NASA places ISS astronauts on evacuation alert as air leak worsens

Astronauts aboard the International Space ​Station were ordered by NASA to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare for potential evacuation on Friday as ​a ‌Russian crew attempts to fix ⁠a worsening leak of air on its portion of the ‌orbital laboratory, NASA said.

The four astronauts of ⁠NASA's Crew-12 mission on the station – two US astronauts, a French astronaut and Russian cosmonaut – ​got orders from NASA mission ‌control at 9:04 am ET Monday (1304 GMT) to enter their Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station ‌and don their spacesuits in case the air leak warrants ​an emergency evacuation, a NASA official said.

NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos, the station's two primary operators, ​have debated for months over the ​cause and potential fixes of small ​air leaks aboard Russia's Zvezda service module, a key structure of ​the football field-sized laboratory.

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The air leaks have been relatively minor in recent months but escalated on Monday from a pound of air per day ⁠to 2 pounds, according to a senior NASA official who ⁠asked ​not to be named.

(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)