Space station evacuated due to false alarm

The US crew on the International Space Station (ISS) had to move to the Russian crew module, after a false alarm about an ammonia leak.

The International Space Station (ISS) as seen from the space shuttle Endeavour. Photo: Reuters

The alarm sounded at around 9am GMT (4pm Hanoi time). According to initial information from the ISS, an ammonia leak from the cooling system was the cause of the incident. However, according to the Huffington Post, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) later declared this to be a false alarm.

"The crew is safe. There is no confirmed ammonia leak," NASA reiterated. A sensor failure, pressure or computer system issue could have triggered the alert.

According to RT, these astronauts were moved to the Russian area and returned to the US area at 20:05 GMT. Outside the quarantine zone, the air on the ISS remains stable.

The ISS is used to conduct scientific experiments. The space station is divided into two main sections, one operated by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), the Canadian and Japanese Space Research Organizations, and the other by Russia.

According to VnExpress