Astronauts got a scare. NASA orders (and cancels) evacuation of the Space Station

A worsening air leak aboard the International Space Station prompted five astronauts to take refuge in the Crew Dragon and prepare for an eventual evacuation for about two hours as Russia tried to repair a crack in its section of the orbiting laboratory.

This Friday, NASA ordered astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to wear spacesuits, take refuge and prepare for a evacuation.

The instruction was given at a time when the two Russian crew members were trying to repair a worsening air leak on your side of the station.

Less than two hours later, mission control informed the astronauts (two Americans from NAS, a French astronaut from ESA and a Russian cosmonaut) that they could leave the “safe haven”its Crew Dragon spacecraft, because the repair attempt had been suspended to allow the analysis of new measurements, NASA explained.

NASA and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the station’s two main operators, have been discussing for months the cause and possible solutions for small Air leaks in Russian service module Zvezdaan essential structure of the ISS,

Zvezda is a orbital laboratory the size of a football fieldwhere astronauts live and work in space.

Roscosmos said on Friday that its experts had detected two leaks aboard the ISS, but that there was no immediate threat to the crew. THE first escape was quickly sealed and preparations were underway to seal the second, Roscosmos said, adding that there was no threat to the ship’s systems.

As air leaks had been relatively small in recent monthsbut worsened on Friday, going from around half a kilo of air per day to about one kilogram, according to a senior NASA official who requested anonymity.

The ISS currently has on board seven astronauts from two missionsincluding the Crew-12 team: NASA astronauts Jessica Meir e Jack HathawayEuropean Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and the Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaevwhich arrived in February.

The other crew of the current Expedition 74composed by the North American astronaut Christopher Williams and by Russian cosmonauts, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov e Sergei Mikayevarrived at the ISS in November.

Kud-Sverchkov and Mikayev, que did not follow evacuation proceduresplanned use a saw to reach a zone where they believe they can access the fissure where air is leaking, the NASA official said.

NASA officials disagreed with this methodaccording to the same source, which led mission control in Houston to order refuge procedures. But aboard a space station, where any anomaly can quickly gain another gravity, all precautions are few.