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.
“There were several attempts at drilling,” he said in a televised address, translated by the Guardian.
“What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions? We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space.”
Rogozin has launched a commission to find out the culprit’s name, AFP reports.
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One Russian politician, Maxim Surayev, who was also a cosmonaut, suggested that an astronaut on the station could have made the hole in an attempt to go home, but others disputed that theory.
NASA first suggested the hole, which was about 2 millimetres in diametre was from a micro meteoroid or orbital debris (MMOD), meaning it would have been a chance accident or bad luck that caused the hole.
Three Americans, two Russians and a German are currently aboard the station.
The next Soyuz capsule is set to launch October 11.
*With files from Global News