"Air Leak" May Force International Space Station Crew to Evacuate

SadaNews - The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that it has ordered astronauts aboard the International Space Station to remain inside their spacecraft and prepare for a possible evacuation on Friday, as a Russian crew attempts to fix a worsening air leak in their section of the station.

According to the Reuters news agency, a NASA official reported that the four astronauts in the "Crew-12" mission currently aboard the station—comprising two Americans, a French national, and a Russian—were instructed by NASA's mission control at 9:04 AM Eastern Time on Monday (1:04 PM GMT) to enter the "Crew Dragon" spacecraft docked to the station and don full space suits as a precaution in case the air leak necessitates an emergency evacuation.

NASA and the Russian space agency (Roscosmos), the primary operators of the station, have been discussing for months the causes of minor air leaks aboard the Russian service module (Zvezda) and potential solutions, which is a major component of the station roughly the size of a football field.

According to a senior NASA official—who requested to remain anonymous—these leaks had been relatively minor over the past few months, but worsened on Monday, doubling in severity.