Crew-12 ordered – Nasa ordered the four astronauts of the ISS Crew-12 mission to shelter in their Crew Dragon and prepare to evacuate after a leak in the Russian Zvezda service module worsened. The order came Friday at 9.04am ET (2pm BST), following a shift in the leak rate fro
At 9.04am ET on Friday, the International Space Station’s routine was interrupted by a new kind of urgency. Mission control told the four astronauts of Nasa’s Crew-12 to move into emergency mode: shelter inside their Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station and don their spacesuits in case the worsening air leak required evacuation.
The order landed at 2pm BST, delivered to two US astronauts, a French astronaut, and a Russian cosmonaut who are working aboard the orbital lab. The instruction was clear and immediate—stay in the spacecraft and be ready to leave if the leak escalated.
This wasn’t the first time air leak concerns had surfaced on the station. Nasa and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos have debated for months over what is causing the small leaks in Russia’s Zvezda service module. a key structure of the station. It is the backbone of the lab’s life-support areas—described as crucial to a facility roughly the size of a football pitch.
In recent months, the leaks had been relatively minor. Then the numbers changed. On Monday, the problem escalated from a pound of air per day to two pounds. A senior Nasa official relayed that change, saying the leak rate had doubled to about 0.9kg.
The timing makes the stakes feel closer to the crew. When air loss moves from minor to more serious, it compresses the margin for decision-making—how long engineers can keep troubleshooting on orbit and how quickly they need a backup plan ready in the docked spacecraft.
Nasa and Roscosmos remain the station’s two primary operators. and their months-long debate over causes and fixes now sits alongside this emergency readiness step. The leak is still described as being in the Russian Zvezda service module. but with the escalation to two pounds per day. mission control has chosen the most conservative path: prepare for evacuation rather than wait and hope the fix holds.
For the Crew-12 astronauts, the immediate task is not work, not research—it’s readiness. Their Crew Dragon is already docked. their spacesuits are for the moment they might be needed most. and the station’s next hours will be shaped by whether the worsening leak can be brought under control by the Russian crew trying to fix it in its portion of the laboratory.
International Space Station ISS Crew-12 Nasa Roscosmos air leak Zvezda service module Crew Dragon evacuation order
Wait so they’re just chilling in the Dragon? Why not fix it right away instead of “prep to evacuate” lol.
I saw “air leak worsens” and immediately thought it’s like… exploding or something. Glad they’re suiting up though. But two pounds a day??? That sounds insane.
This is why Russia and NASA “debate” for months. Sounds like blame games instead of fixing. If it’s in Zvezda then why is Crew-12 doing anything with it? Shouldn’t Roscosmos handle it.
Two pounds per day… is that like a lot? I don’t even know how to picture it. Also Crew Dragon is docked so they’re basically just trapped in there waiting for permission? Kinda wild that “routine” gets interrupted like that.