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NASA says no leak of ammonia at International Space Station

The crew responded to coolant loop pressure increases

MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. There was no ammonia leak at the International Space Station, NASA twittered at its account on Wednesday.

It said no confirmation of reports on the leak had been found but the crew had reported on a rise of pressure in the cooler loop.

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. A spokesman for NASA in Russia earlier told TASS that NASA couldn't yet confirm the leak as it was assumed following a pressure drop in the cooling system.

It was also reported that the segment has been isolated, and the crew are 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.

In the link-up with the ISS Ostapenko asked about the health of its crew and the situation on board the orbital station.

“Everything's perfect. The situation is under control,” Samokutyayev replied to him.

The Russian cosmonaut said the communications between the ISS and the outside world has been established, and now they can make cellular phone calls.

Ostapenko asked the ISS crew to inform him about the current ISS situation by phone. “I am sure that everything will be settled in the near future,” he said.

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.