A worsening air leak aboard the International Space Station prompted five astronauts to seek shelter and prepare for evacuation for about two hours Friday as Russia tried to repair a crack on its part of the orbiting laboratory, Nasa said.
The four astronauts from Nasa’s Crew-12 mission aboard the station – two Americans, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut – along with another American astronaut, were ordered Friday by Nasa mission control at 9:04 a.m. ET (1304 GMT) to enter their SpaceX-built Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station, said Bethan Stevens, station spokeswoman, Nasa.
Nasa reversed that order about two hours later, telling the astronauts they could return to the station as the agency and its Russian counterparts investigated the degree of leaking air.
Nasa and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, the station’s two primary operators, have discussed for months the cause and potential fixes of small air leaks aboard Russia’s Zvezda service module, a key structure of the ISS, a football field-sized orbital laboratory where astronauts live and work in space.
Roscosmos said Friday that its experts had detected two leaks aboard the ISS, but that there was no immediate threat to the crew. The first leak was quickly sealed and preparations were underway to seal the second, Roscosmos said, adding that there was no threat to the spacecraft’s systems.
The air leak has been relatively small in recent months, but escalated Friday from a pound of air a day to two pounds, according to a senior NASA official who asked not to be named.
The ISS is currently home to 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.
The second crew of an American astronaut, Christopher Williams, and two cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev, arrived in November.
Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev, who did not perform evacuation procedures, planned to use a chainsaw to reach an area where they believe they can access the fissure leaking air, the Nasa official said. Nasa officials disagreed with that method, the Nasa official said, prompting mission control in Houston to order safe harbor procedures.
Stevens said Nasa reversed the safe harbor order and told the astronauts they could return the space station once Roscosmos stopped its efforts to repair the crack. “We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a cooperative approach to resolving the leak,” she said.
Safe-haven orders are rare on the International Space Station, although pieces of space debris that risk colliding with the ISS and minor changes in air leaks have triggered the process in recent years. Astronauts have never had to evacuate the ISS in its 27-year history.
Legislation is before the US Congress that would extend the space station’s planned lifespan by two years, until 2032, to give companies more time to develop a replacement.
The bill has the support of Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican, and Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat — the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. The legislation is part of the committee’s focus on competing with China’s growing footprint in space.
Leaders in the US Senate and House of Representatives are working to reach consensus on the proposed legislation.
