Skip to footer

Crew evacuates US segment of space station, but leak could be false alarm

A possible ammonia leak into the US portion of the International Space Station prompted US astronauts to seek shelter in the Russian segment. Engineers believe the warning may have been a false alarm.

|
NASA-TV/AP/File
The SpaceX Dragon resupply capsule begins the process of being berthed on to the International Space Station, April 20, 2014. Astronauts hurriedly evacuated the US section of the International Space Station and moved to its Russian module after a problem emerged Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015, but Russian and US officials insisted all six crew were not in any danger.

The crew aboard the International Space Station will likely be holding an unplanned slumber party in the Russian segment following a warning Wednesday morning that ammonia may be leaking into the US portion of the station.

The six-member crew received the warning at about 4 a.m. Eastern time, prompting them to don breathing masks and gather in the Russian segment. By about 9 a.m., no other evidence of ammonia in the segment appeared, suggesting to engineers on the ground that the event was a false alarm.

"We've got almost complete insight back, so everything's looking pretty normal right now. It's becoming a stronger case that this was a false indication," said spacecraft communicator James Kelly as he updated station commander Barry Wilmore on efforts to troubleshoot the issue.

"We're working towards making sure that this is a false indication," he added, noting that while engineers were working to get the crew back into the US segment as quickly as possible, the crew should still anticipate spending the night on the Russian segment.

An ammonia leak is one of three major incidents the crews train for, in addition to fires and major medical emergencies. Ammonia is used as a coolant to draw heat from a water-based cooling system inside the station. The ammonia then carries the heat to heat exchangers outside.

Controllers monitoring the station's systems noted that pressure in one of the cooling system's two water loops was rising even as cabin pressure was rising, according to a NASA statement. That combination could signal a leak, so to be safe, controllers sent the crew into the Russian segment and had them close the hatch.

Controllers also shut down the cooling loop and non-essential hardware in the US segment as a precaution. By 9 a.m. engineers were increasingly convinced the event was a false alarm and started the process of reactivating the US segment's cooling system.

This is not the first time the crew has experienced issues relating to the cooling system. In mid-December 2013, for example, a valve in one of the external pumps circulating ammonia malfunctioned, forcing crew members to conduct two spacewalks to swap out the balky pump for a spare NASA had stowed on the station's exterior. Non-essential equipment remained shut down from Dec. 11, when the malfunction occurred, to Dec. 24, when crew members Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins successfully replaced the pump.

In addition to Commander Wilmore, the current crew includes NASA's Terry Virts, the European Space Agency's Samantha Cristoforetti, and Russian's Alexander Samokutyaev, Elena Serova, and Anton Shkaplerov.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Crew evacuates US segment of space station, but leak could be false alarm
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0114/Crew-evacuates-US-segment-of-space-station-but-leak-could-be-false-alarm
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe