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NASA says it accidentally sent out an emergency signal meant for training purposes
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Audio sent out by NASA about an injured crew member aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday evening was training material, the ISS said.
The federal space agency was using the audio to simulate a crew member having decompression sickness, but it was mistakenly picked up on NASA’s livestream.
“This audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation where crew members and ground teams train for various scenarios in space and is not related to a real emergency,” the ISS said. “The International Space Station crew members were in their sleep period at the time. All remain healthy and safe, and tomorrow’s spacewalk will start at 8 a.m. EDT as planned.”
SpaceX also weighed in, saying what the public heard was a test taking place in California. "The crew training in Hawthorne is safe and healthy as is the Dragon spacecraft docked to the @space_station."
The blip stirred up concern on social media.
“That’s a relief super glad that everyone is ok and safe and healthy,” one X (formerly Twitter) user said.
“That's great news! The world was scared for a brief time,” another user said.
Astronauts Tracy C. Dyson and Matt Dominick are scheduled to perform a spacewalk Thursday to remove a broken radio frequency box from an antenna on the space station. They will also collect microorganisms from the space station’s surface to analyze how well they can survive and reproduce.
The walk will start at 8 a.m. ET and last about six and a half hours. It will be available on NASA’s website and YouTube channel.
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