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On June 5, NASA astronauts were ordered to take shelter in the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft due to an air leak on the ISS.
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A spokesman said cracks and leaks were discovered in the Zvezda service module, prompting repairs by Roscosmos and NASA.
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A NASA spokesman added that a larger repair operation is planned as NASA and Roscosmos work to find a permanent solution.
Several astronauts, including Americans, have been cleared to return to the International Space Station after an evacuation threat arose due to a worsening air leak.
NASA ordered a shelter-in-place order on the Dragon spacecraft on Friday, June 5, to conduct repairs to fix an air leak on the ISS, according to a statement released on X by NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens.
The decision to have the astronauts shelter inside the spacecraft was made "out of an abundance of caution," Stevens said.
About an hour later, Stevens said NASA crew members were cleared to return to the ISS after Roscosmos suspended structural repairs "until additional measurements are taken and data collected.".
As reported by The Guardian , Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, has been fighting such leaks for more than five years.
According to CBS News, in May, after the Russian cargo ship arrived at the ISS, the space agency noticed a slow drop in pressure in the Zvezda service module's transfer tunnel, known as PrK.
In her initial statement, Stevens acknowledged that the PrK station "has been experiencing cracks and leaks for some time, and Roscosmos is taking steps to minimize them as much as possible.".
Cracks, she added, "have always been a concern, and NASA monitors them very closely.".
«"NASA and Roscosmos are working to determine the root cause of the cracks, and Roscosmos is addressing the issue through rapid mitigation measures and periodic partial repairs," Stevens continued.
According to the space station's website, there are currently seven people aboard the ISS, including Williams and his compatriots Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway.
Also on board are three Russian cosmonauts—Sergei Kud-Sverchkov, Sergei Mikayev, and Andrei Fedyayev—and French astronaut Sophie Adeneau.
The crew members are part of Expedition 74, which began on December 8, 2025, and will end in July 2026.
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«"The ISS has been continuously monitored by a crew for over 25 years, making it the longest continuous human presence in low Earth orbit in history," the ISS website states.
Earlier this month, a charter space flight for astronauts from India, Poland and Hungary was postponed due to concerns about information leaks, according to The Guardian . These would be the first astronauts from these countries in space in decades.
Stevens said NASA will continue to work with its Russian counterparts and the rest of the international community supporting the space station "to come to a longer-term solution.".
«"We look forward to working with Roscosmos to address the issue of information leaks," Stevens said in a second statement.
Read the original article on People.