NASA has confirmed that a smoke alarm started sounding aboard the International Space Station. The alarm went off inside the Zvezda Service Module that is located in the Russian segment of the ISS. It went off because a battery was being charged in the same area, though it is yet to be confirmed that this was the actual cause.
The seven crewmembers were taking rest when the alarm went off, but they quickly managed to respond to the emergency. As per the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the crew activated an atmosphere-cleaning filter to make the air clean. Once the astronauts were sure the situation is under control, they went back to taking rest.
Small cracks were reported earlier
“All systems are operating normally, the air composition on board the station is nominal,” Roscosmos said after the incident. NASA also tweeted about the incident, saying there was “a faint burnt smell that subsided with air filters.” The space agency did not divulge any more details.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet noted that a smell of “burning plastic or electronic equipment” drifted into the US segment of the ISS, reports CBS News.
The incident happened just a week after it was reported that the ISS has suffered small cracks in Russia’s Zarya module. “Superficial fissures have been found in some places on the Zarya module,” Vladimir Solovyov, chief engineer of rocket and space firm Energia, told the Russian RIA news agency. ”This is bad and suggests that the fissures will begin to spread over time,” he added.
ISS showing aging issues
This is yet another sign that the ISS is getting old. After being permanently occupied for over two decades, the orbital outpost has accumulated cracks and fissures that haven’t posed any threat so far to the crew, but that could be a problem in a few years.
Roscosmos reported in July that pressure levels in the ISS’ Zvezda service module were dropping due to an air leak. Solovyov also said that the space station would likely experience an “avalanche” of equipment failures in 2025, as per Reuters.
