Columbia Astronaut Among Space Station Evacuees

Six astronauts, including one from Columbia, had to evacuate due to a false alarm from part of the International Space Station, officials said Wednesday morning.

Nobody was injured; the crew was safe, according to NASA.

Terry Virts, 47, a graduate of Oakland Mills High School, was in the U.S. section of the International Space Station where an alarm had gone off, signaling a spike in coolant pressure, NASA reported.

The alarm went off at approximately 4 a.m. Eastern time, as crew members were unpacking supplies including research materials for experiments in space, WJZ said.

As a precaution, Virts and the five other crew members donned special breathing equipment and relocated to the Russian segment of the space station, according to the BBC.

It was the first time the spacecraft had to be evacuated in its 14-year history of conducting research experiments 260 miles into space, according to ABC News.

By 3:05 p.m., the crew returned to the U.S. section after ground control personnel confirmed there was no ammonia inside the vessel, which would have been toxic, Reuters reported.

It turned out there was an error with one of the systems that tracks the levels of pressure in the space station, NASA reported. Teams on the ground turned off the system and rebooted it, NASA said, and teams continued to monitor how it was functioning.

Photo Credit: @AstroTerry