Smoke at International Space Station latest in series of issues with Russian module

In the past, Russia has indicated to leave the space station after 2025 and launch its own orbital station given the frequent issues with the ISS.

A smoke alarm went off Thursday in the Russian module of the International Space Station (ISS) and astronauts smelled “burning” on board ahead of a scheduled spacewalk, Roscosmos and Nasa said. The crew turned on a filter to eliminate possible smoke pollution and went back to sleep, the Russian space agency said. The incident is the latest in the string of problems related to the Zvezda service module, the Russian segment of the space station.

In July, a “short-term software failure” threw the space station out of control for a brief period after a research module was docked. (Twitter / @roscosmos)

"A smoke detector was triggered in the Zvezda service module of the Russian segment of the International Space Station during automatic battery charging, and an alarm went off," Roscosmos said in a statement.

Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov today went on a spacewalk as per the schedule to continue the integration of the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module into the Russian segment of the ISS through extravehicular activities. Nauka is designed to build up the technical and operational capabilities of the Russian segment of the International Space Station.

"All systems are operating normally," Roscosmos said.

In July, a “short-term software failure” threw the space station out of control for a brief period after a research module was docked. An unplanned firing of jet thrusters of the Russian research module Nauka resulted in a “loss of attitudinal control” that lasted for a little more than 45 minutes.

In the past, Russia has indicated to leave the space station after 2025 and launch its own orbital station given the frequent issues with the ISS. A space official even warned last month that out of date software could lead to "irreparable failures".