"We will not tell you anything"

Russia said it knew what caused the air leakage aboard the International Space Station in 2018, but intended to keep it secret. The director of the space agency Dmitry Rogozin said: "We will not tell you anything."

The leak, which caused a pressure drop, occurred on August 29, 2018. After investigating the cause, the crew discovered a small hole 0.07 inch in diameter and repaired it at using a heat-resistant tape. It was in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft docked at the ISS and it posed no threat to the astronauts on board.

The cause of the hole was not known. Roscosmos's general manager, Rogozine, initially hinted that this could have been the result of a tiny meteorite puncturing the spacecraft, but shortly thereafter, he announced that the hole had been " dug by hand ". In an interview with the Russian news agency Tass at the time, he said: "We are looking at all theories, the one on the impact of meteorites has been rejected because the hull of the spacecraft has obviously been affected by However, it is too early to say for sure what happened.

"But, that seems to be done with a faltering hand … it's a technological mistake from a specialist.This was done by a human hand – there are traces of it." A drill sliding on the surface We do not reject any theory. "

In a statement, NASA said the fact that the hole had been caused by a human did not suggest that it had been created intentionally or with malintentation. The US and Russian space agencies are investigating the incident to determine the cause.

On September 18, Rogozin said that they now knew what had caused this hole. "It was in the household compartment [of the Soyuz MS-09 ship] … we took all the samples. What has happened is clear to us, but we will not tell you anything. There must be a secret with us, "he said, according to the official news agency RIA Novosti.

The Kremlin did not comment on Roscosmos' decision to keep the source secret. In a report in Tass, all questions about the leak were referred to Rogozin.

Following the announcement, NASA's administrator Jim Bridenstine told the Houston Chronicle that he plans to speak with Rogozin directly. "They did not say anything, I do not want to leave something [the relationship] back, but it is clearly not acceptable that there are holes in the International Space Station, "he said.

The ISS is a joint project between NASA, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency (ESA), JAXA Japan and the CSA of Canada. It has been continuously inhabited since November 2000.

It is not known how long the ISS will work. Roscosmos said it would be part of the program until at least 2024, while NASA plans to continue using the space station until 2030.