‘Several attempts at drilling’ were made by a ‘wavering hand’ either on Earth or in orbit, in what could be accident or sabotage

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

An air leak on the International Space Station might have been sabotage, according to the head of Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, and an investigation is under way.



Dmitry Rogozin said the hole detected last Thursday in a Russian Soyuz module docked at the ISS was caused by a drill and could have been done deliberately, either back on Earth or by someone in orbit.

“There were several attempts at drilling,” Rogozin said late on 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. “We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space.”

International Space Station crew repair leak in Russian craft Read more

Astronauts used tape to seal the leak after it caused a small loss of pressure that was not life-threatening.



A state commission would seek to identify the culprit by name, Rogozin said, calling it a “matter of honour” for Russia’s Energiya company that makes the Soyuz.



Asked for comment on allegations of possible sabotage, a Nasa spokeswoman referred all questions to the Russian space agency which is overseeing the commission’s analysis.

Rogozin had initially 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 that had been ruled out.



Chris B - NSF (@NASASpaceflight) ISS Leak summary:



First thought was MMOD strike.



Then NASA released pics. Lots of people: "Hmmm, doesn't look like MMOD". NASA deleted the photos.



Top Russian news site RIA NOVOSTI reported - via sources but apparently confirmed by Mr. Rogozin - it was a drill hole. pic.twitter.com/520kHK0TMc

A Russian MP who is a former cosmonaut suggested that a psychologically disturbed astronaut could have done it to force an early return home. “We’re all human and anyone might want to go home, but this method is really low,” said Maxim Surayev, who is from President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party.

“If a cosmonaut pulled this strange stunt – and that can’t be ruled out – it’s really bad,” said Surayev, who spent two stints on the ISS.

“I wish to God that this is a production defect, although that’s very sad too – there’s been nothing like this in the history of Soyuz ships.”

Alexander Zheleznyakov, a former space industry engineer and author, told the TASS state news agency that drilling the hole in zero gravity would be nearly impossible in that part of the spacecraft.

“Why would cosmonauts do it?” he asked.

The hole is in a section of the Soyuz ship that is discarded in orbit and not used to carry people back to Earth.

A space industry source told TASS the spacecraft could have been damaged during testing at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after passing initial checks and the mistake 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.

Energiya will carry out checks for possible defects on all Soyuz ships and Progress unmanned ships used for cargo at its production site outside Moscow and at Baikonur, RIA Novosti has reported, citing a space industry source.

The ISS is one of the few areas of Russia-US cooperation that remains unaffected by the slump in relations and Washington’s sanctions.

Russia’s rockets used for launching spacecraft and satellites have suffered engine problems.

Currently on the ISS are two cosmonauts from Russia, three Nasa astronauts and a German from the European Space Agency.

With Agence France-Presse</s>Russia says air leak at space station caused by drill hole

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's top space official says that last week's air leak at the International Space Station was a drill hole that happened during manufacturing or in orbit.

The leak, which was discovered last week, was traced to a small hole in one of the Russian Soyuz capsules docked at the station. The leak was patched over with a sealant that officials said was airtight.

Russian news agencies on Tuesday quoted Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin saying that the hole was drilled by "an unsteady hand" potentially during manufacturing. But he said that it was possible that the hole was drilled while the capsule was already in orbit. He didn't say if he suspected one of the astronauts.

Three Americans, two Russians and a German are currently aboard the station.</s>MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's top space official says that last week's air leak at the International Space Station was a drill hole that happened during manufacturing or in orbit.

The leak, which was discovered last week, was traced to a small hole in one of the Russian Soyuz capsules docked at the station. The leak was patched over with a sealant that officials said was airtight.

Russian news agencies on Tuesday quoted Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin saying that the hole was drilled by "an unsteady hand" potentially during manufacturing. But he said that it was possible that the hole was drilled while the capsule was already in orbit. He didn't say if he suspected one of the astronauts.

FILE - In this file photo dated Wednesday, June 6, 2018, Roscosmos state space corporation head Dmitry Rogozin, accompanies new International Space Station crew members, to the rocket prior the launch at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Russian news agencies on Tuesday Sept. 4, 2018, quoted Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin saying that the hole was drilled by "an unsteady hand" potentially during manufacturing. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky, FILE)

Three Americans, two Russians and a German are currently aboard the station.</s>The hole that caused a leak at the International Space Station last week came not from a meteorite as initially thought, Russia's space agency confirmed Monday, but from someone's hand — possibly while in space.

The hole came from inside a Russian spacecraft docked to the station as the result of a "technological error," Dmitry Rogozin of Russia's Roscosmos told a state news agency.

"It was done by a human hand," Rogozin said Monday, according to TASS. "There are traces of a drill sliding along the surface."

Finding the culprit is a "matter of honor" for Energia, the Russian corporation that made the craft, Rogozin added, including whether the hole was made on purpose and "where it was done — either on Earth or in space."

"We are considering all the theories," the space official told TASS.

Among those theories: A homesick or "mentally unstable" member of the space station's crew could have deliberately drilled the hole, as former Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suraev suggested to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

"All of us are living people," Suraev, who served on the station, said. "Everyone can want to go home, but this way is completely unworthy."

Another report from the same agency suggested a production error from an Earth-bound employee was to blame.

Whatever the cause, Russia's space agency has formed a commission to find out more, according to The Verge, which said NASA declined to comment on the matter.

The small leak came to the attention of mission control crews last Wednesday that, seeing no imminent threat, let the station's crew sleep until the following day. Astronauts later found the two-millimeter hole in one of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station.

After initially taping over the hole, cosmonauts eventually plugged it using epoxy and gauze. Atmospheric pressure was later restored.

The hole occurred in an orbital module, which won't return to Earth. The space station's six-person crew includes members from Russia, Germany and the United States.

More: ISS astronauts play the first tennis match in space</s>MOSCOW — Russia’s top space official says that last week’s air leak at the International Space Station was a drill hole that happened during manufacturing or in orbit.

The leak, which was discovered last week, was traced to a small hole in one of the Russian Soyuz capsules docked at the station. The leak was patched over with a sealant that officials said was airtight.

Russian news agencies on Tuesday quoted Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin saying that the hole was drilled by “an unsteady hand” potentially during manufacturing. But he said that it was possible that the hole was drilled while the capsule was already in orbit. He didn’t say if he suspected one of the astronauts.

Three Americans, two Russians and a German are currently aboard the station.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>The hole in the International Space Station has turned into a whodunit mystery. The answer may be a human with a drill back on Earth.

NASA noticed a small, slow pressure leak in the space station last week. The astronauts tracked it down to a tiny hole in a Russian Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft connected to the ISS. The crew repaired the hole after first temporarily blocking it with European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst's thumb.

The hole was not a serious danger to the crew, but we've all been wondering how it got there. NASA reported that Russian space agency Roscosmos has convened a commission to analyze the cause.

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly speculated on Twitter that it could be due to a "micrometeoroid" impact. "We've dodged a lot of bullets over the past 20 years. There's a lot of space junk up there, a serious issue which needs to be addressed," he tweeted late last week.

Russian state news agency TASS shared developments on Monday from Roscosmos director Dmitry Rogozin, who said the space agency has considered theories ranging from a meteorite impact to a "technological error by a specialist."

This is where the drill comes in.

"It was done by a human hand. There are traces of a drill sliding along the surface," Rogozin told TASS.

TASS later reported Monday that the hole could have been caused accidentally by a worker on Earth. The news agency cited a source in the space rocket industry who said that a worker may have patched the hole with glue and that the patch later failed in orbit. The spacecraft arrived at the ISS in June.

To add to the intrigue, space news site NASASpaceFlight.com noticed images of the hole in a NASA Space to Ground video update, which was taken down and later re-released without the photos. But NASA followers had already saved the original video.

While the mystery may not be solved for certain, at least the crew is safe. "All station systems are stable, and the crew is in no danger as the work to develop a long-term repair continues," NASA said in an ISS update last week.

Gerst praised his crewmates and their emergency training. "We could locate and stop a small leak in our Soyuz, thanks to great cooperation between the crew and control centres on several continents," he tweeted.

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Fight the Power: Take a look at who's transforming the way we think about energy.</s>Last week’s air pressure leak aboard the International Space Station was not caused by a micrometeorite, Russian space agency Roscosmos is now claiming, but rather the result of human error, or possibly even a deliberate act of sabotage. Either way, the incident points to poor oversight and lack of quality control measures at the Russian space agency.



On August 30, a 2 millimeter “microcrack” was detected on the hull of a Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, which is currently docked to the ISS. The six astronauts aboard the ISS were never in any peril, as the air pressure leak was very small and easily contained. A strip of Kapton tape was placed over the hole as a stopgap measure, followed by the application of an epoxy-based sealant. The ISS is no longer leaking air into space, and the hole appears to be stable.

Initially, a micrometeorite was blamed for the leak—a theory that the Russian space agency has now ruled out. In a televised press conference held Monday, Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of Roscosmos, said the leak was caused by a “technological error.” Apparently, the leak was coming through a drill hole that was accidentally produced during the manufacturing process, and the material used to the plug the hole suddenly dislodged. But it’s not clear if the hole was produced on the ground or in space, or if the hole was the result of accidental or deliberate action.

“We are considering all the theories,” Rogozin said during the press conference. “The one about a meteorite impact has been rejected because the spaceship’s hull was evidently impacted from inside. However it is too early to say definitely what happened. But, it seems to be done by a faltering hand...it is a technological error by a specialist. It was done by a human hand—there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface. We don’t reject any theories.”



Rogozin said it’s now a “matter of honor” for Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, the manufacturer of the Soyuz MS-09 module, to “find the one responsible” for the hole, to determine if it was an accident or “deliberate spoilage,” and to determine if the hole was created on Earth or in space.

“Now it is essential to [determine] the reason, to learn the name of the one responsible for that,” declared Rogozin, “And we will find out, without fail.”

An industry source told RIA Novosti, Russia’s international news agency, that an Energia employee likely made the hole in the internal hull of the module before sealing the crack with a special glue. That’s why the hole wasn’t detected during pressurization tests prior to the spacecraft’s integration with the ISS. The craft was deemed fit for action and launched to the ISS on June 6 with three astronauts on board. Once in orbit, however, “the glue dried and was squeezed out, opening the hole,” a source told RIA Novosti. In addition to conducting an internal investigation, Energia will be checking all its Soyuz and Progress cargo craft for possible defects.

Photos taken of the drill hole show scratches and possible failed attempts at drilling, pointing to the “faltering hand” suggested by Rogozin. That a single individual may be responsible for the hole seems likely, but it would be too convenient to place the blame squarely on one person. Roscosmos would very much like to deflect the blame onto Energia or the rocket company’s yet-to-be named employee, but the space agency shares the blame for failing to catch or prevent the defect. Both Roscosmos and Energia will need to re-evaluate their internal processes to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.

“The Russians are quicker than we are, historically, to yell ‘sabotage.’ But it seems extremely unlikely,” astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told Gizmodo. For one thing, a saboteur might have made a bigger hole; at the maximum rate of leakage, the crew aboard the ISS had “weeks of air left” in reserve, according to a European Space Agency blog.

As for the theory that the hole was drilled in space, that’s a possibility, but it seems odd that an ISS astronaut wouldn’t fess up to making such an important mistake when it happened. And if it was a deliberate act, again, drilling a 2 millimeter hole seems a fairly pathetic attempt at sabotage.

Consequently, let’s hope that this (mercifully) minor incident serves as a teachable moment for all parties involved.</s>Last week, astronauts aboard the International Space Station woke to an alarm warning them of a pretty serious situation. The space station was losing pressure, which means a leak had formed somewhere on the spacecraft. With a finite amount of breathable air, the race was on to find the location of the leak and do something to fix it.

It wasn’t long before a tiny hole was discovered in the Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft docked to the space station. The tiny opening was thought to be the result of damage from a micrometeorite, which isn’t unheard of, and the crew quickly came up with a plan to repair it. Now, days later, Russian space agency Roscosmos says the hole wasn’t made by Mother Nature, but by a person with a drill, and tensions are high.

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The images of the hole are pretty damning. It doesn’t look much like the result of a fast-moving space rock, and certainly appears to be drilled. There even appears to be marks on the paint-covered metal from where a drill bounced along the surface before finding purchase and slicing its way through.

So, who did it?

As ScienceAlert reports, this whodunit has taken a seriously wild turn over the past day or two. No, this isn’t a Clue-like scenario where one of the six members of the current ISS crew is the baddie; Roscosmos believes the hole was drilled in the spacecraft prior to it ever leaving Earth, and they’re searching for the individual in the manufacturing process who is responsible for it.

Multiple unnamed sources have spoken with Russian media outlet RIA Novosti and hinted that an internal investigation at the corporation that builds the spacecraft, Energia, has already yielded results. According to those sources, the person has been identified and apparently explained that the hole was drilled by accident and not with malicious intent. A fabric seal was placed over the hole to hide the mistake, and it lasted a couple of months before eventually breaking open in space.

No word yet on what kind of punishment, if any, the individual will suffer, but sending a manned spacecraft into the sky with a hole in the side is obviously a pretty serious misstep.
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See the original version of this article on BGR.com</s>You may remember last week there were reports of an air leak being discovered aboard the International Space Station. It was traced back to a small hole discovered in the Russian Soyuz capsule with the most likely cause being a collision with a fragment of rock. But it turns out that wasn't the source of the hole. Instead, someone back on Earth had made a mistake and tried to cover it up.

As unbelievable as it may sound, the air leak was caused by a hole that was mistakenly drilled while the Soyuz spacecraft was still on the ground. As UPI reports, the person who drilled the whole decided not to report the mistake and instead filled the hole with glue.

The best-guess explanation switched from "impact" to "human mistake" when an investigation of the hole apparently found "traces of a drill sliding along the surface." That's according to Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos. Once in space, the glue that had been used to plug the hole dried up and and fell out, at which point sensors alerted the Expedition 56 crew to an air leak.

The hole has now been filled with epoxy thanks to the efforts of cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergei Prokopyev. The person who created the hole has apparently been identified already and I'm sure they aren't having the best time right now. Whoever they are, their actions put the lives of people in danger, and potentially the ISS itself.

A cover up such as this is completely unacceptable and it certainly damages the Russian space program in terms of trust. Thankfully, the danger has passed without serious injury or death, but Roscosmos will need to take swift action to ensure this can never happen again and to satisfy others, including NASA, that new safety measures and work reviews are implemented quickly.</s>Space agency boss Dmitry Rogozin revealed that the “micro fracture” found in a Russian spaceship docked at the NASA orbital lab might have been caused by a drill. Rogozin announced Russia was launching a commission to seek out the culprit – who he described as having “wavering hand”. The 2mm wide hole in the ISS was initially thought to have been caused by a small meteorite crashing into the £115billion ISS. It was discovered after astronauts noticed a drop in pressure caused but the oxygen leak. Russian authorities have now suggested the hole looks like it was made from someone inside as opposed to outside.

“There were several attempts at drilling. What is this?” The hole is believed to have been caused by either someone either in space or back on Earth, the Russian space agency claimed. Space bosses fear a “deliberate interference” might have caused the hole. Sources at the Russian space agency also claimed the suspected sabotage might have been carried out to fracture relations between Moscow and Washington. US astronauts have to use Russian rockets to get to the ISS – something which has been put at risk by ongoing rows with the Kremlin.

Rogozin said: “There were several attempts at drilling. What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions? “But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space.” He added that the drill appeared to have been held by a “wavering hand”.

An unnamed source told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti that “the hole was made on the ground”. The source added: “The person responsible for the act of negligence has been identified”. Another anonymous source said the hole was not made intentionally but by a worker who hid their mistake with a seal instead of reporting it. If it was made on the ground, it seems the patched hole held for two months before the seal began to break.

At the time of the incident, NASA said: “The leak has been isolated to a hole about two millimetres in diameter in the orbital compartment, or upper section, of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft attached to the Rassvet module of the Russian segment. “The rate of the leak was slowed this morning through the temporary application of Kapton tape at the leak site. “Flight controllers at their respective Mission Control centers in Houston and Moscow worked together with the crew to effect a repair option in which Soyuz commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos used epoxy (a resin) on a gauze wipe to plug the hole identified as the leak source." The hole was found on the Soyuz spaceship, which ferried astronauts to the ISS back in June.
The Director General of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, says the 2mm hole detected on the International Space Station (ISS) last week was caused, possibly deliberately, by someone using a drill, and that an investigation is under way to find out who is responsible.