity. The International Space Station (ISS) currently houses seven astronauts from two missions, including the Crew-12 team — NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — who arrived in February. Another crew, consisting of American astronaut Christopher Williams and two cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, arrived in November. READ ALSO Nasa declares end of Mars probe mission after losing contact six months ago New method could help identify signs of life on icy moons of the Solar System Nasa reveals plans to build permanent lunar base by 2032 Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev, who did not perform the evacuation procedures, planned to use a saw to clear a path in an area where they believed they could access the fissure through which the air was leaking, the NASA official said.

According to the official, NASA officials disagreed with this method, which led the mission control center in Houston to order safe evacuation procedures. Stevens stated that NASA revoked the safe shelter order and informed the astronauts that they could return to the space station as soon as Roscosmos ceased its efforts to repair the crack. "We look forward to working with Roscosmos in a collaborative approach to deal with the leaks," she said. Evacuation orders are rare on the International Space Station, although space debris fragments posing a collision risk to the ISS and small changes in air leak rates have triggered the process in recent years.

Astronauts have never had to evacuate the ISS in its 27-year history.