Four astronauts on the International Space Station were told to enter their Crew Dragon spacecraft. -AP
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have been ordered by NASA to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare to potentially leave as a Russian crew attempts to fix a worsening leak of air on its portion of the orbital laboratory, NASA says.
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The four astronauts of NASA's Crew-12 mission on the station - two US astronauts, a French astronaut and Russian cosmonaut - received orders from NASA mission control at 11.04pm on Friday AEST to enter their Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station and don their spacesuits in case the air leak warrants an emergency evacuation, a NASA official said.
NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos, the station's two primary operators, have debated for months over the cause and potential fixes of small air leaks aboard Russia's Zvezda service module, a key structure of the football field-sized laboratory.
The air leaks have been relatively minor in recent months but escalated on Monday from about 453 grams of air per day to 906 grams, according to a senior NASA official who asked not to be named.
