NASA Activates Emergency Response Plan Following ISS Leak Incident

NASA and Roscosmos Address Air Leak in International Space Station

On June 5, NASA briefly ordered astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare for a possible evacuation due to a worsening air leak in the station's Russian segment. The alert was lifted about two hours later after a joint reassessment by NASA and Russia's Roscosmos space agency determined there was no immediate danger to the crew.

The precautionary order affected members of NASA's Crew-12 mission and another US astronaut on board the orbiting laboratory. The astronauts moved into a docked SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and donned their spacesuits while Russian cosmonauts continued work to locate and repair the source of the leak.

According to Reuters, the leak is located in the Russian Zvezda service module, a key part of the ISS that has experienced air leak problems for several years. NASA officials said the rate of air loss recently doubled from about one pound per day to two pounds per day, prompting concern and the temporary evacuation alert.

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The cracks responsible for the leak have been under investigation for years. NASA and Roscosmos have repeatedly monitored and repaired the affected area, but engineers have not yet reached a final agreement on the exact cause. The issue has become one of the most persistent technical challenges facing the ageing space station.

Roscosmos said its specialists identified leaks in the affected section and carried out repair work. One leak was reportedly sealed, while efforts continue to address another area of concern. Following discussions between the two space agencies, repair operations were paused to allow further analysis of the station's condition.

The ISS, continuously inhabited since 2000, remains one of the world's most important scientific research facilities. Although emergency shelter procedures are rare, astronauts are trained to move quickly into docked spacecraft whenever a potential threat to station safety arises. Similar precautions have previously been taken during space debris warnings and earlier leak incidents.

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NASA and Roscosmos said they will continue closely monitoring the situation. For now, normal operations aboard the ISS have resumed, but the latest incident highlights growing concerns over the maintenance of the station as it enters its third decade in orbit.