NASA directed astronauts aboard the International Space Station to shelter in their spacecraft and ready themselves for a possible evacuation on Friday as Russian personnel sought to repair a growing air leak in the station's Russian segment, the agency said.
At 9:04 a.m. ET Monday (1304 GMT), mission control instructed the four members of NASA's Crew-12 aboard the station - comprising two U.S. astronauts, one French astronaut and one Russian cosmonaut - to board their docked Crew Dragon and don their spacesuits in case conditions required an emergency departure, a NASA official said.
The issue centers on small but persistent air leaks originating in the Zvezda service module, the Russian-built component that is part of the football field-sized laboratory. For months, NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos, the two primary operators of the station, have been in discussions over the source of the leaks and possible corrective measures.
Officials characterized the leaks as relatively minor until Monday, when the rate rose from about one pound of air loss per day to roughly two pounds per day, according to a senior NASA official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
NASA framed the shelter-in-place order and suit donning as a precautionary step to ensure crew safety while Russian teams worked on repairs. The instruction to have the Crew-12 members enter the Crew Dragon and prepare for a potential evacuation reflects contingency protocols designed to secure the crew should the air loss escalate to an emergency level.
Beyond the immediate operational steps, the episode highlights ongoing technical disagreements and cooperation between the station's two lead operators as they address a recurring hardware problem aboard a critical module of the orbiting outpost.
Key context and chronology
- Mission control ordered shelter-in-place and suit donning at 9:04 a.m. ET Monday (1304 GMT).
- The affected module is the Russian Zvezda service module on the station's Russian segment.
- Leak rate increased from about one pound per day to approximately two pounds per day on Monday.
All descriptions and figures above reflect information released by NASA and statements from a senior NASA official who requested anonymity.