All news

Toxic leak at US segment of ISS not confirmed yet — NASA

Russian space agency chief will will brief Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on the emergency, and after that the very ISS crew will go on line with the deputy premier

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. NASA can't yet confirm a contamination at the US sector of the International Space Station (ISS).

“It has not been confirmed,” a spokesman for NASA in Russia told TASS, adding that a leak had been assumed following a pressure drop in the cooling system.

“Specialists are examining the situation at the moment,” the spokesman said.

Russia's space agency earlier told TASS that a toxic leak occurred at the US segment of the ISS. The report ran that the leak from the cooling system occurred at 11:44 Moscow time. It was also reported that the segment had been isolated, and the crew was safe inside the Russian segment.

ISS flight engineer cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyayev reported on Wednesday to head of Roscosmos Oleg Ostapenko that the crew of the US segment ISS may stay in the Russian ISS segment for the night due to the contingency at the station.

Oleg Ostapenko will brief Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on the emergency, and after that the very ISS crew will go on line with the deputy premier.

“I will report to Rogozin on the current situation and you can get in touch with him five minutes after,” Ostapenko said at a direct link-up with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyayev.

Chief of Russia’s Mission Control Maxim Matyushin said it is up to the US side to decide on further action to be taken inside the US segment. He also said the response to the emergency of the crew and Mission Control shifts on duty in Moscow and Houston was fast and well-coordinated.

Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko told TASS the Russian space agency has no plans for evacuating the crew of the International Space Station.

Currently the ISS has a crew of six: Russia’s Alexander Samokutyayev, Anton Shkaplerov and Yelena Serova, the United States’ Barry Wilmore (commander) and Terry Virts, and the European Space Agency’s astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.