The Russian segment of the International Space Station was hit with smoke alarms and fire alarms in the early hours Thursday morning. Crew members reported that they could smell burnt plastic and noticed smoke.
Roscosmos Russia's space agency said that the incident occurred in the Russian-built Zvezda Module and occurred while the station batteries were being charged.
Roscosmos reported that the crew activated the air filters and went to sleep once the air quality returned to normal. According to Roscosmos, the crew will continue with their planned space walk on Thursday.
Current operators of the space station are the Nasa astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur and Oleg Novitsky from Roscosmos; Pyotr Dubrov and Pyotr Drubrov of Roscosmos; Akihiko Hoshide, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; and Thomas Pesquet, European Space Agency.
Novitsky, Dubrov will conduct a six-hour spacewalk on Thursday. This space walk is to continue integration of the Russian-built Nauka science laboratory that docked with space station in July. Russian space officials blamed a software glitch for the incident in which the lab temporarily knocked the orbital outpost from its position shortly after docking.
