Russian space officials try to blame NASA astronaut for 2018 Soyuz air leak with baseless accusations: report

[ad_1]

A close-up image of the alleged borehole astronauts discovered in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft in 2018 (Image credit: NASA)

CAP CANAVERAL, Fla.The head of human spaceflight at NASA said the agency was supporting its astronauts following claims that a U.S. crew member on the International Space Station sabotaged a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2018 , causing air to leak into the orbiting laboratory.

On Friday afternoon (August 13), during a media teleconference on recent delays with the Boeing Starliner spacecraft, NASA human spaceflight chief Kathy Lueders told reporters that the personal attacks on the NASA astronaut and Expedition 56 flight engineer Serena Aun-Chancellor were without merit.

“Serena is an extremely respected crew member who has served her country and made an invaluable contribution to the agency,” Lueders told reporters. “And I support Serena, we support Serena and her professional conduct and I did not find this accusation credible.”

Related: Space Station Commander: It’s ‘Absolutely A Pity’ To Suggest Astronauts Caused Air Leak

Lueders expressed the same sentiments on Twitter Friday afternoon, with the agreement of NASA Administrator Senator Bill Nelson:

“I totally agree with Kathy’s statement,” Nelson tweeted. “I fully support Serena and will always support our astronauts.”

Russian accusations

The statements by NASA management on Friday follow accusations by an anonymous “high-ranking” official of the Russian space agency made by the Russian news agency TASS. The agency claims that in 2018, Aun-Chancellor suffered an emotional breakdown in space, then damaged a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that was docked at the station so it could return to Earth sooner.

The article, published Thursday, August 12, responds to US media criticism of the near-catastrophic incident involving Russia’s Nauka science module and the International Space Station (ISS) earlier this month.

Related: Space Station Situation With Russian Nauka Module Misfires Was More Serious Than Expected

NASA astronaut Serena Aun-Chancellor speaks at a bipartisan Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues event on NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program, at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, September 2019. ( Image credit: Aubrey Gemignani / NASA)

In the TASS article, Russian journalist Mikhail Kotov interviews an anonymous official from Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The article is particularly troublesome because it not only names Aun-Chancellor the only female astronaut on the station at the time, but it also reveals a health problem she suffered in orbit. (Typically, NASA keeps all medical records and conditions for private astronauts.)

Aun-Chancellor was treated upon her return to Earth for a deep vein thrombosis, also known as a blood clot, in the jugular vein in her neck. But Kotov implies that dealing with such a condition in space could make her want to leave the ISS prematurely, and thus sabotage the spacecraft that brought her to the orbital outpost in an attempt to return home. it sooner than expected.

Soyuz Leak

On August 29, 2018, ISS controllers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston noticed a slight drop in pressure aboard the orbiting outpost. They informed the crew the next day, and the crew were able to trace the leak to a small hole in the Russian Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, which docked at the space station in June with Aun-Chancellor, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Prokopyev.

Prokopyev, the commander of the Soyuz at the time, solved the problem by plugging the 2 millimeter (0.08 inch) hole with epoxy and gauze. NASA officials said the crew had never been in danger.

Russian space officials decided to investigate the leak, determined to find the cause. Shortly after, Dmitry Rogozin, the leader of Roscosmos, announced that the breach in the Soyuz wall was a borehole. And according to Rogozin, the person who made the hole apparently had “a shaky hand,” citing nearby scratches that likely resulted from the drill slipping.

Russian officials went further by insinuating that the unstable hand was likely due to microgravity drilling, meaning that one of the crew was not to blame the Russian engineers involved in the assembly and the tests of the Soyuz spacecraft before its launch on Earth.

Space Station astronauts repaired a minor leak in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft (left) on August 30, 2018. A 2-millimeter hole in the orbital module, shown here, caused a slight drop in pressure to the interior of the orbiting laboratory. (Image credit: NASA / Space.com)

NASA officials knew the precise locations of American astronauts before and when the leak happened, thanks to space station surveillance. Video footage showed that none of the station’s US astronauts were near the Russian segment where the Soyuz vehicle was docked. But the Russians did not buy it. They were convinced that one of the crew had sabotaged the Soyuz.

The recent TASS article takes these claims a step further and insists that the NASA video of the ISS could have been tampered with and that Russian officials were denied the opportunity to examine Russian tools and ‘administer polygraphs, or lie detector tests, to astronauts.

But the TASS article seems to rule out the most likely cause of the hole: human error on the ground. The problem probably happened on Earth, before launch. It was something Roscosmos was examining, but the agency never definitively disclosed the results.

Most likely, a technician accidentally damaged the Soyuz spacecraft, and then tried to cover up the error with a makeshift patch. This patch could then have become dislodged during flight or its time in orbit after repeated exposure to extreme temperature differences as the station orbit the Earth.

Look ahead

Relations between the two space agencies have grown more strained in recent years, but NASA management is hoping for a continued orbital partnership.

Ahead of the attempted launch of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft on July 30, Nelson told Space.com he applauds the long-standing relationship between the two agencies. “On the ground, we have enormous tensions with Russia, but in space, we cooperate.

Nelson also said he expects Russia to continue working with NASA to maintain the ISS and that he hopes to announce soon that a cosmonaut will fly on an upcoming SpaceX Crew Dragon flight, which the agency has been trying to organize for some time. .

Perhaps cosmonauts will make their commercial spaceflight debut in the United States with the SpaceX Crew-4 mission, currently slated for launch in 2022, Nelson said, but nothing is yet confirmed.

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

[ad_2]