Russia says space station leak may be sabotage (or production screwup)

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Winston

Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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Russia says space station leak may be sabotage (or production screwup)
September 4, 2018

https://phys.org/news/2018-09-russia-space-station-leak-deliberate.html

Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening.
"There were several attempts at drilling," Rogozin said late Monday in televised comments, adding that the drill appeared to have been held by a "wavering hand".

"What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?" he asked.

Rogozin had said the hole in the side of the ship used to ferry astronauts was most likely caused from outside by a tiny meteorite, but later admitted it had been ruled out.

The hole is in a section of the Soyuz ship that will not be used to carry astronauts back to Earth.
A space industry source told TASS that the spacecraft could have been damaged during testing at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after passing initial checks and the mistake was then hastily covered up.

"Someone messed up and then got scared and sealed up the hole," the source speculated, but then the sealant "dried up and fell off" when the Soyuz reached the ISS.
 
Yeah, sure... NASA did it...

Russian theory that NASA sabotaged the space station spreading like wildfire

"The situation is much more complex than we earlier thought.”
12 Sep 2018

https://arstechnica.com/science/201...ng-a-nasa-astronaut-sabotaged-the-iss-theory/

ISS commander strongly denies

NASA officials have refused to provide any public comments on the issue because they don't want to be drawn into the story. However, in a space-to-ground interview with ABC News on Tuesday, the NASA astronaut who commands the station, Drew Feustel, strongly denied the notion that he or any crew member would have caused this problem. "I can unequivocally say that the crew had nothing to do with this on orbit, without a doubt, and I think it's actually a shame and somewhat embarrassing that anybody is wasting any time talking about something that the crew was involved in," Feustel said.

The theory of a NASA astronaut or anyone on board the station taking out a drill to puncture the atmosphere of the orbiting laboratory is ridiculous. This seems to be some kind of play by Rogozin to deflect public attention (and that of his boss, Vladimir Putin) away from the fact that Russia's space manufacturing program isn't what it once was. The political fallout from this will be fascinating to watch, because rarely have we seen such a dispute between Roscomos and NASA, which generally have an excellent working relationship.
 
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018...s-drilling-damage-soyuz-ship-result-foul-play

Damage to the craft first uncovered in late August while it was anchored to the International Space Station (ISS) alarmed engineers and raised suspicion of foul play — a possibility at first thought remote — but an air leak was initially thought to be the result of a micrometeorite colliding with the vessel. Upon an opening investigation someone described in Russian media as a "reckless assembly worker" was reported to have made a manufacturing error that had a big impact once in space.

“There are drilling traces not only inside the living module [of the ISS], but also on anti-meteorite plates,” a Russian space program source told TASS news agency. These plates have been described in breaking media reports as "mounted outside of the station’s hermetic hull".

“The one who made the hole in the hull passed straight through it and the drill head hit external non-hermetic protection,” the source explained. "The top of the drill came through the pressure hull and hit the non-gas-tight outer shell."

However, reports suggest the tiny drill hole first discovered in August could have been improperly sealed the first time and through negligence never properly attended to, per state media source RT, citing officials: "The makeshift sealant held for at least the two months the Soyuz spacecraft spent in orbit, before finally drying up and being pushed out of the hole by air pressure. The ISS crew had noticed the drop of pressure in late August."

The rapid depressurization reportedly set off an alarm, sending the entire crew to evacuate the Russian wing if the ISS, which involved locking down modules behind them. And further details of the hole's location, per state sources:

The hole was located near the toilet and covered by decorative fabric. Using an ordinary toothbrush and an endoscope, they found that only one of the two-millimeter cracks had actually pierced the hull and was leaking air.


Russian%20spacecraft.jpg
 
I hope they had some of this on board: FLEX TAPE!

 
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