MOSCOW. Jan 15 (Interfax-AVN) - A computer problem is believed to have caused Wednesday's incident in the U.S. segment of the International Space Station (ISS), the press service of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) has reported, referring to Russian Mission Control Center head Maxim Matyushin.
"The astronauts spent the night in the American segment, although not in their usual places because the ventilation system and the lights have not yet been restored in full in the American segment," Matyushin was quoted as saying by a Roscosmos press release, seen by Interfax-AVN on Thursday.
According to Roscosmos, on Wednesday evening NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore and Terry Virts, as well as the European Space Agency's Samantha Cristoforetti returned to the U.S. side of the ISS "following an evacuation [to the Russian segment] after a sensor indicated a potential leak of harmful substances from the cooling system."
"The crewmembers opened the hatches to the American segment of the ISS, entered it and measured the concentration of impurities in the air. These levels were normal," Matyushin said.
"Today the U.S. specialists will continue to restore the systems, while the Russian cosmonauts will work according to their routine program," he said.
When commenting on the cause of the incident, Matyushin said "specialists tend to believe that it was a malfunction of the computer that controls the cooling system."