SSI went into lockdown due to strange smell

The International Space Station has recently experienced a number of problems that have temporarily become a cause for concern, most notably when a section of the spacecraft was placed under containment due to a suspicious odor emanating from a cargo ship docked on the Russian side of the station.

Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station were forced to briefly lock down a segment of the orbiting laboratory this weekend after finding an “unusual odor” emanating from a visiting cargo spacecraft called Progress 90, NASA said Sunday.

— CNN (@cnn.com) 2024-11-26T02:59:59.176Z

The crew of the International Space Station recently had to temporarily lock down a section of the station after detecting a “strange smell” coming from Progress 90, a cargo ship carrying food, supplies and fuel, which had just arrived with its cargo.

According to NASA, shortly after the freighter’s arrival, Russian astronauts detected the smell and saw drops, prompting them to quickly close the Poisk module, a section of the Russian space module.

The situation was quickly brought under control by NASA controllers, who activated the air purification equipment. The smell disappeared once the operation was completed, and cargo transfer operations were able to resume normally.

NASA also confirmed that, despite this worrying incident, air quality inside the International Space Station remained normal throughout.

The Russian section of the International Space Station is made up of several modules, including the Zvezda, Poisk and Nauka. These modules are used for various scientific activities, storage and, above all, refueling operations.

Russian cosmonauts are responsible for the main management of this section, but for several months now, a series of problems in this part of the International Space Station has been generating tension. These include air leaks in the Zvezda module and other incidents affecting the Russian modules of the ISS.

Fortunately, in the case of the “strange smell”, there seems to be nothing serious going on after all.