A basic evacuation of part of the International Space Station occurred Wednesday. The bail out of the astronauts came from concerns of an ammonia leak on the U.S. side of the space station.

The astronauts involved are the Russians Alexander Samoukutyaev, Elena Serova and Anton Shkaplerov, along with NASA members Terry Virts and Barry Wilmore. There is also the European Space Agency specialist and Italian native Samantha Cristoforetti.

The Russian side of the space station held the six team members as the base technicians analyzed the concern on board. They found that the source was apparently an electronics malfunction.

Warning came to the astronauts at four a.m. eastern standard time as Mission Control caught the pressure gauges fluctuating rapidly. This could have been due to a leak in the cooling systems, specifically the ammonia loops.
The coolant system uses water on the inside section to warm the ammonia which runs along the outside loop. Even though the ammonia loop is outside the cabin, the loop can find a pathway to the inside of the station itself. The officials state that there was not an ammonia leak but rather a malfunctioning computer card which has caused the abnormal indicator gauge readings.

During the evacuation the six Expedition astronauts put on their emergency masks and immediately closed down all of the systems on the U.S. side of the space station. Shortly after, they proceeded to relocate to the Russian area and seal the air tight door behind them.

Despite the readings which showed no indication of any type of ammonia leak, the pressure inside the cabin created other problems. After noticing the pressure, perhaps from a nominal level of ammonia get inside the area, the six members were told to once again put on their hazard masks. After putting their masks back on they were directed back into the Russian side of the station.

While in evacuation mode there are an amount of sequences to power down the ISS systems. Regardless of the fact that some of these systems have been powered back on, the crew members have to stay on the Russian side for a sometime afterwards, just as a precaution.

The members have, as recently as 2013, come across this type of external leak, but never a leak inside the actual cabin. The leaks of any dangerous chemicals within the cabin are not the only problem the crew members can come across and certainly not the other situations they are trained for. Two of the other major issues they actively practice for are cabin fires and depressurization. The astronauts train for these scenarios shortly after they are in orbit.

Throughout the safety procedures implemented to assist the astronauts there were backups for the research being conducted on the space station. The freezing containers which hold the active expirements were shut down, but they were manufactured to be lacking any power for at least an eight hour time period. A few of the experiments which were scheduled for Wednesday will be postponed and fortunately all the current research is still intact.