NASA Says It Accidentally Broadcast an ISS Distress Message (Image Credit: Gizmodo-com)
NASA broadcast an emergency situation on board the ISS on Wednesday at 6:32 p.m., with a voice from ground control asking to put an unnamed “commander” in his spacesuit for hypobaric treatment after being exposed to increased pressure.
“This audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation where crew members and ground teams train for various scenarios in space and is not related to a real emergency,” NASA added. “The International Space Station crew members were in their sleep period at the time. All remain healthy and safe.”
Decompression sickness, also known as the bends, typically occurs with change in pressure during scuba diving and can sometimes affect astronauts during spacewalks, forming bubbles in the bloodstream.
NASA had scheduled a spacewalk on Thursday for astronauts Tracy Dyson and Matt Dominick to complete the removal of a faulty electronics box. About an hour before the crew was anticipated to exit the ISS airlock, NASA announced that the spacewalk had been postponed due to a spacesuit discomfort issue. It’s likely that the two incidents are not related, but a rather unfortunate coincidence.
