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Astronauts Flee US Side of Space Station but No Sign of …

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In a rare scare, astronauts fled the American side of the International Space Station on Wednesday after an alarm indicated a possible toxic leak. NASA later said there was no leak of ammonia coolant and a computer problem likely set off the false alarm.

By Wednesday afternoon, the astronauts were back in the U.S. part of the orbiting outpost. Earlier, the six crew members had huddled safely on the Russian side once when the alarm sounded and again following an initial all-clear.

"Hey everybody, thanks for your concern," Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti said via Twitter. "We're all safe & doing well in the Russian segment."

The "unscheduled excitement," as NASA called it, occurred around 4 a.m. EST, well into the station crew's workday.

As alarms blared, the astronauts followed emergency procedures in slapping on oxygen masks, taking cover in the Russian quarters, then sealing the hatches between the U.S. and Russian sides. At the same time, flight controllers at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston turned off non-essential equipment.

Within minutes, Mission Control gave an all-clear, but sent the astronauts scurrying back over to the Russian side again when there was more evidence of a possible leak of the coolant.

The highly toxic liquid ammonia, flowing outside the space station, is used to cool electronics. Flight controllers originally feared it had gotten into the water system running inside. Now, it's believed that a failed card in a computer-relay box was the culprit.

The crew three Russians, two Americans and the Italian Cristoforetti stayed in the three, relatively small Russian compartments while Mission Control analyzed data. Engineers wanted to understand the computer failure and confirm "that the system is tight like we believe it to be," space station program manager Mike Suffredini said on NASA TV.

About 11 hours after the ammonia system-alarm sounded, the hatch to the U.S. segment was reopened. Cristoforetti and U.S. astronaut Terry Virts ran tests and no ammonia was detected.

When the alarm went off, the crew had been dealing with supplies and experiments from the newly arrived SpaceX capsule including fruit flies. None of the research appears to be jeopardized, Suffredini said.

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Astronauts Flee US Side of Space Station but No Sign of ...

Space Station Astronauts Return to US Segment After Leak False Alarm

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NASA (via Flickr) European astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA's Terry Virts participate in an emergency exercise training drill on Dec. 1, 2014.

Crewmembers on the International Space Station have now been allowed into the U.S. segment of the orbiting outpost, after a false alarm caused astronauts to evacuate that part of the station early Wednesday (Jan. 14).

The alarm could have indicated a possible leak of toxic ammonia into the station's cabin; however, NASA has found no evidence of a leak. NASA astronauts Terry Virts, Barry "Butch" Wilmore and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti re-entered the U.S. side which include the European, Japanese and U.S. station modules wearing masks at about 3:05 p.m. EST (2005 GMT). Cristoforetti and Virts took samples of the station's air and found no ammonia, according to NASA.

"The crew is in good condition, was never in any danger and no ammonia leak has been detected on the orbital laboratory," NASA officials wrote in an update.

NASA Crewmembers were forced to evacuate the U.S. segment of the International Space Station on Jan. 14, 2015 due to a possible ammonia leak.

NASA officials were worried that the space station's cooling system which uses ammonia to help regulate temperatures on the station could have been leaking the noxious gas into the station's atmosphere. [Inside the International Space Station (Infographic)]

Virts, Cristoforetti and Wilmore joined cosmonauts Elena Serova, Alexander Samokutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov in the Russian segment for much of the day after the alarm sounded at about 4 a.m. EST (0900 GMT). Because there is no sign of ammonia in the cabin, the crewmembers should be allowed to take of their masks and roam freely through all parts of the station, according to NASA.

Officials now think that the false alarm may have been caused by an error in a computer used to beam information to and from the space station. The computer, called a multiplexer-demultiplexer, now seems to be in good shape after officials turned the device off and on again, NASA officials said.

Mission Controllers are still working to understand exactly what set off the alarm, but work for the astronauts should continue as normal on Thursday (Jan. 15). NASA officials will now take steps to re-activate a cooling loop powered down because of the alarm.

NASA officials do not think that the research on the station was negatively impacted because of the evacuation.

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Space Station Astronauts Return to US Segment After Leak False Alarm

Reported ammonia leak on the International Space Station proves to be false alarm

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The crew of the International Space Station evacuated its U.S. section on Wednesday morning after an alarm sounded, indicating a possible ammonia leak.. (Reuters)

Update:NASA has now confirmed that the leak was a false alarm, and U.S. astronauts will return to their segment of the space station. They'll wear oxygen masks while conducting tests for ammonia, and remove them once they confirm that the air is clear.

A portion of the International Space Station was evacuated followingcoolant loop pressure increases that possibly indicated a toxic leak of ammonia at 4 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday.All six members of the space station's crew are safe. An afternoon update from NASA confirmed that the problem was not an actual gas leak but a computer error that caused an alarm to sound unnecessarily.

The U.S. side of the space station was sealed off,the Russian Federal Space Agency said on itsWeb site. The statement characterized the situation as a leak of "harmful substances."

"The safety of the team was preserved thanks to swift actions of the cosmonauts and astronauts themselves and the team on the ground in Moscow and Houston," Maksim Matyushin, head of Russian Mission Control, said in the statement, as translatedby NBC News.

The currentExpedition 42 crew of the ISSincludes three Russians, an Italian and two Americans.

"The crew is safe, they're in the Russian segment, and we're working on understanding exactly what went on, NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told The Post on Wednesday morning. Humphries explained that we saw an increase in water loop pressure, on the crew cabin pressure, that could be indicative of an ammonia leak in a worst-case scenario.

Although some reports, citing NASA officials, characterized the issue as an ammonia leak, NASA tweeted Wednesday morning that there is "no ammonia leak confirmed."

This was repeatedduring an emergency newsconference at 7:55 a.m.,when NASA representatives said they wished to emphasize that there was "no hard evidence" of a real ammonia leak on the space station. The U.S. crew did indeed don oxygen masks and move into the Russian segment of ISS, shutting down non-essential equipment and shutting the hatch behind them.

But as of that newsconference, equipment in the U.S. segment was already being turned back on. Flight control teams on the ground will continue to monitor the data from ISS, which they believe is indicative of a perfect storm of sensor errors not an actual leak of toxic fluid.

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Reported ammonia leak on the International Space Station proves to be false alarm

Astronauts find no leak in US module of space station

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Crewmembers on the International Space Station have now been allowed into the U.S. segment of the orbiting outpost, after a false alarm caused astronauts to evacuate that part of the station early Wednesday (Jan. 14).

The alarm could have indicated a possibleleak of toxic ammoniainto the station's cabin; however, NASA has found no evidence of a leak. NASA astronauts Terry Virts, Barry "Butch" Wilmore and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti re-entered the U.S. side which include the European, Japanese and U.S. station modules wearing masks at about 3:05 p.m. EST (2005 GMT). Cristoforetti and Virts took samples of the station's air and found no ammonia, according to NASA.

"The crew is in good condition, was never in any danger and no ammonia leak has been detected on the orbital laboratory," NASA officialswrote in an update.

NASA officials were worried that thespace station's cooling system which uses ammonia to help regulate temperatures on the station could have been leaking the noxious gas into the station's atmosphere. [Inside the International Space Station (Infographic)]

Virts, Cristoforetti and Wilmore joined cosmonauts Elena Serova, Alexander Samokutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov in the Russian segment for much of the day after the alarm sounded at about 4 a.m. EST (0900 GMT). Because there is no sign of ammonia in the cabin, the crewmembers should be allowed to take of their masks and roam freely through all parts of the station, according to NASA.

Officials now think that the false alarm may have been caused by an error in a computer used to beam information to and from the space station. The computer, called a multiplexer-demultiplexer, now seems to be in good shape after officials turned the device off and on again, NASA officials said.

Mission Controllers are still working to understand exactly what set off the alarm, but work for the astronauts should continue as normal on Thursday (Jan. 15). NASA officials will now take steps to re-activate a cooling loop powered down because of the alarm.

NASA officials do not think that the research on the station was negatively impacted because of the evacuation.

The false alarm Wednesday was the third of its kind to occur in the more than 15 years crews have lived on the space station. Crewmembers have been forced to evacuate the U.S. side of the outpost, taking refuge in the Russian side, two other times due to a false ammonia alarm, NASA spokesman Rob Navias told Space.com via email.

Rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts have continuously manned the International Space Station since 2000. The station has the approximate living space of a five-bedroom house.

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Astronauts find no leak in US module of space station

A false alarm for crew on the International Space Station

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The crew of the International Space Station evacuated its U.S. section on Wednesday morning after an alarm sounded, indicating a possible ammonia leak.. (Reuters)

Update:NASA has now confirmed that the leak was a false alarm, and U.S. astronauts will return to their segment of the space station. They'll wear oxygen masks while conducting tests for ammonia, and remove them once they confirm that the air is clear.

A portion of the International Space Station was evacuated followingcoolant loop pressure increases that possibly indicated a toxic leak of ammonia at 4 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday.All six members of the space station's crew are safe. An afternoon update from NASA confirmed that the problem was not an actual gas leak but a computer error that caused an alarm to sound unnecessarily.

The U.S. side of the space station was sealed off,the Russian Federal Space Agency said on itsWeb site. The statement characterized the situation as a leak of "harmful substances."

"The safety of the team was preserved thanks to swift actions of the cosmonauts and astronauts themselves and the team on the ground in Moscow and Houston," Maksim Matyushin, head of Russian Mission Control, said in the statement, as translatedby NBC News.

The currentExpedition 42 crew of the ISSincludes three Russians, an Italian and two Americans.

"The crew is safe, they're in the Russian segment, and we're working on understanding exactly what went on, NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told The Post on Wednesday morning. Humphries explained that we saw an increase in water loop pressure, on the crew cabin pressure, that could be indicative of an ammonia leak in a worst-case scenario.

Although some reports, citing NASA officials, characterized the issue as an ammonia leak, NASA tweeted Wednesday morning that there is "no ammonia leak confirmed."

This was repeatedduring an emergency newsconference at 7:55 a.m.,when NASA representatives said they wished to emphasize that there was "no hard evidence" of a real ammonia leak on the space station. The U.S. crew did indeed don oxygen masks and move into the Russian segment of ISS, shutting down non-essential equipment and shutting the hatch behind them.

But as of that newsconference, equipment in the U.S. segment was already being turned back on. Flight control teams on the ground will continue to monitor the data from ISS, which they believe is indicative of a perfect storm of sensor errors not an actual leak of toxic fluid.

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A false alarm for crew on the International Space Station


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