OAN Staff Jenna Lee
9:50 AM – Friday, June 5, 2026
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ordered astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare for potential evacuation as a Russian crew attempted to fix a worsening air leak.
The directive, issued Friday, affected the four members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission — NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, ESA/French astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev — along with a second crew including U.S. astronaut Chris Williams and cosmonauts Sergey Kud-Sverchkov and Sergei Mikayev.
At 9:04 a.m. EDT on Friday, mission control instructed them to enter their docked Crew Dragon spacecraft and don their spacesuits out of an abundance of caution while the invasive structural repair was underway.
“Following new leaks, Roscosmos has elected to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday, June 5,” said Bethany Stevens, a NASA spokeswoman, on X.
The source of the persistent, on-and-off air leak is the transfer tunnel in Russia’s Zvezda service module, a key structure of the ISS. Regarded as a top safety risk by inspectors, the leak escalated on Friday from a baseline of one pound of air per day to two pounds.
While piecemeal efforts have been made to patch the holes over the past six years, the recent pressure drop following the arrival of a cargo ship prompted Roscosmos to attempt a more extensive repair operation, triggering NASA’s protective safety protocols.
While NASA and Roscosmos have debated for months over the root causes and permanent fixes, the Russian space agency has previously managed the issue through periodic, partial-repair efforts over the last six years.
Ultimately, Friday’s extensive structural repair was short-lived. NASA initially stated that Roscosmos would proceed with the heavy repair work, but Russian engineers ultimately paused to take further data measurements instead.
“We continue to work with our Russian counterparts, along with the rest of the international community that supports the space station, to arrive at a more permanent resolution,” said NASA.
With the invasive work on hold, NASA officially lifted the “safe haven” protocol, allowing the crew to exit the Dragon capsule and safely return to normal station operations.
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