Nasa: evacuation threat over at the International Space Station

Of the United States space administration Nasa on Friday temporarily ordered its astronauts on the International Space Station ISS to prepare for evacuation. The news agency Reuters reported about it.

The reason was an air leak in the Russian section of the space station.

NASA ordered four Crew-12 astronauts on the station and one Expedition 74 astronaut to shelter in a Crew Dragon docked at the station and don spacesuits in case an air leak required an emergency evacuation.

A couple of hours later, the command was canceled and NASA announced that the astronauts could return to their duties on the space station.

Lie the orbiting International Space Station consists of several different parts.

NASA and the Russian space agency Roskosmos are primarily responsible for the station.

Roskosmos announced that two air leaks were detected in the Russian part of the station on Friday, but they did not pose an immediate danger to the station’s crew. The first leak was patched up quickly and the second leak is being plugged, Roskosmos announced in the evening Finnish time on Friday.

In recent years, the space station’s Russian Zvezda maintenance module has suffered from many problems, such as air leaks caused by cracks. This has raised concerns about the safety of the station’s personnel.

According to Reuters sources, air leaks have been quite small in recent months, but in recent days they have increased.

Correction 5.6. 19:29: The alarm lasted for about two hours. Earlier in the article it was written about. Five astronauts were ordered to be evacuated, not four, as previously written in the article.