{"id":511594,"date":"2026-06-21T20:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T20:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511594\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T20:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T20:41:11","slug":"international-space-station-astronauts-stood-ready-to-evacuate-during-air-leak-repairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/511594\/","title":{"rendered":"International Space Station astronauts stood ready to evacuate during air leak repairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were ordered to prepare for a possible evacuation during attempts to fix a worsening air leak.<\/p>\n

Five members were directed by Nasa\u2019s mission control to take refuge in their docked spacecraft in case they need to escape quickly as repairs were carried out by a Russian crew on a transfer tunnel, which has suffered from cracking.<\/p>\n

They were also told to put on their spacesuits.<\/p>\n

(PA Graphics)<\/p>\n

However, the rare safe haven procedure was ended around two hours later and the astronauts returned to the football pitch-sized laboratory, orbiting around 250 miles above the Earth.<\/p>\n

Fractures in the Zvezda service module had been an ongoing concern, said Nasa.<\/p>\n

The agency has been working with its Moscow-based counterpart Roscosmos to find the root cause of the problem, which has been managed through mitigation measures and partial repairs.<\/p>\n

Announcing the precautionary measure, Nasa spokesman Bethany Stevens said in a post on X: \u201cThe Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK, has suffered from cracks and leaks for some time, and has been mitigated by Roscosmos as much as possible to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cracks have always been a concern that Nasa watches very closely.<\/p>\n

\u201cNasa and Roscosmos have been working to determine the root cause of the cracks, and Roscosmos manages the issue through operational mitigation measures and periodic partial-repair efforts.<\/p>\n

The International Space Station is seen from a Russian Soyuz MS-19 spaceship after undocking in 2022 (Roscosmos State Space Corporation\/AP)<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing new leaks, Roscosmos has elected to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday June 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cOut of an abundance of caution, Nasa has directed all four of the agency\u2019s SpaceX Crew-12 members and Nasa astronaut Chris Williams to assume an elevated safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is under way.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to work with our Russian counterparts, along with the rest of the international community that supports the space station, to arrive at a more permanent resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a later update, she added: \u201cRoscosmos has paused Friday\u2019s structural repair efforts inside the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK, as more measurements and data is assessed.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks.<\/p>\n

Roscosmos said its experts had found two leaks aboard the ISS but steps had been taken to address these.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the agency said: \u201cThe situation does not threaten the safety of the crew and onboard systems \u2013 the pressure on board the ISS is stable and maintained at the calculated level.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are currently seven astronauts aboard the station.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were ordered to prepare for a possible evacuation during attempts to fix…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":511595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,1042,60,1094,82,386],"class_list":["post-511594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-international","tag-ireland","tag-report","tag-science","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/511595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}