List of accidents and incidents involving the International Space Station

The International Space Station, as seen by a visiting spacecraft in 2021.

This article is a list of accidents and incidents related to the International Space Station (ISS). It includes mishaps occurring on board the ISS, flights to and from the space station, as well as other program related incidents. Excluded from the list are routine actions such as repairs of minor malfunctions or debris avoidance maneuvers.

List

2001

• November 28: Progress M1-7 cargo spacecraft failed to perform hard docking due to debris on the docking ring left by Progress M-45. During an unscheduled spacewalk on December 3 the foreign object was inspected and removed, finally allowing Progress M1-7 to complete the docking procedures.

2004

• February 27: Despite completing the main objective of VKD-9 spacewalk, it was terminated early due to a cooling system malfunction in Aleksandr Kaleri's spacesuit. A post-spacewalk inspection showed disruption of the cooling water flow caused by pinching of a coolant tube as the cause of the malfunction. Remaining planned activities were moved to a later spacewalk.

• June 24: VKD-9a spacewalk was cut short after the primary oxygen bottle in the spacesuit of Mike Fincke began losing pressure at a high rate almost immediately after exiting the hatch. Total length of the spacewalk was 14 minutes 22 seconds. The cause of malfunction was determined to be open oxygen flow switch that wasn't fully seated in normal flow position. In order to avoid such an incident, spacewalk procedures were updated with additional checks of valves' positions. The spacewalk was rescheduled to June 30.

• August 3: During Expedition 9 EVA-3 spacewalk, the ISS lost its attitude control and drifted 80 degrees off the nominal attitude. Resulting power conservation procedures lead to a loss of primary S-band communication between the spacewalkers and the ground crew. No people were inside the station at the time. In order use the Service Module thrusters to regain correct attitude, the crew had to move away from it and only returned after realignment 45 minutes later. Due to this incident, mission control adjusted attitude control planning and power conservation measures for the future EVAs.

2006

• October 26: During docking of Progress M-58 orientation antenna failed to fully retract. The spacecraft physically connected to the station but mission control delayed hard docking by over 4 hours while working to reduce the risks of failed antenna hitting elements of Zvezda service module. To ensure it will not interfere during undocking, several attempts of retracting the antenna took place during two spacewalks of Expedition 14. After they failed, the supporting strut was cut, allowing partial retracting.

2007

• August 15: EVA-3 spacewalk of STS-118/13A.1 mission was terminated early after a hole was found in second layer of Rick Mastracchio's EMU glove during periodic inspection. The hole didn't lead to any leaks as spacesuit consists of five layers and termination was a precautionary measure. The hole was determined to be a cut caused by a sharp edge.

2008

• November 20: As EVA-2 spacewalk of STS-126/ULF2 was wrapping up, Shane Kimbrough's spacesuit sensors showed carbon dioxide buildup above safety limits. He was commanded to terminate his spacewalk and return to the airlock as a precaution. Kimbrough encountered increased CO2 level on EVA-4 of the mission as well and took periodic rests to control it.

2009

• July 22: During EVA-3 spacewalk of STS-127/21A mission CO2 removal system in Chris Cassidy's spacesuit malfunctioned resulting in increasing carbon dioxide levels. Although the increased levels were still within the normal limits and Cassidy didn't experience any hypercapnia symptopms, the spacewalk was terminated early as a precaution. Due to termination, a battery pack was left in unintended configuration, requiring additional exercise restrictions to avoid unwanted vibrations until the next spacewalk.

2010

• Jule 2: Docking of the Progress M-06M cargo spacecraft was aborted due to automated system issue. The failure was traced to TV transmitter of manual rendezvous system TORU interfering with the TORU itself, causing a loss of connection and abort command. Consequently, TORU was disabled on the next docking attempt on July 4th which was successful.

2011

• August 24: Progress M-12M cargo spacecraft failed to reach orbit due to early shutdown of the third stage engines of Soyuz-U. At the time of he incident, Progress was the only operational ISS resupply spacecraft. Due to commonality between the third stages, Soyuz-FG, the only launch vehicle capable of carrying crew at the time, was also grounded, creating risk of having to leave ISS in uncrewed configuration. The failure was attributed to a human-caused blocking fuel line inside of RD-0110 engine. With a successful launch of Progress M-13M to the ISS on October 30, Soyuz-FG was cleared to launch crew again, which ultimately prevented de-crewing of the station.

2013

• July 16: 44 minutes into EVA-23 spacewalk ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano reported a large amount of water inside his helmet, minutes after a CO2 sensor failure. By the time Luca made it to the airlock, water was covering his eyes, nose and ears. The incident resulted in no injury but was later declared a high-visibility close call. The cause of the issue was determined to be contamination clogging a Fan Pump Separator, disrupting the water flow and leading it into the helmet. The issue had actually started on the previous spacewalk but was falsely attributed to a leaking drink bag and dismissed.

2014

• October 28: The Cygnus Orb-3 cargo spacecraft fails to orbit after its Antares rocket explodes. An uncontained failure in one of the rocket's NK-33 first stage engines caused the vehicle to collapse back on the launch pad, destroying the rocket, spacecraft, and cargo, as well as causing significant damage to the launch complex. No personnel were injured in the incident.

2015

• April 28: Shortly after separation from the launch vehicle, contact was lost with Progress M-27M cargo spacecraft. Attempts to reestablish two-way communications weren't successful, but downlinked video from the spacecraft showed it rapidly spinning in orbit. Similar to earlier Progress M-12M failure, crewed Soyuz flights were also paused, which led to Soyuz TMA-15M undocking and landing delayed by a month and other schedule adjustments. The failure was determined to be caused by a flawed design of connection between Progress and the third stage of the rocket, which sent the cargo spacecraft into a spin after an abnormal separation. Progress spacecraft reentered the atmosphere on May 8.
• June 28: The SpaceX CRS-7 Dragon cargo spacecraft fails to orbit after its Falcon 9 rocket disintegrates 139 seconds in flight. A helium COPV on the second stage had broken free of its mounting point, causing an overpressure event that burst the second stage; the Dragon spacecraft and rocket debris impacted the ocean moments later and were destroyed. An investigation traced the fault to a defective stainless steel bolt that failed at one-fifth of its design load, which SpaceX did not properly qualify for performance under cryogenic temperatures. An International Docking Adapter necessary for future American crew flights to the space station was among the cargo lost, a replacement was manufactured from spare components.

2016

• January 15: US EVA-35 spacewalk was terminated early due to water bubble forming in Tim Kopra's helmet. After examining the affected space suit to Earth, the likely cause was determined to be blockage of "slurper tubes" that return excess water from the sublimator to the cooling loop. The amount of water released was small enough to be considered a non-hazard.
• December 1: Progress MS-04 cargo spacecraft didn't reach orbit due to failure of Soyuz-U third stage. The spacecraft successfully separated from the failed launch vehicle and started post-launch operations but fell back to Earth. The failed launch wasn't critical for supplies and maintenance of the station. The failure was traced to a several possible issues with the turbopump of RD-0110 engine on the third stage, which in turn caused failure of the oxidizer tank. As a result, Progress MS-05 was delayed by three weeks to replace third stage engines on its launch vehicle.

2017

• June 14: Soyuz rocket debris resulting from the launch of Progress MS-06 spacecraft started a fire at the impact site. Due to a combination of weather factors, it turned into a blaze leading to deaths of two workers working on debris recovery. Additional impact site inspections before and after the launch were introduced to prevent such accidents in the future.

2018

• August 29: An air leak caused by a 2 mm hole is discovered in the docked Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. Astronauts initially patched the leak with Kapton tape, and later sealed with an epoxy patch. Russian officials accused NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor of boring the hole, a claim described by Ars Technica as "preposterous" and "a complete fabrication".

  

  Soyuz MS-10 rocket shortly after disintegration

• October 11: The Soyuz MS-10 crew mission fails to orbit after its booster disintegrates in flight. Astronauts Aleksey Ovchinin and Nick Hague are saved by the spacecraft's launch escape system, and land 402 km (250 mi) downrange in Kazakhstan.

2019

• April 20: A SpaceX Dragon crew capsule exploded during ground testing of its launch abort system. The delay injured no personnel but resulted in delays to timelines of the spacecraft's first crewed flight.
• August 23: News media report on an incident where astronaut Anne McClain is accused of illegally accessing her divorced spouse Summer Worden's bank accounts while on board the station. The accusations were false and Worden was later indicted for lying to authorities.
• December 20: The Boeing Orbital Flight Test, an uncrewed flight test of the Boeing Starliner crew spacecraft, is successfully launched but experiences several technical issues in orbit related to an erroneously configured mission timer. The planned docking attempt to the ISS was called off and the spacecraft landed in New Mexico two days later. Boeing would conduct a repeat mission on its own funds two years later.

2021

• July 29: The recently docked Nauka space station module experienced a computer glitch that caused it to fire its thrusters, causing the space station to be rotated end-over-end one and a half times; a "spacecraft emergency" was called for the first time in the history of the program by flight director Zebulon Scoville. Attitude control was only regained after the errant module had completely depleted its fuel reserves. The module had experienced technical issues related to its propulsion prior to docking with the ISS. The uncrewed Boe-OFT2 Starliner mission would be delayed 96 hours due to the incident, but later would be cancelled entirely after the Starliner's valves were found to be faulty.
• November 15: Russia conducts an anti-satellite missile test and shatters the Kosmos 1408 spacecraft into a cloud of thousands of debris fragments, endangering the International Space Station and other spacecraft. All crew aboard the ISS were ordered to don spacesuits and proceed to their respective return spacecraft in the event that the ISS were to be struck by debris and depressurized. In June 2022, the space station executed a maneuver to dodge a debris fragment from the destroyed satellite.

2022

• May 19: The Boeing Orbital Flight Test 2, a repeat of a previous abortive Starliner test flight, successfully docked with the space station but not without incident. Two of the spacecraft's maneuvering thrusters failed prior to the docking, which did not end up causing any issues with the mission.
• August 17: Russian VKD-54 spacewalk was terminated early due to abnormal battery readings of Oleg Artemyev's spacesuit. Both participating cosmonauts returned to the airlock without further problems, the remaining tasks were completed during the next spacewalk.

Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft leaking coolant as seen on NASA TV livestream

• December 14: Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft sprung a leak in external cooling loop of the service module. The leak was determined to be caused by a micrometeoroid impact. The spacecraft stayed docked as an emergency rescue vehicle but was deemed not viable for a normal crew return. As a result, Soyuz MS-23 was launched without crew as a replacement in February, while MS-22 undocked and landed without the crew on March 28. The mission of the crew was extended and they returned on September 27th on Soyuz MS-23, setting the record of the longest US spaceflight.

2023

• February 11: Progress MS-21 spacecraft sprung a leak in external cooling loop of the service module. The leak was determined to be caused by a micrometeoroid impact. The leak area was inspected using Canadarm2 as well as photographs taken after undocking. The incident resulted in a delay of Soyuz MS-23 launch, needed to replace Soyuz MS-22 that had a leak several months prior.
• October 9: A leak from one of Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module radiators was observed with the ISS cameras and visual inspections. The origin of the leak was Nauka’s backup radiator while the primary radiator continued working as normal. The radiator system was first delivered to the ISS in 2010 and installed in April 2023. As a result of the incident, the two NASA spacewalks have been postponed. During Roscosmos spacewalk on October 25 the backup radiator was isolated and inspected. During inspection a bubble of coolant liberated from the leak area, causing additional precautions at the end of the spacewalk to avoid contaminating the ISS environment.

2024

• March 8: A 0.7 kilograms (1.5 lb) piece of space junk that survived reentry has impacted a house in Naples, Florida. No people were harmed. NASA later confirmed the object to be an inconel stanchion that was a part of a cargo pallet with old batteries jettisoned from the ISS in March 2021. The pallets were originally planned to be safely disposed of with an HTV spacecraft that delivered the replacement batteries to the space station, but Exposed Pallet brought by HTV-7 was left on the ISS due to Soyuz MS-10 launch failure affecting spacewalk schedules. After the final HTV flight one pallet remained on the ISS, and it was jettisoned from the ISS after being estimated to burn up completely on reentry.