'Toxic' Odour At International Space Station Detected. What Happened Next?

Cosmonauts detected a strange odour emanating from a Russian spacecraft after it docked at the International Space Station (ISS) last weekend. The Progress supply mission, carrying various supplies for the crew onboard the space station, was launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 21, NASA said in a statement.

After the hatch to the Russian spacecraft was opened, they noticed an "unexpected odour and observed small droplets," Fox Weather reported. The crew shut the hatch and sealed the rest of the Russian segment.

"The unpiloted Progress 90 spacecraft arrived at the space-facing port of the International Space Station's Poisk module at 9:31 a.m. EST, Saturday, November 23. The spacecraft launched at 7:22 a.m. (5:22 p.m. Baikonur time) Nov. 21, on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan," the US space agency said.

On Monday, Roscosmos cosmonauts Ivan Vagner and Aleksandr Gorbunov re-opened the hatch to unpack the supplies, NASA said in another update about the mission.

"Flight controllers on the ground activated air scrubbing equipment as part of normal procedures, indicating that the odor likely was outgassing from materials inside the cargo spacecraft," the US space agency said, adding the crew reported the odour dissipated quickly. The cargo transfer operations proceeded as per the schedule.

According to NASA, the Roscosmos spacecraft delivered nearly three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 72 crew onboard the space station.

It is scheduled to remain docked at ISS for approximately six months and will depart into the Earth's atmosphere to dispose of trash loaded by the crew.

Along with the air scrubbing, Ivan Vagner also cleaned the ventilation system and photographed the inside of the Progress spacecraft.