Photo: Twitter / Chris B / @NASAspaceflight
At the end of August 2018, a small hole in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft attached to the ISS led to alarms ringing at mission control, and subsequently to a number of accusations going back and forth between the American and space agencies.
At the time, there were even innuendoes about possible sabotage, either on the ground by Russian engineers, either in space by American astronauts. Whatever happened, it will remain a secret, at least for a while.
The cause of the leak, a hole in the capsule, has been identified ever since the incident happened, but until now nobody knows what caused it. According to various media reports, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has stated that his country now knows what occurred, but for some reason won't tell.
Speaking about the hole, he said "it has long since burned up upon reentry," but the Russians were able to take all the samples they needed to figure things out.
"We know exactly what happened, but we won't tell you anything," Rogozin was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti. "We do need to retain some sort of secrecy."
As per NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, not even the Americans were informed on the findings, despite the two nations sharing the same station in space for decades.
The hole was discovered by Russian and American Earth-based control centers on August 30, 2018, while the crew was asleep. It posed no immediate danger, and it was not brought to the astronauts' attention until they woke up.
Upon inspection, it was found the hole seems to have been drilled into the Russian capsule from the inside, but no one could say when or how. The problem was quickly fixed by those on board and no other similar incidents were reported.
The damaged Soyuz capsule was not used to bring astronauts back to Earth.
The cause of the leak, a hole in the capsule, has been identified ever since the incident happened, but until now nobody knows what caused it. According to various media reports, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has stated that his country now knows what occurred, but for some reason won't tell.
Speaking about the hole, he said "it has long since burned up upon reentry," but the Russians were able to take all the samples they needed to figure things out.
"We know exactly what happened, but we won't tell you anything," Rogozin was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti. "We do need to retain some sort of secrecy."
As per NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, not even the Americans were informed on the findings, despite the two nations sharing the same station in space for decades.
The hole was discovered by Russian and American Earth-based control centers on August 30, 2018, while the crew was asleep. It posed no immediate danger, and it was not brought to the astronauts' attention until they woke up.
Upon inspection, it was found the hole seems to have been drilled into the Russian capsule from the inside, but no one could say when or how. The problem was quickly fixed by those on board and no other similar incidents were reported.
The damaged Soyuz capsule was not used to bring astronauts back to Earth.
Google News