An air leak aboard the International Space Station on Friday prompted NASA to order astronauts to temporarily take shelter and prepare for possible evacuation.
Five astronauts moved into the SpaceX Dragon capsule that is docked at the station while Russian cosmonauts worked to fix the leak, which is on the Russian side of the orbiting laboratory.
The decision was made “out of an abundance of caution,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens said in a post on X.
The incident happened amid the discovery of new leaks in the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel. That part of the aging space station has repeatedly suffered from cracks and leaks over the years, and NASA and Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, have been working to determine the root cause.
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While partial repair efforts have been made to patch up the holes, the Russian cosmonauts were set to undertake a “more extensive repair operation” Friday after fresh problems were found, Stevens said. Those repair efforts were paused “as more measurements and data is assessed.”
About two hours later, the crew was instructed to “end the safe haven procedures” and leave the capsule, and returned to regular operations.
There are currently seven astronauts aboard the ISS as part of Expedition 74: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway and Chris Williams; European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot of France; and Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikaev, Andrey Fedyaev.
