Investigators are working to determine the source of the odour, which may have originated either from the Progress spacecraft or its vestibule connecting to the ISS. This incident follows a series of earlier issues with Russian spacecraft,

Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore, both NASA astronauts, have been stuck at the International Space Station for more than six months due to a Starliner spacecraft malfunction. They are set to return to Earth in February 2025.

The space station's current crew includes Roscosmos' Aleksandr Gorbunov, Ivan Vagner and Alexey Ovchinin, and Nasa's Pettit, Nick Hague, as well as Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore.