Something stenchy arrived on the International Space Station along with a load of food, fuel and supplies over the weekend. The Progress 90 cargo spacecraft docked to the ISS on Nov. 23. It should have been a routine delivery, but Russian cosmonauts opened the hatch to discover “an unexpected odor and small droplets.” They promptly closed the hatch.
The smell may have delayed the cargo unloading, but the station’s crew is in no jeopardy. “Space station air scrubbers and contaminant sensors monitored the station’s atmosphere following the observation, and on Sunday, flight controllers determined air quality inside the space station was at normal levels,” NASA’s ISS X account said in an update on Nov. 24.
Life in space is not a bed of roses. NASA astronaut Christina Koch once said, “There is nothing on the space station that smells pleasant.” She likened the station’s bouquet to a lab, a gym and “a house that six people live in together for months at a time.” A smell on the ISS has to be pretty noxious to make hardened space dwellers shy away.
Four NASA astronauts and three Roscosmos cosmonauts are currently on board the ISS. Cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner were on duty monitoring the arrival of Progress. Two of the NASA crew members are Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, the astronauts “stranded” by issues with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft that carried them into orbit in June. Williams and Wilmore are scheduled to return to Earth early in 2025 in a SpaceX Dragon crew capsule instead.
Progress 90 is an uncrewed Russian spacecraft. It launched on Nov. 21 from Kazakhstan with an assist from a Russian Soyuz rocket. Its trip to the ISS went as planned and it docked automatically to the Poisk module, part of the Russian segment of the station. The ISS also receives cargo shipments via SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Regular resupply runs are needed to keep the isolated space outpost operating, the crew fed and science experiments updated. The deliveries sometimes include fresh foods like fruit for the crew. That’s a rare treat in a place where meals are often rehydrated.
The cargo spacecraft is also stocked with some fun items. Roscosmos sent along 2025-themed keychains and postcards for the cosmonauts to share as New Year’s gifts, Russian news agency TASS reported earlier in November.
NASA doesn’t seem worried about the unexpected odor emanating from Progress. “There are no concerns for the crew, and as of Sunday afternoon, the crew is working to open the hatch between Poisk and Progress while all other space station operations are proceeding as planned,” the agency wrote on X. Progress 90 is scheduled for a six-month stay at the ISS. It will eventually take on the role of garbage disposal. The crew will pack it with trash and send it off to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
Astronauts have described space itself as smelling metallic or like gunpowder, ozone or seared steak. The odor that caused the cosmonauts to close the hatch hasn’t been publicly identified yet, but the incident sounds like the start of a sci-fi story. NASA did not immediately reply to a request for an update on the aroma situation.
