NASA has confirmed that there was “no emergency situation” aboard the International Space Station (ISS) after accidentally airing audio of an emergency drill on a livestream Wednesday night.

The incident fueled public alarm for Nasa, who are busy aiming to create a new ‘moon time’ clock, as the audio revealed a conversation of a distressed astronaut drill.

NASA’s regular scheduled livestream was interrupted at 6:28pm ET by an unidentified speaker discussing with crew on the ISS how to deal with a commander suffering from serious compression sickness.

In the audio, the speaker can be heard advising the crew to “check his pulse one more time” before placing the ill astronaut inside a suit full of oxygen.

The speaker said the action is the “best effort treatment,” then said: “Unfortunately, the prognosis for Commander is relatively tenuous.”

The speaker can also be heard mentioning a hospital in San Fernando, Spain, in an apparent suggestion to order an emergency evacuation from the space station.

Space enthusiasts listening to the livestream quickly became worried, forcing NASA to reassure the public that the scenario was not real and that the ISS crew was safely asleep at the time.

NASA said in a statement on X: “There is no emergency situation going on aboard the International Space Station.

“At approximately 5:28pm 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 continued: “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 8am EDT as planned.”

This comes after two astronauts from Boeing’s Starliner successfully docked with the ISS last week after experiencing thruster issues.