NASA ordered four astronauts aboard the International Space Station to don their spacesuits and shelter inside a docked spacecraft Friday as Russian engineers worked to repair a worsening air leak in the station’s Russian segment, the agency said.
The four members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission — Americans Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — received orders from mission control at 9:04 a.m. ET to enter their Crew Dragon capsule and prepare for a possible emergency evacuation. A fifth American, astronaut Chris Williams, was also directed to shelter alongside them, according to NASA.
NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said the agency had directed the five crew members to assume an elevated safety posture while Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, carried out repair work.
“We 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,” Ms. Stevens said.
The leak originates in the Zvezda service module’s transfer tunnel, known as the PrK, a key structure of the football field-sized laboratory. Ms. Stevens said the tunnel has suffered from cracks and leaks for some time and that Roscosmos had mitigated the problem as much as possible.
“Following new leaks, Roscosmos has elected to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday, June 5,” she said.
The leak rate had been relatively contained in recent months but escalated Monday from roughly one pound of air per day to two pounds, according to a senior NASA official who asked not to be identified. NASA and Roscosmos have debated for months over the cause and potential fixes.
Later Friday, NASA reversed its shelter order after Roscosmos said it would conduct measurements only rather than proceed with full repairs that day. The three Russian cosmonauts — Andrey Fedyaev, Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev — remained aboard the station while their American and French colleagues sheltered in the Crew Dragon.
Crew-12 launched Feb. 13 and has been conducting research in support of future missions to the moon and Mars. Mr. Williams has been aboard the station for 190 days alongside his two Russian colleagues.
