"The situation has stabilized and it has been reported back down by the crew that there were never any smoke in the cabin, however there was a smell associated with KOH (potassium hydroxide)," American ISS manager Mike Suffredini told reporters here.

"It's an irritant, it's not a life-threatening material, and at no time did the crew have to put on the gas mask or the oxygen mask," he said.

"However we did have them wearing some surgical gloves and masks," he said.

"Part of the procedure when you get a smoke or a potential fire indication, (is that) we activate the emergency system and that shuts down all the ventilation in the vehicle to keep us from spreading whatever the smoke or toxic spill is," Suffredini said.

The crew initially reported light smoke and an odor of potassium hydroxide coming out of an oxygen vent on the Russian section of the space lab, he said.

"There is no more smoke, just a smell, the situation is stable," ISS astronaut Jeff Williams of the United States told mission control, in an update retransmitted on NASA TV.

"There is no more emission, the CO2 isn't increasing ... and everything is good," added Pavel Vinogradov, the Russian commander of the orbiting space lab.

NASA is now cleaning up the odor, reconfiguring the ventilation system and taking readings for levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen cyanide (HCN) on the ISS, Suffredini said.

"All of them are well below any limits we worry about," he said.

"The crew is doing very well. We don't quite know exactly the nature of the spill and we have plenty of time to work it out," he added.

The incident will not delay the docking, scheduled for Wednesday, of the Russian Soyuz rocket that left Kazakhstan earlier Monday, carrying Iranian-born US citizen and millionaire tourist Anousheh Ansari, NASA's Michael Lopez-Alegria and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, toward the ISS.

"The crew is doing very well in the Soyuz," Suffredini said.

related report
Oxygen Regeneration System Causes Odor Scare On ISS
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Sep 18 - A problem with an oxygen regeneration system caused an alarming situation Monday on the world's sole civilian orbital station as an alarm went off, Russia's space agency said. It was initially feared that smoke had emerged on the International Space Station after a short circuit, but the press secretary for the Federal Space Agency played down the concerns.

"An unpleasant smell on board the ISS appeared after an oxygen regeneration system, Elektron, was activated," Igor Panarin said.

Panarin said the system had been switched off and the situation was under control.

He said the crew had turned off the system Sunday after the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis undocked from the station. When Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and American Jeffrey Williams reactivated the system today, they smelled an unpleasant odor and switched it off again.

This is not the first time the oxygen regenerating systems have failed on the ISS.

Williams and Vinogradov had to replace a hydrogen disposal valve during their first spacewalk. This was necessary to ensure an uninterrupted generation of oxygen for crew members and the disposal of hydrogen used in the process.

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