NASA ordered the four astronauts on its Crew-12 mission aboard the International Space Station to enter their Crew Dragon spacecraft, suit up and prepare for a possible evacuation on Friday as a worsening air leak in the station’s Russian portion drew an emergency response.
The instructions came from mission control at 9:04 a.m. ET, or 2 p.m. BST, and were issued while a Russian crew was already trying to repair the leak. NASA said the precautions were being taken in case the air loss reached a level that required an emergency evacuation.
The order put the station crew on immediate standby in their docked spacecraft, a reminder that even routine orbital operations can turn quickly when pressure problems develop in the isolated environment of a space station. The four astronauts were not told that an evacuation was certain, only that they needed to be ready if the situation demanded it.
What remains unclear is how serious the leak has become and whether the repair effort will be enough to avoid a departure from the station. For now, the crew is sheltered, the Russian side is being worked on, and NASA has left open the possibility that the next step could be to leave the station behind.
