Alarm prompts evacuation of International Space Station section
Ammonia leak triggers alarm causing six astronauts to to relocate from US sector to Russian as safety precaution. Subsequent tests indicate conditions are safe
Astronauts hurriedly evacuated the US section of the International Space Station and moved to its Russian module after a coolant problem emerged on Wednesday, but Russian and US officials insisted all six crew were not in any danger.
“The space station crew is safe,” Nasa spokesman Bob Jacobs said.
“We protected for the worst-case scenario and isolated the crew in the Russian segment.”
An alarm indicating a possible ammonia leak in the cooling system early on Wednesday prompted the crew to leave and seal off the American module, but further testing led officials to think it was just a sensor problem, Nasa spokesman Mike Curie said.
Still, the crew planned to finish its work day in the Russian segment and sleep there overnight out of caution, Curie said. There’s enough room and food for them to stay there a week but that’s not likely to be necessary, he added.
The two space agencies differed on exactly what had occurred as the station orbited about 400 kilometres above the Earth. While the Russian space agency Roscosmos said there was a coolant leak, Nasa said in a statement on its online television station there was still “no concrete data that suggests that there was, in fact, an ammonia leak”.
