NASA accidentally broadcast a medical drill intended for training in an official live broadcast that simulated an astronaut being treated for decompression sickness on the International Space Station (ISS), sparking alarm on social media.
The audio, which was broadcast by POTOn the live YouTube channel, he captured a female voice instructing crew members to “put the commander back in his suit,” check his pulse, and provide him with oxygen, with a prognosis later described as “dim.”
Audio recordings quickly spread on social media, raising fears of a serious emergency on the ISS.
“A very strange and disturbing audio has just been broadcast on the ISS YouTube channel,” one person posted on X.
“Something’s not right about this,” wrote another.
Decompression sickness, caused by bubbles of nitrogen or other gases in the bloodstream due to a change in atmospheric pressure, can affect the central nervous system and is potentially fatal.
However, NASA confirmed that there was “no emergency situation” on the ISS and that the audio was inadvertently transmitted from a simulation where crew members and ground teams train for various scenarios on space.
“There is no emergency situation on board the International Space Station“, published the NASA account on the ISS in X.
He said that around 5:28 p.m. CDT (10:30 p.m. GMT) “an audio was broadcast on NASA’s live feed from a simulation audio channel on the ground indicating that a crew member was experiencing side effects.” related to decompression sickness (DCS).
“This audio inadvertently deviated 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.”
The ISS crew members were in their “sleep period” at the time the drill was inadvertently broadcast to the ground, he said.
A spacewalk scheduled for Thursday at 8 a.m. EDT will go ahead as planned, NASA added.
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SpaceX also clarified that what people heard “was just a test.”
The crew training at Hawthorne, CaliforniaThey were “safe and healthy,” he said.
Space enthusiasts on Earth were relieved to learn that what they had heard was a training exercise:
“This was our ‘War of the Worlds’ broadcast. I’m glad it wasn’t real, those were some very credible communications,” wrote one on X.
“You scared us,” posted another. “The world was scared for a short time,” said another.
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