NASA said there was "no emergency situation going on aboard the International Space Station" in a post on the ISS X account.

"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," NASA said. "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 audio lasted for about eight minutes and triggered news and social media reports of a space station emergency.

NASA's scheduled livestream was interrupted by what appeared to be an unidentified flight surgeon communicating with the ISS crew advising how to treat a commander dealing with serious decompression sickness.

The voice advised the crew to "check his pulse one more time" before putting him into a space suit full of pure oxygen.

NASA, however, made clear that all of the ISS crewmembers "remain healthy and safe" and were not part of the medical drill.

"The International Space Station crew members were in their sleep period at the time," NASA said.

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