Astronauts take shelter on the International Space Station due to air leaks

Updated at 3:20 PM

Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) briefly took shelter and ready for a possible evacuation due to worsening air leaks from a Russian-built module, a NASA spokesperson stated right this moment.

The leaks are thought to have arisen from microscopic cracks in a switch tunnel known as the PrK, a small vestibule connected to the aft finish of the Zvezda Service Module, which ends up in a docking port for cargo spacecraft. Zvezda was the primary absolutely Russian contribution to the ISS, and was put in by the nation’s house company Roscosmos in July 2000. Engineers first seen the leaks in 2019, however regardless of a number of efforts throughout the years to seal them and establish their underlying trigger, they’ve remained a persistent drawback. As the leaks have continued, the orbital habitat now loses on the order of a pound of air per day.

“Following new leaks, Roscosmos has elected to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday, June 5,” stated NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens in a post on the social media platform X. “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 [SpaceX] Dragon spacecraft while the repair is underway.”

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In an announcement launched in Russian later within the day, Roscosmos officials wrote, “The situation poses no threat to the crew’s safety or onboard systems; pressure aboard the ISS remains stable and is being maintained at the nominal level,” in accordance with a machine translation.

Astronauts repeatedly practice to reply to a variety of incidents which may pose a menace to the station and themselves, says George Nield, president of the corporate Commercial Space Technologies and a former member of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. “NASA must always be prepared for its astronauts to use their Dragon spacecraft as a ‘lifeboat’ to rapidly return to Earth,” he says. “The increased pressure leak that was announced today is just a reminder that those events can happen at any time.”

Former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao agrees. “NASA is doing this out of an abundance of caution,” he says, calling the rise in leak charge regarding.

Alongside Williams, not less than three Crew-12 astronauts—NASA’s Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway and the European Space Agency’s Sophie Adenot—sought refuge in a docked Crew Dragon spacecraft. Crew-12 additionally consists of Roscosmos’s Andrey Fedyaev, nevertheless it was unclear whether or not he took shelter alongside his crewmates as directed. Fedyaev’s Russian colleagues Sergei Kud-Sverchkov and Sergey Mikaev remained outdoors of the Dragon to deal with the scenario.

Shortly after the astronauts entered the Dragon, officers at NASA’s Mission Control Center on the house company’s Johnson Space Center radioed a directive for them to exit the “safe haven configuration,” noting that “our Russian colleagues have elected to perform measurements only today.”

Stevens clarified her earlier remarks in a follow-up statement on X: “Roscosmos has paused Friday’s structural repair efforts inside the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as the PrK, as more measurements and data is assessed…. We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks.”

Despite the shelter order, which can have arisen from miscommunication between NASA and Roscosmos mission controllers, the astronauts have been most likely not in any imminent hazard, says Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist and space-situational consciousness guide. Onboard air provides may simply make up the continued losses from the leaks. Even so, he says, the scenario “is potentially extremely serious.”

“The worry is that a small crack could suddenly get catastrophically bigger,” he says. “That’s unlikely but not impossible, and that would risk loss of the station and crew.”

The scare highlights ongoing issues over the security of the ageing ISS, which has now been in orbit for greater than a quarter-century and is effectively past its supposed design life. The leaking PrK has turn into one of the vital vital points on the station, with NASA formally elevating the issue to its highest class of concern in inner security evaluations. Protocols are already in place to deal with the leaks, with the hatch main from Zvezda to the PrK saved closed except entry to Zvezda is required. When that hatch is opened, a corresponding hatch capping the U.S. sections of the ISS is closed to restrict any catastrophic decompression to Russia’s phase.

NASA has introduced plans to retire the ISS by the top of 2030, with deorbiting supposed to happen shortly thereafter, however varied efforts to additional prolong the house station’s life are ongoing.

Additional reporting by Meghan Bartels.

Editor’s Note (6/5/26): This is a breaking information story and can be up to date.

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