NASA astronaut Tuesday praised his crew's reaction to a recent pressure leak on the International Space Station and blew up the suggestion of a Russian official that the crew could be responsible for emergency.

"I can say unequivocally that the crew did not do that," said Expedition 56 commander Drew Feustel in an interview with ABC News. "I think it's really shameful and somewhat embarrassing that anyone wastes time talking about something in which the crew was involved."

On 29 August, ground teams detected what NASA called a "slight" pressure drop inside the 250-mile orbiting laboratory complex housing three NASA astronauts, two Russian cosmonauts and a European.

The crew was not judged to be in imminent danger and was alerted to the alarm clock on August 30th. They finally found the leak in a 2-millimeter hole in one of two Russian Soyuz spacecraft moored at the outpost.

The Soyuz has offered astronauts the only ride to and from the station since NASA retired its space shuttle in 2011, although the new Boeing and SpaceX capsules are expected in a year.

The station's astronauts used gauze and epoxy to repair the small hole, and NASA said the crew was safe throughout the incident.

Many initially suspected that the hole was caused by a micrometeorite attack or space debris.

But on September 4, Dmitry Rogozin, managing director of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, told reporters that the hole had been drilled by one person and suggested that it could have happened on the ground or in orbit.

Russian formed a commission to investigate what happened and whether it was an accident or a deliberation.

Although NASA said the crew was never threatened by the "tiny" leak, Feustel said the situation was extremely serious.

"I hope the field teams and field investigators will do their due diligence in trying to solve this problem because the implications are huge for the entire space program," said Feustel. "Not only for us in the United States, but also in Russia and internationally for all partners."

Feustel said his team reacted appropriately and followed the emergency procedures. He thanked the Moscow and Houston teams for their help in training and responding to such events, including helping the crew "keep us calm".

"I can not say enough about the crew's performance, how we reacted, how we stayed together and continued to work as a team, as we have always done, to ensure our safety, safety and security. the spaceship and assurance of mission priorities, "he said.

On 3 October, Feustel is expected to hand over the command of the station to German Alexander Gerst on the eve of Feustel's return with Ricky Arnold of NASA and cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev to conclude an expedition of more than six months.

The hole was in the so-called orbital module – which does not return to the ground – the Soyuz who launched Gerst, Serena Auñón-Chancellor and cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev of NASA, on June 6.

They should go home in December and the hole should not add risk.

"Once again, I can not emphasize enough the tremendous work done by the crew in orbit to solve the problems in orbit," said Feustel.

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