Due to a technical problem, NASA broadcast a simulation of a health emergency on board live for about eight minutes on its official channel of the International Space Station (ISS), without specifying that it was a test. Many people therefore thought that there was a real emergency and reported the problem on social networks, generating a certain apprehension and forcing NASA to publish an unusual message to explain the error and reassure about the health conditions of the crew on the ISS .
The emergency simulation was broadcast around 00:30 (Italian time) on Thursday, with the report of a decompression illness involving an astronaut on board the Station. A person from the control center in Hawthorne, California, identified himself as the on-board doctor and then began to provide some advice on practices to follow in orbit. She had suggested having the astronaut wear one of the suits for extravehicular activities (what are commonly called “spacewalks”), in order to pressurize her and start treatment with oxygen to reduce the symptoms due to decompression.
The doctor added that the prognosis for the astronaut was not encouraging and that his early return to Earth would be necessary, so that he could undergo other treatments in hospital. Decompression sickness occurs when one undergoes a rapid reduction in pressure in the environment, for example following a rapid emergence from a certain depth in the water, such that the gases normally dissolved in the blood or tissues form small bubbles inside the blood vessels which can cause significant damage.
The ISS is constantly pressurized compared to the surrounding space environment and so are the suits worn for extravehicular activities. Astronauts undergo long hours of preparation before an activity outside the Station also to acclimatise to the different pressure conditions. Leaks in the suit or in some environments of the ISS could cause decompression sickness and for this reason tests and simulations are carried out to ensure the safety of the crews.
After approximately eight minutes of accidentally transmitting the simulation without warnings, NASA issued a statement to deny reports of an emergency on board and explain the error:
There is no emergency situation underway on board the International Space Station. At approximately 12:28am audio was broadcast on NASA’s live stream from a ground simulation audio channel indicating that a crew member was experiencing effects related to decompression sickness (DCS). This audio was inadvertently diverted from an ongoing simulation in which crew members and ground teams train for various scenarios in space and is not related to an actual emergency. At that time the crew members of the International Space Station were in their sleep period.
The simulation had therefore taken place exclusively on Earth and had not involved in any way the crew on the ISS, who in those hours were sleeping in preparation for an extravehicular activity scheduled for Thursday. There are currently six US astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts on board the Station.
