The saga of the International Space Station air leak took a worrying turn Friday

“We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks.” Five of the seven crew members on the International Space Station briefly sought refuge inside a SpaceX return capsule Friday morning as two Russian cosmonauts worked on an air leak on the other end of the complex. NASA ordered US astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, French astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft around 9 am EST (14:00 UTC) on Friday. The foursome launched aboard the SpaceX crew capsule on the Crew-12 mission in February, and the ship serves as their lifeboat until the crew’s scheduled return to Earth in September. NASA astronaut Chris Williams, who flew to the station in a Russian Soyuz ferry ship, joined the Crew-12 astronauts inside the Dragon spacecraft. “All USOS (US Orbital Segment) crew members need to execute … Emergency Procedure 3.4: Crew Dragon, establish Safe Haven,” NASA mission control radioed to the station crew around 9 am. “If we need (you) to suit up, we will do that once we’re inside the Dragon.” A short time later, a NASA spokesperson posted a statement on X attributing the shelter