On Wednesday, NASA ended up accidentally transmitting a simulation of treating astronauts for decompression sickness on the International Space Station (ISS), which caused extensive speculation and worry all over social media.
NASA’s ISS X account has said that at around 5:28 pm US Central Time (2228 GMT) Nasa’s live YouTube channel carried an audio that hinted at a crew member experiencing decompression sickness (DCS).
“This audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation and is not related to a real emergency,” the ISS X account posted. “There is no emergency situation on the International Space Station.”
According to rumors, this audio spread across social media platforms within minutes of it being leaked igniting speculations that there was a major problem in the ISS.
However, according to Nasa, this was an unintended transmission resulting from one of their training simulations wherein astronaut teams and ground crews prepare themselves to act during space emergencies. The message on the ISS X account stated: “This audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation and is not related to a real emergency.” “There is no emergency situation on the International Space Station.”
Decompression sickness also known as ‘the bends’ occurs when nitrogen or other gas bubbles form in the bloodstream because of atmospheric pressure changes which severely affect the central nervous system and may be fatal. Nevertheless, Nasa claimed that despite shocking audio, members of their crew were in bed as scheduled when they broadcasted it since they were about to make a spacewalk by 8 am EDT Thursday.
An error message indicating feed interruption was displayed on NASA’s ISS YouTube channel where it was aired.
