Assistant to the head of NASA for manned flights Katie Leaders denied the involvement of American astronauts in the hole in the utility compartment of the Soyuz MS-09. This was reported by RIA Novosti.
At a press conference, Leaders was asked how NASA views accusations by unnamed Roscosmos officials that NASA astronauts may have encountered psychological and medical problems on the International Space Station (ISS) and what this might have prompted astronaut Serine Auñon-Chancellor drill a hole in the Soyuz module.
“NASA crew members carry out their missions professionally and honestly … I support Serina and her professional conduct, and I do not find this accusation credible,” Leaders said.
Earlier, TASS, citing a source in the Russian rocket and space industry, reported that “someone who had not been trained in the construction of the Soyuz MS spacecraft was drilling”. He clarified that “the Americans refused to pass the polygraph, in contrast to the Russian cosmonauts.”
In August 2018, it became known about an air leak on the ISS, the source of which was the hole in the Soyuz MS-09, docked to the station in June of the same year. Visual inspection showed that the hole was the result of deliberate impact of the drill on the ship's skin. The Russian cosmonauts managed to quickly close the hole, and in December – to make a spacewalk for external examination.
In December of the same year, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopyev examined the outer surface of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft docked to the ISS. Crew members opened the thermal insulation and anti-meteorite protection panel at the alleged breakthrough site, from where an air leak occurred in August, and also examined and photographed the opening in the utility compartment. The collected materials and data must be analyzed on Earth in order to clarify the circumstances of the hole.
