NASA tells ISS astronauts to ready for possible evacuation amid leak repair

The United States space agency, NASA, has briefly ordered astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) to prepare for possible evacuation as a Russian crew attempts to repair worsening air leaks.

The order on Friday related to four astronauts of NASA’s Crew-12 mission on ⁠the station, which includes two ⁠US astronauts, a French astronaut and a Russian astronaut.

In a post on X, Bethany Stevens, a NASA spokesperson, said that a Zvezda service module tunnel, part of the Russian section of the space station, has suffered “from cracks and leaks for some time”.

NASA has monitored the situation, and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, has taken previous mitigation efforts.

“Following new leaks, Roscosmos has elected to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday, June 5,” she said.

“Out of an abundance of caution, NASA has directed all four of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-12 members and NASA astronaut Chris Williams to assume an elevated safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is underway,” she said, referring to the SpaceX vessel used for transport and resupply missions to and from the ISS.

However, Stevens later said the planned repairs had been paused.

“Given this development, NASA has instructed the crew members inside the Dragon spacecraft ⁠to end the ⁠safe haven procedures and return to planned operations aboard the International ⁠Space Station,” she said.

For its part, Roscosmos said on Friday that it had detected two leaks aboard the ISS.

The first leak was sealed and experts were working to seal the second one. It added that there was no threat to the spacecraft’s systems or those on board.

Launched in 1998, ISS is run by five international space agencies, also including Europe, Japan and Canada, but its daily operations are coordinated by NASA and Roscosmos.

As of Friday, seven astronauts were currently living and working on the orbital facility.

- AlJazeera