Washington, DC – NASA announced that astronauts aboard the International Space Station have returned to their normal operations. This comes after the agency raised the alert level and instructed them to take shelter inside their capsules due to an air leak detected on the station.
Two leaks in a Russian unit
NASA confirmed that the five-member crew, including astronauts from the US, Russia, and France,
were instructed to return to their normal operations schedule after assessing the situation.
Emergency procedures were also suspended. Reports from the Russian space agency Roscosmos indicated
that a technical team detected two oxygen leaks on the International Space Station, noting that one leak was quickly sealed.
Efforts are continuing to seal the second leak. Despite the incident,
Roscosmos confirmed that there is no immediate danger to the crew aboard the station and that the situation is under control.
Temporary emergency measures
NASA had previously instructed astronauts to take shelter inside SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft
and don their spacesuits as a precautionary measure.
This came amid concerns about a worsening leak in the Russian Zvezda service module.
The agency indicated that small air leaks had been monitored for months,
but the rate of air loss had recently increased before being partially contained.
After assessing the technical situation, NASA decided to end the “safe shelter” procedure.
Consequently, the crew has returned to their daily activities aboard the station,
a permanent international scientific laboratory operated by several space agencies.
Ground teams in the United States and Russia continue to closely monitor the station’s structural integrity
and are working to ensure that the leaks do not recur or worsen in the future.
