Intl Space Station crew safe after accident - mission control
KOROLYOV, near Moscow. Jan 14 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian mission control center said on Wednesday that the International Space Station's current crew were in good health condition despite an accident in the station's U.S. segment a few hours before in which the cooling system emitted toxic substances inside the ISS.
"The astronauts and cosmonauts feel well. They are provided with all they need in the Russian segment. The crew use Greenwich Mean Time, and so they're having lunch at the moment," a spokesman for the center, located in Korolyov, told Interfax-AVN.
Earlier, NASA had said its astronauts might be allowed to return to the American segment on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.
After the accident, which occurred at 0844 GMT on Wednesday, the American segment was sealed off and the NASA astronauts moved into the Russian segment, where the content of toxic substances in the air was said to be within acceptable limits.
The Russian mission control center spokesman said the Russian segment had sufficient supplies of food, water, oxygen and hygiene items and that, "though the segment is rather small, there will be sleeping accommodation for everyone."
The crew are Expedition 42 commander Barry Wilmore of NASA, the expedition's Russian flight engineers Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Yelena Serova, and a team of three who will transfer to Expedition 43 - flight engineers Anton Shkaplerov of Russia and Samantha Cristoforetti of Italy, and Terry Virts, who is a flight engineer in the Expedition 42 crew and will be commander of Expedition 43.
