Astronauts Sleep in Safety from Solar Flare

HOUSTON--Astronauts aboard the International Space Station and shuttle Discovery slept in protected areas of their respective spacecraft overnight to avoid the effects of a radiation storm kicked up by a massive solar flare, NASA officials said Wednesday.

NASA commentator John Ira Petty said that at no time were Discovery's STS-116 shuttle astronauts and the station's Expedition 14 crew at risk, and that the decision to sleep in sheltered areas of their spacecraft was just a precaution should solar storm activity increase overnight.

"That move was made to avoid having to wake the crew during their sleep period," Petty said. "It was never a danger to the crew."

Petty added that the effects of the crew hampered some communications during a Tuesday spacewalk, but the solar storm causing it appeared to be on the decline.

"Shortly after the crew went to bed, solar activity appeared to be subsiding," Petty said.

Protected areas of NASA shuttle's and the ISS include the orbiter's middeck and the aft ends of the space station's U.S. Destiny laboratory and Russian-built Zvezda service module.

Concern surrounded a massive X-3 solar flare that erupted late Tuesday from a large sunspot moving across the Sun. The event prevented some Sun-watching satellites from performing their duties and is rather rare, considering the Sun is currently at a low point in its 11-year cycle of solar activity.

  • Images: Discovery's STS-116 Launch Day Gallery
  • STS-116 Video: Power is Everything
  • STS-116 Video: Building Blocks
  • Mission Discovery: The ISS Rewiring Job of NASA's STS-116
  • Complete Space Shuttle Mission Coverage
  • The Great Space Quiz: Space Shuttle Countdown
  • All About the Space Shuttle

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.