Astronauts aboard International Space Station told to prepare for emergency evacuation

The Russian astronauts had been attempting to fix a worsening air leak aboard the ISS when the call was made by Nasa.

Speaking on the situation, Nasa has said the ongoing leak was taking place on the Russian area of the space station.

The astronauts have now been told to shelter in their spacecraft until further notice in preparation for a possible evacuation.

There are ​four astronauts of Nasa's ​Crew-12 mission currently on the station - two ‌US ⁠astronauts, a French astronaut and Russian cosmonaut.

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The quartet got orders from Nasa mission control ​at around 9:04 ​a.m. ⁠ET on Monday to enter their Crew Dragon ​spacecraft.

The spacecraft is currently docked to the ​space station, with the crew ordered to don their spacesuits in case the air leak ⁠warrants ​an emergency evacuation, ​a NASA official said.

Leaks aboard the Russian module attached to the ISS have been common place for more than half a decade.

NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos are the station's two primary operators.

Engineers from Roscosmos and NASA have been tracking the leak since May.

According to Nasa, the air leaks have been relatively minor in recent months but the situation escalated on Monday.

The station was said to be losing one to two pounds of air per day, according to a senior NASA official who asked not to be named.

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