Astronauts told to return to ISS after sheltering over air leak repairs

Five astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) were ordered to take immediate shelter inside an attached SpaceX spacecraft on Friday as worsening air leaks in a Russian module triggered emergency evacuation protocols.

NASA officials confirmed that five crew members were instructed to lock themselves inside the docked SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft as a precautionary “safe haven” measure. The move effectively prepared the crew for an emergency evacuation back to Earth if the station’s atmospheric pressure plummeted past critical limits.

The emergency procedures were initiated while two Russian cosmonauts attempted structural repairs inside the PrK transfer tunnel, located within Russia’s Zvezda service module. The leaks were reportedly identified when the module was actively re-pressurised.

According to Russian state media reports, engineers originally detected two separate leaks within the compartment. While cosmonauts successfully managed to seal one of the fractures, the remaining rupture required more extensive intervention.

With the situation temporarily stabilised, NASA official Bethany Stevens announced that the immediate threat had passed, allowing the crew to stand down from their evacuation footing.

“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 said in an official statement. “We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks.”

While Roscosmos emphasised that the onboard life-support systems and the crew were not in immediate danger, the recurring cracks in the Zvezda module have become a growing point of friction between the international partners.

The structural fissures have plagued the ISS on and off for roughly six years, forcing engineers to continually monitor the integrity of the decades-old habitat.

The latest scare underscores the increasingly fragile nature of the ISS as it nears its planned retirement at the end of the decade, leaving space agencies with the task of managing critical hardware degradation while keeping astronauts safe.