NASA told five astronauts aboard the International Space Station to end a brief safe haven procedure inside a docked Dragon spacecraft Friday and return to normal operations after Russian teams finished checking leak repairs. The move had put the crew in the capsule, which serves as a lifeboat if the station ever needs an evacuation, before the agency gave the all clear and reversed the sheltering order.
That quick shift is why the iss air leak emergency evacuation drew attention: it was not a full-blown evacuation, but a real-time safety posture for five people already in orbit. Bethany Stevens said NASA had instructed the crew inside Dragon to end the safe haven procedures and resume planned work aboard the station, a message that came only after Roscosmos cosmonauts took measurements and assessed data tied to the leak concern.
Roscosmos said a leak was recorded while pressurizing the transfer chamber known as PrK, and that an inspection turned up two potential air leak sites. The first was sealed with the first layer of the two-component sealant Germetall-1, while work was still underway to prepare the second site, on the conical part of the PrK, for sealing. NASA and Roscosmos have been trying to determine what is causing the cracks and leaks in the transfer tunnel for some time.
For a station that has been continuously inhabited for the last quarter-century, even a short shelter-in-place order matters because it shows how closely the two agencies are still managing an aging outpost. NASA said the transfer tunnel has suffered cracks and leaks for some time, and Roscosmos has been handling the problem with operational mitigation measures and periodic partial repairs. The station itself is due to be pushed out of orbit in 2030 and sent down over an isolated spot in the Pacific Ocean.
Friday ended with the astronauts back at their stations, but the underlying question has not gone away: whether the second potential leak site in the PrK can be sealed without further interruptions to life aboard the station. Roscosmos said the work to prepare that repair was continuing, and the next update will show whether the temporary calm holds.
