Russia Knows How A Hole Formed On The ISS

The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said he knows how the hole that caused an air leak on the International Space Station (ISS) was formed. However, the official refused to provide details regarding the matter.

In August last year, the crew members of the ISS were surprised to learn that a hole was slowly letting the air out of the orbiting station. The hole was located in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft that was docked on the station. Fortunately, the hole was immediately fixed. If left unchecked, the station could have lost air in the entire facility for 18 days.

At that time, Roscosmos administrator Dmitry Rogozin noted that the hole was probably made due to a manufacturing error. He even suggested that someone may have intentionally drilled the hole as a form of sabotage.

“It is too early to say definitely what happened,” Rogozin told the Russian news agency TAAS. “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.”

“What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?” he continued. “We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space.”

Since then, both the Roscosmos and NASA have conducted their own investigations regarding the matter. Recently, Rogozin announced that the Russian space agency has already uncovered how the hole was formed. Unfortunately, he actively refused to share the information that the agency has gathered

“[The hole] was in the household compartment [of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft], it had already burned down long ago when the ship was approaching,” Rogozin said during a meeting according to news outlet Ria Novosti. “We took all the samples.”

“What happened is clear to us, but we won’t tell you anything,” he added. “There must be some secret with us.”

NASA, on the other hand, has not yet released a new statement regarding the incident. It is also not yet clear how the agency will react to Rogozin’s latest statements about the hole found in the Soyuz spacecraft.