Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

S

Italian astronaut safe after space alert: Nasa

Italian austronaut Samantha Cristoforetti is "safe and doing well" at the International Space Station after an alert sounded on Wednesday that could indicate a dangerous ammonia leak, but may have been a false alarm, the US space agency said.

Published: 14 January 2015 16:43 CET
Italian astronaut safe after space alert: Nasa
Italian Samantha Cristoforetti is one of six astronauts currently at the International Space Station. Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP

Cristoforetti and five other crew members donned emergency masks and hurried to the Russian side of the orbiting lab after the alert at around 10.00am (Rome time), closing the hatch to the US side behind them.

While the Russian space agency told news outlets in Moscow that the cause was a toxic ammonia leak, Nasa said there was no data to confirm that, and stressed that the crew was safe. Ammonia is used in the cooling and heating systems at the orbiting outpost.

Nasa suspects that a “false indication” is at the root of the problem said Jim Kelly of mission control in Houston, Texas, speaking to US astronaut and space station commander Barry Wilmore in an exchange broadcast on Nasa television.

“Big picture perspective, we are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. We are not entirely convinced that this is an ammonia leak,” Kelly said. A sensor problem or a computer relay issue could have led to the alarm, he added.

“It is becoming a stronger case that this is a false indication, which is great news,” Kelly said.

The six astronauts taking shelter in the Russian segment have enough food for at least a week, Nasa said.

“Hey everybody, thanks for your concern. We're all safe & doing well in the Russian segment,” Cristoforetti said on Twitter.

Problem in loop

The problem became apparent when flight controllers in Houston “saw an increase in pressure in the station's water loop for thermal control system B then later saw a cabin pressure increase that could be indicative of an ammonia leak in the worst case scenario,” Nasa said on its website.

Russia's space agency blamed the evacuation on a leak of a “toxic substance was emitted from a cooling system into the station's atmosphere” in the US segment of the station, the agency said in a statement. A representative of the Russian mission control center told Russian news agencies that the substance was ammonia.

The International Space Station (ISS) is a rare area of US-Russian cooperation that has not been hit by the crisis in Ukraine, which has prompted Washington to impose sanctions on Moscow. In total 16 countries work on the ISS, whose cost is mainly shouldered by the United States.

Since Nasa phased out the space shuttle system in 2011, it depends entirely on Russia to send its astronauts to the ISS.

The Expedition 42 crew had been awake for about two hours before the alarm sounded, and was at work unloading the SpaceX Dragon cargo carrier which arrived days ago with more than 2.5 tons of supplies and science experiments.

Two women and four men are on board the space station, making up a crew that hails from Russia, the United States and Italy. They include Wilmore, Cristoforetti, Elena Serova, Alexander Samoukutyaev, Terry Virts and Anton Shkaplerov.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

S

Danish U-turn: children with sick relatives should stay home

Children who live with someone ill with coronavirus-like symptoms should not attend kindergarten or school, Denmark's health minister has announced, responding to widespread concern surrounding the reopening of the country's schools.

Published: 14 April 2020 09:32 CEST
Danish U-turn: children with sick relatives should stay home
Parents have been worried about the reopening. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix
Magnus Heunicke announced the new policy in a press release sent out on Sunday, following widespread criticism of the guidance from the Danish Health Authority (Sundhetsstyrelsen) that having sick relatives at home should not prevent children returning when schools reopen this week. 
 

“Many have been unsure whether the right measures have been taken when schools and daycare services open up again on Wednesday,” Heunicke said in the press release. 
 
“In particular there have been questions over whether children should attend kindergarten or school if someone is infected with Covid-19 at home. This uncertainty is now being taken away by the government.” 
 
READ ALSO: 
 
Municipal governments in Aalborg, Aarhus and Odense, among others, had already responded to public unease about children bringing the infection from home by saying they would defy the health authority and allow the families of children who have sick people at home to keep them home. 
 
 

The Danish government's decision to overrule its own health authority sees the country's policy diverge from that of neighbouring Sweden, where the advice to parents is that children should be sent to school even if someone at home is ill. 
 
Heunicke said that the decision had followed a reappraisal of how likely it is that children will be able to follow hygiene requirements. 
 
“There are a number of strict requirements for cleaning, hygiene and self-insulation when there is a coronavirus infection at home. This can be really difficult for families with smaller children, and we understand that there are many who are unsure about this situation,” he said.  
 
“Therefore, in the government, we have decided, on a precautionary principle, that children living in a household with a person who has coronavirus should not attend school or daycare.” 
 
This decision applies only to children, and not to adult staff who work in schools or kindergartens, as the ministry believes adult staff will be better able to follow sanitary guidelines.  
 
According to a survey by Local Government Denmark, which represents the country's municipalities, over half of Denmark's municipalities plan to reopen schools and kindergartens on Wednesday, with the rest following no later than Monday. 
SHOW COMMENTS