NASA has confirmed that there is no emergency situation at the International Space Station (ISS) after an audio of a medical simulation for astronauts was accidentally broadcasted on the official channels of the US space agency. In the audio, which seemed like a real emergency signal, a commander astronaut experiencing a decompression problem could be heard, as well as a flight surgeon on Earth giving instructions from the control center. The broadcast alarmed many users on social media, as well as various media outlets.
“There was never an emergency situation at the International Space Station,” clarified NASA officials in a statement on Twitter. The agency explained that, approximately at 00:28 CEST on June 13th, an audio of a ground simulation of a training scenario where teams practice for various situations in space was mistakenly broadcasted publicly.
The audio, which lasted about eight minutes, included a flight surgeon advising an astronaut in simulation on how to treat decompression sickness, a real and dangerous condition for astronauts due to the pressurized environment they live in. During spacewalks, astronauts must depressurize their airlock and repressurize it upon return to prevent this illness. In the drill, the surgeon suggested that the astronaut put on the spacesuit with pure oxygen and mentioned a hospital in Spain for hyperbaric treatment after a possible return to Earth.
NASA officials emphasized that the current crew of the ISS, consisting of three Russian cosmonauts and six NASA astronauts, did not participate in the drill and were “in their sleep period” at that time.
The misunderstanding occurred a few hours before the first spacewalk of the ISS in 2024, in which NASA astronauts Tracy Caldwell Dyson and Matthew Dominick were scheduled to repair a radio communications unit and collect samples from the exterior of the station for a study on microorganisms in extreme space environments.
