New Delhi, June 5 -- A worsening air leak aboard the International Space Station (ISS) prompted NASA to order five astronauts to take shelter and prepare for a possible evacuation on Friday, highlighting ongoing concerns over a long-running leak problem in the Russian segment of the orbiting laboratory.

The precautionary measure lasted for nearly two hours before NASA lifted the order and allowed the astronauts to return to normal operations while engineers from NASA and Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, continued evaluating the situation.

According to NASA, mission controllers instructed five astronauts at approximately 9:04 a.m. ET to enter the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft docked at the station and prepare for potential emergency pro...