Miami (USA).- NASA has ordered the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) to take shelter in their respective spacecraft and remain prepared for a possible evacuation, while a Russian crew works to contain an air leak that has worsened in the Russian segment of the orbital laboratory.
The leak has been present in the Russian module “for some time,” and Roscosmos was in charge of partially mitigating its effects with “periodic efforts,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens reported this Friday on the social network X.
However, the appearance of new leaks led the Russian space agency to schedule a more extensive repair operation today, during which NASA placed its astronauts on alert and urged them to move to the SpaceX Dragon capsule, which transported several of them to the orbital laboratory.
You might be interested in: NASA uses Mars’ gravity to accelerate a probe studying the origin of Earth
“Out of an abundance of caution, NASA has directed the agency’s four SpaceX Crew-12 crew members and NASA astronaut Chris Williams to assume a heightened safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is being performed,” explained Stevens.
In addition to the four SpaceX members, which include cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev and Williams, two other Russian crew members are currently on board the space station
More Read
The cracks in the Zvezda module, the first fully Russian contribution to the station, have been a subject of constant concern for NASA, which stated that it is working with Roscosmos and the rest of the international space agencies to reach a permanent solution.
Since its installation in the year 2000, the module has provided housing, life support systems, electrical power distribution, data processing systems, flight control systems, and propulsion systems, according to NASA.
In addition, it serves as a docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.
NASA will cease operations on the International Space Station at the end of 2030 and deorbit it in 2031, after more than 30 years of service since its launch in 1998, and plans to begin using commercial platforms in low Earth orbit for microgravity research or technology demonstrations.
