Russia’s portion of the International Space Station went off in the early hours of Thursday due to a smoke alarm. According to Roscosmos, astronauts smelled smoke and burning on the station.
At 01:55 GMT, astronauts were scheduled for a spacewalk when the incident occurred. Earlier this month, Russia warned that the International Space Station may suffer “Irreparable Failure.”
Roscosmos said on Twitter that a smoke detector had triggered in the Zvezda service module on the Russian segment of the ISS. During automatic battery charging, the alarm went off.
Сегодня в модуле «Звезда» при проведении автоматической подзарядки аккумуляторов сработал датчик задымления, и включилась аварийная сигнализация.
Для устранения возможного задымления экипажем был включен агрегатный фильтр очистки атмосферы. pic.twitter.com/BMvK7b8xah
— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) September 9, 2021
RIA Novosti reported that French astronaut Thomas Pesquest said the smell of burning plastic or electronics wafted to the United States portion of the space station.
According to Roscosmos, Russian crew members onboard the station turned on an air filter after the smoke alarm went off to clean the air. According to the agency, all systems are functioning normally, and the scheduled spacewalk will go ahead as planned.
Scientists Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitsky are scheduled for a spacewalk to work on the Nauka science module, which docked with the ISS in July.
Recent problems have plagued the Russian segment of the International Space Station. A segment of the ISS assembled over 30 years ago, aging hardware and date equipment have contributed to most such problems.
This is why Russia has indicated it plans to build its own space station and leave the International Space Station after 2025.
Despite the problems, next month, Russia is sending two civilians to the International Space Station to shoot a portion of a movie in space. Later, as part of a commercial initiative, two more civilians will be sent to the ISS – a Japanese billionaire and his assistant.