Pilot, hole in the plane!

During a spacewalk in December, Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopiev inspected a hole in the skin of the Soyuz spacecraft, which two months earlier caused a conflict between Russia and the United States, which has already reached diplomatic level.

According to the Roscosmos space agency, the purpose of the examination was to determine whether a "small but dangerous" hole had been made on Earth or in space. After several tens of minutes of examining the damage, the astronauts should have come to the conclusion that the unfortunate hole was probably not drilled on purpose.

Rogozin: orbital sabotage

XNUMX mm hole to the side union, przycumowanego do International Space Station (ISS), was discovered on August 30 last year. A leak in the walls of the ship meant an air leak from the module, and the astronauts recorded a pressure drop. The astronauts used epoxy to seal the wall. At the same time, they assured that it was a small pressure loss that did not pose a threat to the lives of the station crew members.

A few days later there were rumors that the hole could be the result of a saboteur or an error in earthworks. In September, the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin ruled out reasons related to the ground preparation of the Soyuz spacecraft for flight. However, he did not rule out the possibility of "deliberate intervention in space", suggesting, in particular, that this could have been done by American or German astronauts in order to speed up the return to Earth. Russian officials denied these allegations, and when a NASA spokeswoman asked for comment on the alleged sabotage, she forwarded all questions to the Russian space agency, which is overseeing the investigation.

Alexander Zheleznyakov, a former engineer and prominent figure in the Russian space industry, told the state news agency TASS that drilling a hole in zero gravity into this part of the spacecraft is highly unlikely. However, from sources close to the space industry, TASS representatives learned that the ship could have been damaged during tests at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, having passed preliminary checks.

A TASS source suggested that when the Soyuz reached the ISS, the sealant "dry up and fell off."

The RIA Novosti agency, citing another source in the space industry, reported in the following days that the Soyuz Energia company began checking at the plant near Moscow and Baikonur for possible malfunctions of all Soyuz spacecraft and Progress unmanned vehicles used for cargo transportation. Dmitry Rogozin said that the Russian state commission would like to name the perpetrator by name, even calling it "a matter of honor."

Collaboration is getting harder

The confusion is compounded by the already rather complex area of ​​Russian-American cooperation in space. As you know, the Americans have not had a ship to launch crews into orbit since the decommissioning of the space shuttles. They are using the Soyuz under an agreement that is beneficial to the Russians. For now, this is valid until 2020.

A few years ago, it was believed that by that time the manned capsules of the American companies SpaceX and Boeing would be ready for flight into orbit. However, NASA is not so sure now. An unmanned test flight was scheduled to take place in December 2018, and manned test flights should begin in 2019. Dragona V2 SpaceX. However, whether the whole plan will be implemented is not yet clear, because Elon Mask he doesn't inspire XNUMX% confidence in NASA. Recently there was a vision of a new big BFR missilesalthough everyone thought SpaceX would use the heavier version for larger missions. Falcon Heavy. Musk also has a vision manned flight to the moonwhich American space officials do not take seriously.

So it may be that the United States will still be doomed to Roscosmos and the Unions. The case is further complicated - still in force - Plan for the withdrawal of the United States from the ISS. The trouble is that without the United States, the station is unlikely to survive. Not only for financial reasons, but also because Russian cosmonauts are not able to service both the American ISS modules and those built with the participation of other Western countries.

The launch of the Soyuz MS-10 spacecraft in October 2018.

After a spaceship opening confusion, it happened in October Soyuz MS-10 missile failure into a seemingly routine mission. After 2 minutes 20 seconds of flight at an altitude of more than 50 km, the astronauts in the capsule began to shake violently, and bright fragments separated from the rocket. It was decided to abort the mission and return to Earth in an emergency in the so-called. ballistic mode.

After a short study and visual inspection of the rocket Union FG The Russians again started talking about sabotage, because, in their opinion, there was still damage to the sensor responsible for separating the rocket segment on Earth. New NASA Director, appointed by Donald Trump, personally oversaw the launch of the Russian-American crew into space Jim Bridenstinewho first met Rogozin, his Russian counterpart, on this occasion. The media noted that the incident is likely to have a huge impact on Russian-American space cooperation. However, nothing will happen anytime soon.

Roscosmos does not like SpaceX

So far, at the beginning of December 2018, a Russian, an American and a Canadian flew to the ISS on the Soyuz. Six hours after takeoff, without abrupt transitions, they docked at the space station. Came aboard the ISS Oleg Kononenko shortly thereafter, he met with a colleague Sergei Prokopiev the aforementioned spacewalk combined with damage analysis is not easy, we add, because the Soyuz does not have any handles that allow the astronaut to stick to the ship from the outside.

The general deteriorating atmosphere around Russian-American cooperation is full of various topics, such as rivalry between Russian companies and the American private space sector. In an annual report published at the end of 2018, Roscosmos accused SpaceX of being the main cause of the Russian agency's financial problems - after economic sanctions and a weak ruble. Unofficially, however, they say that the main problem of the Russian cosmonautics is huge corruption and theft of large sums.

What's with this hole?

Returning to the question of the ship being pierced... It is worth recalling that Dmitry Rogozin initially claimed that the leak in the ship used to transport cosmonauts to the ISS was most likely caused by outside influence - micrometeorite. Then I deleted this version. Information from the Soyuz inspection in December may indicate a return to it, but the investigation and investigation have not yet been completed. We do not know what the final conclusions of the Russians will be, because the cosmonauts themselves will be the first to deliver the results of their examinations to Earth.