Astronauts practice for fire on space station

Tuesday, July 6, 2021: Astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station later this year practiced how to deal with a fire outbreak in space during an exercise at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Five members of the upcoming Expedition 66/67 took part in the training, donning smoke protection masks inside a space station mock-up.

“Fire, depressurisation or toxic atmosphere – on the @Space_Station we have to be prepared for anything,” European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer tweeted with a series of images from the training. “In such extreme situations, teamwork and coordination are vital, which is why we practice emergency procedures together.”

Maurer will fly to the space station in late October this year as part of Crew-3 aboard a brand new SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule that is currently being built. NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn and Kayla Barron will fly on the same mission.

Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who will arrive at the space station in early October aboard Russian Soyuz MS-19 mission, took part in the exercise as well. Shkaplerov will arrive at the space station with two space tourists, Russian film director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild. The two will spend a week on the station filming a movie and will depart with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky. — Tereza Pultarova