- NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shared images of the Southern Lights from the ISS after a solar event
- The ISS crew experienced a minor air leak, prompting a temporary shelter and evacuation prep
- NASA ordered astronauts to enter the Crew Dragon spacecraft but later reversed the order
NASA astronaut Jessica Meir shared a stunning post from the International Space Station (ISS) about a recent solar event that lit up Earth's skies with the Southern Lights. The post appears to reference a minor air leak that the ISS crew has been monitoring. Meir reassured followers that the crew is "safe", while also highlighting one of the perks of orbiting 250 miles up, which is having a front-row view of auroras triggered by charged particles from the Sun interacting with Earth's magnetic field.
Sharing the image on Instagram, she wrote, "There is a lot going on right now on the @iss, but fortunately we are all safe and witnessed a spectacular southern aurora show yesterday thanks to a recent solar event."
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See the post here:
Auroras, also called the Northern or Southern Lights, are often more vivid from space, where astronauts can see them at eye level as the station passes over the poles. Meir's photo captured the green bands of the Aurora Australis.
Astronauts frequently share images of space weather phenomena from the ISS, giving people on Earth a rare perspective on how solar activity shapes the planet's atmosphere.
About air leak aboard the International Space Station
NASA said that air leak aboard the space station prompted five astronauts to take shelter and prepare for evacuation for roughly two hours on Friday. Meanwhile, Russia attempted to fix a crack on its portion of the orbital laboratory.
According to NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens, the four astronauts of NASA's Crew-12 mission aboard the station were ordered by NASA mission control at 9:04 am ET (1304 GMT) on Friday to enter their SpaceX-built Crew Dragon spacecraft docked to the station.
Two hours later, NASA reversed that order and told the astronauts they could return to the station as the agency and its Russian counterparts examined the rate of leaking air.
According to Reuters, NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos, the station's two primary operators, have debated for months over the cause and potential fixes of small air leaks aboard Russia's Zvezda service module, which is a key structure of the ISS.
