Five of the seven astronauts living on the International Space Station were ordered into the docked SpaceX Crew Dragon “Freedom” on Friday afternoon after an air leak in the Russian segment of the station accelerated and NASA objected to the repair method planned by two Russian cosmonauts.
The crew — Jessica Meir, Jack Hathaway, Sophie Adenot, Andrey Fedyaev and Chris Williams — put on their spacesuits and prepared to undock and return to Earth at short notice. The Dragon spacecraft effectively serves as a lifeboat, attached to the station but ready to detach if evacuation becomes necessary.
The order was triggered by a worsening air leak in the transfer tunnel known as PrK, which leads to the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment. Roscosmos had noticed a fresh slow pressure drop in the tunnel last month following the arrival of a Russian cargo ship, prompting the decision to attempt a more extensive repair operation Friday.
The repair effort involved station commander Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and flight engineer Sergei Mikaev. According to Reuters, the cosmonauts were using a saw to try to access the crack that was leaking air. NASA disagreed with the method, and mission control in Houston ordered the five crew members to take safe-haven procedures aboard the Dragon spacecraft.
Roscosmos subsequently instructed its crew to pause repairs and conduct additional measurements. NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens said on X: “Given this development, NASA has instructed the crew members inside the Dragon spacecraft to end the safe haven procedures and return to planned operations aboard the International Space Station.”
Stevens noted in a separate post that the Zvezda tunnel has suffered from cracks and leaks for some time, and that Roscosmos has managed the issue through operational mitigation measures and periodic partial-repair efforts. She said NASA and Roscosmos have been working to determine the root cause of the cracks.
The cracks have posed an intermittent safety risk for approximately six years. It is not the first time the station has dealt with the problem — the cracks responsible have persisted on and off since around 2020. NASA and Roscosmos have been using patchwork fixes and operational workarounds to manage the air loss.
Russian state news agency Tass, citing Roscosmos, reported that nothing had threatened the safety of the crew or the station’s onboard systems.
The International Space Station, which spans the length of a football field, has been continuously crewed since 1998. It is operated by a consortium led by the United States and Russia that also includes Canada, Japan and 11 European countries.