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US, Russian astronauts cozy up amid space station gas scare
A potential gas leak onboard the International Space Station is focisng American astronauts and Russian cosmonauts to spend some quality time together, with the US side being evacuated after...

By: RT America

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US, Russian astronauts cozy up amid space station gas scare - Video

ISS Astronauts Evacuated to Russian Side After Alarm
An Alarming Situation Aboard the International Space Station. Courtesy HD Video | DoD News | Date: 01.14.2015. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were evacuated from the American.

By: okrajoe

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ISS Astronauts Evacuated to Russian Side After Alarm - Video

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.

Originally posted here:
Space Station Astronauts Return to US Segment After Leak False Alarm

Last Updated Jan 14, 2015 4:58 PM EST

Crew members returned safely to the U.S. segment of the International Space Station Wednesday afternoon after evacuating earlier in the day.

Concern about a possible ammonia coolant leak early Wednesday prompted the three astronauts to evacuate their portion of the complex, joining three cosmonauts in Russian modules while flight controllers studied telemetry to figure out if alarms were triggered by an actual leak, a sensor problem or some other issue, officials said Wednesday.

A few hours later, engineers studying telemetry found no evidence of any leaking ammonia, raising suspicion that a circuit board, or card, in a specific computer known as a multiplexer-demultiplexer, or MDM, might have suffered a failure that took four critical sensors off line. That, in turn, triggered a sequence of events that may have combined to indicate a leak in the station's ammonia coolant system.

"At this point, the team does not believe we leaked ammonia," Mike Suffredini, the space station program manager, said at 11 a.m. EST (GMT-5). "What we are dealing with is this failure of probably a card inside one of our multiplexer-demultiplexers, it's just a computer that sends telemetry down and brings commands back up. This card has a number of measurements on it and those were the measurements we lost."

The alarms were triggered just after 4 a.m. EST (GMT-5) when an apparent pressure increase was detected in a water coolant loop in the forward Harmony module. Water is circulated inside the station to carry away the heat generated by the lab's electronics. The water then flows through components called heat exchangers, transferring the heat to ammonia coolant that flows through huge external radiators to keep the station within temperature limits.

The apparent pressure spike in coolant loop B was a possible indicator of an ammonia leak, and playing it safe, flight controllers told Expedition 42 commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore, Terry Virts and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti to don masks and move into the Russian segment of the space station.

The telemetry was confusing at first and the initial evacuation was briefly called off. But when flight controllers saw indications of a slight pressure increase in the crew's air supply -- a more convincing sign of an actual leak into the station -- they told the crew to head back to the Russian segment.

Joining cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev, Elena Serova and Anton Shkaplerov, Wilmore, Cristoforetti and Virts closed a hatch between NASA's Unity module and the Russian Zarya module, isolating all six crew members in the Russian segment of the lab complex, which uses a different cooling system.

Flight controllers then powered down critical systems tied into coolant loop B and shut down an external pump to reduce the pressure in the system. After studying the telemetry, however, engineers saw signs that something in that powerdown process might have triggered the slight change in air pressure that was detected.

Continued here:
U.S. part of space station evacuated

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.

See the original post:
Reported ammonia leak on the International Space Station proves to be false alarm

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.

More:
A false alarm for crew on the International Space Station

Crew members aboard the International Space Station have returned to the American segment they were forced evacuate early Wednesday due to fear of a possible ammonia leak.

NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore, commander of the current mission, and Terry Virts, a flight engineer, wore black and pink protective masks as they opened the hatch and tested the air inside the cabin.

The tests turned up no indications of any ammonia, according to NASA.

Ground crews became concerned that the deadly gas may have escaped from the heat exchange system that helps cool the space station about 1 a.m. PST. Mike Suffredini, NASAs program manager for the ISS, said the water level in one of the coolant loops was off scale which could have been a sign of an ammonia leak.

That prompted the first of two evacuations from the U.S. segment of the space station, which has the ammonia system mounted on its exterior , to the Russian segment, which includes the service module.

The astronauts returned after getting an all-clear, but then the ground crew detected a change in cabin pressure.

If youre leaking ammonia into the water loop and it eventually finds its way into the cabin, then you would expect the cabin pressure to go up, Suffredini said. The evacuation procedure was then repeated.

It now appears that the pressure rose as a result of various actions taken during the first evacuation, not because of any leak, Suffredini said.

The initial problem was traced to a faulty card inside one of the space stations computer relay systems. After rebooting the computer equipment in question, the error message cleared and the relay box returned to good operating condition, NASA said.

Mission managers at Johnson Space Center in Houston had informed the crew several hours earlier that the ammonia system was probably fine.

Original post:
Space station evacuation ends; crew returns to work after ammonia scare