MOSCOW. Jan 14 (Interfax) - A leak of hazardous substances from the International Space Station's (ISS) cooling system to the station's atmosphere was detected in the U.S. segment at 11:44 a.m. Moscow time on January 14, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said in a statement shared with Interfax on Wednesday.
"The U.S. segment of the ISS has been isolated, and the crew are safe in the Russian segment," the statement says.
"The concentration of contaminants in the atmosphere of the Russian segment of the ISS is within the admissible limits," Roscosmos said.
"The crew's safety was provided due to coordinated and prompt actions by the cosmonauts and astronauts themselves and the control groups in Moscow and Houston. It is for the U.S. side to decide what steps should be taken next in the U.S. segment. The mission control in Houston is currently analyzing the information on the condition of the U.S. segment of the ISS," Russian space mission control chief Maxim Matyushin was quoted as saying.
The Russian mission control had told Interfax-AVN earlier that an ammonia leak had been detected in the U.S. segment.
The current ISS crew includes Expedition 42 Commander Barry Wilmore (U.S.), Expedition 42 Flight Engineers Alexander Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova (Russia), Expedition 42/43 Flight Engineers Anton Shkaplerov (Russia) and Samantha Cristoforetti (Italy), and Expedition 42 Flight Engineer and Expedition 43 Commander Terry Virts (U.S.).