A smoke alarm sounded Thursday in Russia's segment of the International
Space Station (ISS) and astronauts smelled "burning" on board, Russia's
space agency and NASA said.
The incident, which the Russian space agency Roscosmos said happened at
01:55 GMT ahead of a scheduled spacewalk, is the latest in a string of
problems to spur safety concerns over conditions on the Russian segment.
"A smoke detector was triggered in the Zvezda service module of the Russian
segment of the International Space Station during automatic battery
charging, and an alarm went off," Roscosmos said in a statement.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet said "the smell of burning plastic or
electronic equipment" wafted to the US segment of the station, Russian state
news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing a NASA broadcast.
The Russian crew turned on a filter and after the air was cleaned up the
astronauts went back to sleep, Roscosmos said.
The space agency said that a planned spacewalk would go ahead as scheduled.
Russia's Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov are scheduled to leave the station
to continue work on the Nauka science module that docked in July.
"All systems are operating normally," Roscosmos said.
The Russian segment of the ISS has experienced several problems recently and
a space official warned last month that out of date software could lead to
"irreparable failures".
The Zvezda service module, part of the Russian segment, has experienced
several air leaks, including earlier this year and in 2019.
Citing concerns stemming from ageing hardware, Russia has previously
indicated that it plans to leave the ISS after 2025 and launch its own
orbital station.
In July, the entire ISS tilted out of orbit after the thrusters of the Nauka
module reignited several hours after docking.
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