Smoke alarms went off in the Russian segment of the International Space Station in the early hours of Thursday and the crew reported noticing smoke and the smell of burnt plastic.
FLY – Smoke alarms went off in the Russian segment of the International Space Station in the early hours of Thursday and the crew reported noticing smoke and the smell of burnt plastic.
Russian space agency Roscosmos said the incident took place in the Russian-built Zvezda module and occurred when the station’s batteries were being recharged.
According to Roscosmos, the crew activated the air filters and returned to their “night rest” once air quality returned to normal.
The space station is currently operated by NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, of Roscosmos of Russia; The astronaut of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Akihiko Hoshide, and the European Space Agency astronaut, Thomas Pesquet.
Novitsky and Dubrov are scheduled to conduct a six-hour spacewalk on Thursday to continue integrating the Russian-built Nauka science lab that docked with the space station in July. Shortly after docking, the lab briefly made the advanced orbital site out of place by accidentally firing its engines, an incident that Russian space officials blamed for a software bug.