A serious mistake by NASA caused moments of panic and anguish among the astronauts who were on board the International Space Station.
During a live broadcast, an emergency audio was accidentally broadcast space that generated confusion and fear among the crew who were at rest at that time.
Also read: This is what the Earth looks like from the Space Station, the Moon and other planets in the solar system
The audio, which was part of a routine training, simulated a astronaut suffering the effects of decompression sicknessa serious condition that can occur during spacewalks.
The Russian agency plans to abandon the orbital laboratory. (Photo: Reuters/ NASA/Roscosmos)
The Pleas for help and cries of pain played on the broadcast caused an immediate reaction from the space lab crew.who woke up disoriented and believing that it was a real emergency.
The situation worsened because the live broadcast of the POT It did not have the necessary security measures to avoid this type of errors. The simulation signal was mixed with the real transmissionwithout any clear indication that differentiated one from the other.
After several minutes of uncertainty and tension, NASA managed to identify the error and stop the transmission. Then, he revealed that it was a straining drill Land and the Agency had to apologize for having mistakenly spread the message through a routine broadcast.
Also read: The 7 incredible and unusual facts about the International Space Station that you probably didn’t know
The mistakenly broadcast drill was designed to replicate an emergency health crisis. Listening to it, it seemed that one of the crew members of the Space Station might have suffered from decompression sickness.
decompression syndrome, commonly associated with scuba diving, can occur when the environment around a person loses pressure very quickly, which in turn causes small bubbles of depressurized gas to form in the blood. This can cause blockages in the bloodstream, which can quickly become fatal.
NASA’s mistake not only caused panic among the astronauts, but also caused great concern among the community scientific and the general publicsince the broadcast was later uploaded to YouTube.
Also read: This is what Buenos Aires looks like at night from the International Space Station: the shocking photo
Furthermore, the incident highlighted the importance of having strict protocols and appropriate security measures for live broadcastsespecially when it comes to events involving personnel on high-risk space missions.
NASA began an internal investigation to determine the causes of the error and take the necessary measures to prevent this type of situation from being repeated in the future.
