MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The astronauts are back in the American side of the International Space Station.
Early Wednesday, the crew fled to the Russian segment after an alarm indicated a possible toxic leak. But NASA later said there was no leak of the ammonia coolant and a computer problem likely set off the false alarm.
By Wednesday afternoon, the astronauts had returned to the U.S. side.
When the alarms went off around 4 a.m., the crew followed emergency procedures — slapping on oxygen masks, taking cover in the Russian quarters, then sealing the hatches between the U.S. and Russian sides.
At the same time, flight controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston turned off non-essential equipment.
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MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian space agency says an ammonia leak at a U.S. segment of the International Space Station has prompted its six-person crew to lock it up and move to a Russian module, but they aren’t in danger.
Roscosmos said in Wednesday’s statement that the crew was safe. It said that mission control experts in Moscow and Houston quickly and efficiently cooperated to ensure the crew’s safety.
A spokeswoman for NASA office in Moscow said she had no immediate comment.
The space outpost is manned by NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts, Russians Elena Serova, Alexander Samoukutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristofo