NASA has taken to its official International Space Station X account to confirm it accidentally played panicking audio that made it appear International Space Station (ISS) astronauts were in an emergency.
The space agency admitted in the above post that at 5:28 pm CDT, it accidentally broadcasted audio from an on-ground training simulation on the NASA live stream, and the audio depicted a crew member experiencing effects related to decompression sickness. For those that don't know, decompression sickness happens when dissolved gases form bubbles inside the body's tissue and is commonly known by SCUBA divers.
As for astronauts, particularly the ones aboard the ISS, this emergency could have happened when an astronaut was transferring through an airlock decompression with a suit that wasn't properly sealed. However, all astronauts aboard the ISS are completely fine, and the audio that was heard on the NASA broadcast occurred while they were asleep.
"At approximately 5:28 p.m. CDT, audio was aired on the NASA livestream from a simulation audio channel on the ground indicating a crew member was experiencing effects related to decompression sickness (DCS)," wrote NASA
"This audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation where crew members and ground teams train for various scenarios in space and is not related to a real emergency. The International Space Station crew members were in their sleep period at the time. All remain healthy and safe, and tomorrow's spacewalk will start at 8 a.m. EDT as planned," added the space agency