NASA reversed an evacuation alert for five astronauts aboard the International Space Station on Friday after roughly two hours of shelter-in-place procedures, as the agency and Russia’s Roscosmos assessed an accelerating air leak in the station’s Russian segment.
Quick Facts
- Five astronauts sheltered in a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft at 9:04 a.m. ET on June 5 after NASA detected a worsening air leak.
- The air leak rate doubled on Friday, escalating from 1 pound of air per day to 2 pounds per day.
- Roscosmos detected two leaks in the Zvezda service module and sealed one; the second was being addressed when NASA paused repair efforts.
- Astronauts have never evacuated the ISS in its 27-year operational history.
NASA mission control in Houston ordered the four astronauts of Crew-12 — two Americans, a French astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut — along with a fifth U.S. astronaut to enter the docked Crew Dragon at 9:04 a.m. ET, according to Reuters. The order came as air pressure loss from a crack in Russia’s Zvezda module accelerated beyond normal rates, prompting what is called a safe-haven procedure on the station.
Disagreement over repair methods triggered the alert. Russian cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev planned to use a saw to reach an area where they believed they could access the crack, but NASA officials disagreed with this approach, according to Reuters. NASA reversed the safe-haven order roughly two hours later once Roscosmos paused its repair efforts, and astronauts were cleared to return to normal station operations.
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The leak sits in Russia’s Zvezda service module, a key structural component of the station. Roscosmos said on Friday that it had detected two leaks but that there was no immediate threat to the crew. The first leak was quickly sealed, and preparations were underway to seal the second, the Russian agency said. Air leaks on the ISS have been relatively minor in recent months, but the Friday escalation to 2 pounds per day from the previous 1 pound per day heightened concern among mission controllers.
Safe-haven orders are rare on the International Space Station, though space debris risks and smaller changes in air leak rates have triggered the procedure in recent years. This marks a moment of tension between NASA and Roscosmos over how to manage the aging station’s persistent structural challenges. The two agencies have debated for months over the cause and potential fixes of the air leaks.
Sources
- Reuters — reported the timeline of the evacuation alert, reversal after two hours, crew composition, leak rate escalation, repair method disagreement, and Roscosmos statements.
- NBC News — confirmed NASA reversed the order roughly two hours later.
- U.S. News & World Report — reported the leak rate escalation from 1 pound to 2 pounds per day.
