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WRITTEN HISTORY FOR CBS NEWS AND USED WITH PERMISSION
The head of the Russian Space Agency made a splash last week stating that a hole drilled on the side of a Soyuz ferry moored to the International Space Station was the result of a deliberate act "on Earth or in the space". Commander Drew Feustel said Tuesday that it certainly did not happen in orbit.
"I can say unequivocally that the crew had nothing to do with that in orbit, no doubt, and I think it's really ashamed and somewhat embarrassing that someone either wasting his time talking about something in which the crew was involved, "said Feustel. ABC News Tuesday in an interview space-ground.
"The only thing the crew did was react appropriately, follow our emergency procedures, locate that leak and plug the hole in," he said. "In doing so, we ensured the continued operation of the space station, we ensured the ability of our crew to stay in orbit and continue to do the good work we are doing on the International Space Station."
Flight controllers in Houston and Moscow noted a slight drop in the station's internal atmospheric pressure on August 29th. The next day, the crew found the leak in the upper compartment of the Soyuz MS-09 probe. June.
Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Soyuz MS-09, the commander Sergey Prokopyev finally sealed the breach with a rag soaked in epoxy. The cabin pressure has remained stable since then and, in any case, the crew has never been in immediate danger. The upper compartment of the Soyuz is discarded before entering the atmosphere and can be sealed if the crew is on board if necessary.
Surprisingly, the photographs clearly showed multiple scars apparently caused by a drill and a small hole plugged by the cosmonauts.
According to the Russian media, a person on the ground would probably have pierced the hole before launching for an unknown reason, then applied a temporary patch that then gave way into space.
But Dmitry Rogozin, managing director of Roscosmos, the Russian Federal Space Agency, said: "We consider all theories".
In translated remarks, he said: "Energy Rocket and Space Corporation (Soyuz builder, RSC Energia) are honored to find the responsible, whether it is an accidental default or a deliberate deterioration, and where was done – either on Earth or in space. "
While categorically denying any action by the crew in space, Feustel said the discovery of the escape "was certainly a shock to us all."
"My hope is that the investigations really find out what happened that caused this hole clearly created by the man in the side of the spaceship," he told ABC News.
"It will be a story we will hear about for a while," he said. "We certainly do not want this to happen again, and I hope that the field teams will do their due diligence in trying to solve this problem because the implications are enormous for the entire space program, not just for us in the United States. United States. but also in Russia and internationally for all partners.
He stated that the crew had done a "great job" of finding and plugging the leak and thanked the flight controllers from Moscow and Houston for helping us when everything had happened and helping us respond to the emergency. "
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