Smoke and burnt plastic triggered an alarm on the International Space Station earlier
Click to enlarge the image and toggle caption Oleg Novitsky/AP Oleg Novitsky/AP
MOSCOW In the early hours Thursday morning, smoke alarms were activated at the Russian section of the International Space Station. Crew members reported that they noticed smoke and smelled burnt plastic.
Roscosmos, Russia's space agency, said that the incident occurred in Zvezda's Russian-built module. It happened while the station was being charged with its batteries.
Roscosmos reports 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 spacewalk as planned on Thursday.
Current astronauts of NASA are Mark Vande Hei and Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Oleg Novitsky, and Pyotr Drubrov from Russia's 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.
