spacetoday.net: ISS crew temporarily evacuates part of ISS due to false alarm

Posted: Thu, Jan 15, 2015, 6:46 AM ET (1146 GMT)
ISS during STS-135 mission (NASA)

The crew of the International Space Station sealed off the station's US segment for much of Wednesday after a computer glitch indicated a possible ammonia leak there. Alarms on the station sounded around 4 am EST (0900 GMT) Wednesday indicating problems with a cooling system on the US segment that NASA said could be linked to a possible leak of ammonia coolant. The station's six-person crew moved to the Russian segment of the ISS and closed the hatch as ground controllers diagnosed the problem. Engineers later concluded that there was no ammonia leak, and instead a data relay unit malfunctioned, sending erroneous data. Astronauts reentered the US segment around 3 pm EST (2000 GMT) and detected no traces of ammonia in the atmosphere. NASA said the incident should have no long-term effect on ISS operations, including scientific research being done there.