Smell of Burnt Plastic Still Present in US Segment of ISS, Crew Commander Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The smell of burnt plastic, which occurred in the Zvezda module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS) and spread to the US segment, is still present there, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, the current commander of ISS crew, said on Friday.

On Thursday night, ISS cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky reported to the Russian mission control centre that the fire alarm went off at Zvezda and the crew saw smoke and felt a smell of burnt plastic. Cosmonauts activated the air purification system to filter out the harmful substances in the air. Astronaut Thomas Pesquet said that the smell of burnt plastic seeped through the US segment of the space station through the ventilation system.

Even though the smell has greatly weakened since, it persists in the Tranquility module, also known as Node 3, and the Unity module, or Note 1, Hoshide told the NASA mission control centre in Houston.