Astronauts Detect Smoke on the ISS

Astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station had to do their best to stay calm Tuesday afternoon when they first detected smoke in the confined space outpost.

At around 2:40 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Commander Steve Swanson, who was caring for NASA's bounty of "space lettuce" at the time, started smelling smoke emanating from a vent in the Zvezda Service Module.

Swanson quickly got hold of mission control's Capcom Hal Getzelman to inform them of the suspicious smell, telling them that it was a "very small amount" and that the crew was not in any immediate danger after powering down that section of the Russian ventilation system.

"In line with standard protocol, flight controllers at mission control in Houston followed emergency procedures to isolate the Russian segment ventilation system," NASA wrote in an update on the agency's website. "Expedition 40 commander Steve Swanson reported that the smoke quickly subsided and the crew was not in any danger."

It was reportedly a strange change of pace for Swanson, who had been spending his afternoon harvesting a crop of red romaine lettuce plants that were grown from seeds inside the station's VEGGIE facility - a small "garden" of individual plants growing from specially designed pillows.

Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev were planning their more than 6-hour spacewalk that will be occurring next week when the brief scare occurred.

According to NASA, the smoke completely dissipated after the crew near that outpost section was able to deactivate what Russian officials identified as the most likely source of the smoke - a heater in the Russian segment's reclamation unit that is used for dining purposes.

"The team in mission control is coordinating with their Russian counterparts for any follow up actions," NASA wrote, although they do not believe any further action will be needed at this time.

The smoke reportedly did not damage any equipment and no crewmembers were injured.