Previously unannounced repair work to stop new leaks onboard the International Space Station temporarily caused NASA to send all four members of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-12 mission as well as NASA astronaut Chris Williams into the Dragon capsule, Freedom, on Friday.
Cracks and leaks have popped up within the Russian segment of the space station within the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, called the PrK, off and on over the past six years or so. However, NASA said the discovery of “new leaks” caused the Russian space agency Roscosmos “to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday, June 5.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, NASA has directed all four of the agency’s SpaceX Crew-12 members and NASA astronaut Chris Williams to assume an elevated safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is underway,” said NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens on Friday.
However, at around 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 UTC), the so-called “safe haven” plan was suddenly called off.
“Our Russian colleagues have elected to perform measurements only today,” Mission Control informed the crew. “So with that, we are comfortable backing out of the safe haven config.”
“We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks,” Stevens said in a statement shared to social media shortly before 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC).
The NASA statements didn’t address when these new leaks were discovered, state the leak rate, or when NASA decided it was neccessary to have the three Americans, one French astronaut, and one Russian cosmonaut shelter in place inside Dragon Freedom.
The crew reported around 9:40 a.m. EDT (1340 UTC) that the Node 2 hatch was closed. Node 2 is the formal name of the Harmony module, where Dragon spacecraft dock when delivering crew or cargo to the ISS.
The crew then worked to configure the Dragon spacecraft for Dragon-to-ground communications. NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, commander of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission, confirmed to the Mission Control Center that the pre-ingress work was completed.
“Thanks for all your quick work, you guys. Great job,” said a flight controller from Houston.
The Dragon has four seats that, in its current configuration, are outfitted for the four members of the SpaceX Crew-12 mission. Williams would have been an extra occupant had the crew needed to evacuate.
As NASA demonstrated during the Starliner Crew Flight Test saga, Dragon can be outfitted with makeshift seats to accommodate one or two additional personnel, if needed in an emergency. During the period of time in which Starliner was getting ready to depart, but before Dragon Freedom arrived as part of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission, makeshift seats were established for then NASA astronauts Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams and Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore.
