A Leak That Has Troubled Engineers On Both Sides For Five To Six Years, A Crack In The PrK Transfer Tunnel That The Station Had Been Losing A Pound Of Air Per Day From, And A Repair Attempt That Prompted The Rarest Order In The ISS’s 27-Year History
According to The Independent, Reuters and Al Jazeera, NASA ordered five astronauts aboard the International Space Station to shelter in their docked SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and prepare for potential evacuation at 9:04 a.m. ET on Friday, June 5; a rare safe-haven alert triggered by a worsening air leak in the Zvezda service module’s transfer tunnel on the Russian segment of the station.
The four astronauts of NASA’s Crew-12 mission; two Americans, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut along with another US astronaut were ordered by NASA mission control to enter their SpaceX-built Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station. The crew donned spacesuits inside the Crew Dragon “Freedom” capsule, which was kept sealed, powered, and ready to undock within minutes.
The latest leaks were found in the Zvezda service module’s transfer tunnel, known as the PrK, a Russian-operated section that has suffered from recurring cracks for roughly six years. The station had been losing a pound of air per day to leaks in the decaying Russian half of the station, but the leak recently doubled in size.
NASA reversed that order roughly two hours later and told the astronauts they could return to the station as the agency and its Russian counterparts examined the rate of leaking air. Roscosmos confirmed two leaks had been detected; the first was sealed and engineers were working on the second. Astronauts have never had to evacuate the ISS in its 27-year history.
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