Wednesday, January 14, 2015

False alarm of ammonia leak in the ISS – all astronauts are safe


#ammonialeak #ISS #NASA #ESA The International Space Station houses six astronauts – two of them are Americans, there is one Italian and the remaining three are Russians. They occupy two separate living spaces and, due to the scare of leaking ammonia gas, the Americans and the Italian had to evacuate to the Russian side of the orbiting lab.
However, the ammonia alarm in the ISS appears to be a false alarm as confirmed by NASA. They have said that there was no ammonia leak into the station's atmosphere and the astronauts were free to roam the outpost.
The station, at present, has a six-person crew - two of them are Americans, three Russians and an Italian astronaut. Once the scare started, all of them took refuge in the station's Russian-built segment. Thereby, they isolated themselves from modules built by NASA, Europe and Japan.
Latest information is that NASA astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Terry Virts along with European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian are all "safe and in good shape" with their Russian crewmates.
Incidentally, the ISS has approximately the same living space as a five bedroom house and it has been continuously occupied by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since 2000.

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