Yesterday smoked a little

Yesterday smoked a little…

Potential Onboard Combustion Event

In the crew’s early evening hours, around 18:40 UTC on Tuesday, a fire alarm was annunciated in the Russian Service Module. The crew reported a small amount of smoke from a vent inside Zvezda that quickly stopped. In accordance with nominal contingency protocols, the Russian Ventilation System was isolated from the rest of the station and equipment on the Russian and USOS was deactivated as a precaution including Oxygen Generation Systems. The crew members responded with nominal emergency procedures, preparing their Soyuz spacecraft for the event of a serious problem and readying oxygen masks for use.

Based on the initial report given by Steve Swanson, the smoke quickly subsided and the crew was in no immediate danger. The Russian Mission Control Team identified the source of the smoke to be a heater in Zvezda’s potable water supply that provides hot water for the re-hydration of crew food. The system was deactivated and the Russian crew members set up a filter that will be left running overnight to remove any hazardous substances from the atmosphere aboard ISS, if present.

No toxic substances were detected by the CSA-CP (Compound Specific Analyzer – Combustion Products) when the crew took readings in all modules of ISS after the smoke had cleared.

Mission Controllers reconfigured the Station’s various systems later in the day to transition to a nominal configuration on oxygen generation, ventilation and water supply systems on the USOS side. The Russian water reclamation unit inside Zvezda remains powered off until follow-up actions and possible troubleshooting/repair steps have been evaluated.