CAPE CANAVERAL SPACE FORCE STATION — All of the crew members on the International Space Station are safe and sound after a mix-up resulted in a training simulation that was somehow broadcasted on NASA’s livestream and indicated there was an emergency, stated the U.S. space agency.
On Wednesday at around 6:28 p.m. ET, an audio of a training simulation was broadcasted, which indicated that one of the nine astronauts currently on the ISS was “experiencing the effects related to decompression sickness,” stated NASA's International Space Station's post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the post, officials stated that there was no emergency on the floating laboratory.
“This audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation where crew members and ground teams training for various scenarios in space and is not related to a real emergency,” stated NASA officials in the social media post.
The Expedition 71 members and the Starliner crew members Cmdr. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams were in a sleep period at the time the audio was broadcast.
NASA assured that each resident of the ISS is fine and would prepare for a spacewalk on Thursday at 8 a.m. ET. However, early Thursday morning, NASA announced that it was canceling the spacewalk with astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matt Dominick due to a "suit discomfort issue."
There is no emergency situation going on aboard the International Space Station. At approximately 5:28 p.m. CDT, audio was aired on the NASA livestream from a simulation audio channel on the ground indicating a crew member was experiencing effects related to decompression…
— International Space Station (@Space_Station) June 13, 2024
This did cause worry, especially because of the Boeing Starliner spacecraft experiencing helium leaks.
Earlier this week, NASA stated there are a total of five small leaks in the craft’s service module helium manifolds.
“Engineers evaluated the helium supply based on current leak rates and determined that Starliner has plenty of margin to support the return trip from station,” NASA stated.
According to NASA, the Starliner only needs seven hours’ worth of helium for Starliner to undock from the ISS and return to Earth and the current helium supply can hold up to 70 hours.