The International Space Station (ISS) suffered a 'gas leak' earlier today, forcing an evacuation to the Russian segment of the station.

The alarms can sometimes be caused by "an apparent ammonia leak," although NASA claims it was more likely a 'faulty sensor or computer relay'. Nevertheless, the astronauts have remained in the Russian zone for most of the day. The Russian Federal Agency was the first to report the apparent ammonia leak, claiming "harmful emissions" were coming from the U.S. side of ISS.

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Ammonia is a component of hydrogen and nitrogen, used to fuel the ISS. The gas that comes from ammonia is extremely toxic, but all astronauts are trained on how to deal with the gas, should it leak into the station.

NASA reports the two U.S. astronauts, one Italian astronaut and three Russian cosmonauts followed normal safety procedures, sealing the American part of the ISS and wearing gas-masks.

The ISS has recently received a large amount of food and supplies, including late-Christmas gifts from the families back on Earth. Space X's Falcon 9 delivered the goods, after a failed attempt at landing part of the cargo ship on a drone bay.

It is the first time the ISS has received supplies in months, following the failure of two high-profile private rocket launches from Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo and Orbital Sciences Antares.

Several space commentators said this was a detrimental blow to the space industry, but the success of the Space X mission has put some optimism back in the air.

TagsInternational Space Station, NASA, Federal Space Agency, Russia, ammonia leak, astronauts