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Jason Rhian
September 14th, 2018
The Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft was launched with three members of the Expedition 56 crew sure for the Worldwide House Station. Photograph Credit score: Sean Costello / SpaceFlight Insider
The heads of the Russian and U.S. house companies issued a joint assertion Sept. 13, 2018, detailing discussions between NASA and Roscosmos relating to the Aug. 29 atmospheric leak on the International Space Station that was found coming from a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The dialog was between NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Roscosmos Common Director Dmitry Rogozin about ISS operations as a result of a request from Roscosmos.
After methodically narrowing down the realm the leak was coming from to the orbital module of Soyuz MS-09, the Expedition 56 crew in live performance with mission controllers on the bottom in Houston and Moscow labored to seal the outlet.
Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor and European House Company astronaut Alexander Gerst rode to space inside Soyuz MS-09 atop a Soyug-FG rocket on June 6, 2018. They’re anticipated to return to Earth in December.
The next is a portion of the assertion issued by NASA:
“As a part of their dialogue, Dmitry Rogozin knowledgeable his American counterpart about Roscosmos’ determination to determine a Roscosmos-led Fee to research the reason for the leak within the Soyuz (MS-09/55S) spacecraft at present docked to the station.
“The Administrator and the Common Director famous speculations circulating within the media relating to the attainable explanation for the incident and agreed on deferring any preliminary conclusions and offering any explanations till the ultimate investigation has been accomplished.
“They affirmed the need of additional shut interplay between NASA and Roscosmos technical groups in figuring out and eliminating explanation for the leak, in addition to continuation of regular ISS operations and NASA’s ongoing help of the Roscosmos-led Soyuz investigation. They acknowledged the whole crew is devoted to the secure operation of the station and all docked spacecraft to make sure mission success.
“The Administrator and the Roscosmos Common Director agreed to conduct their first face-to-face assembly on the Baikonur Cosmodrome on or about Oct. 10 when the NASA Administrator will go to Russia and Kazakhstan along with the upcoming Soyuz crew spacecraft launch of American astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Alexy Ovchinin.”
Whereas the discharge famous that among the theories as to the potential supply of the leak have been circulating within the media, it made no point out that Rogozin himself raised the specter of sabotage. As was famous in a Sept. three report by TASS, the Roscosmos head mentioned that whereas a attainable strike by a micrometeroid had been dominated out, the outlet was virtually definitely attributable to an individual: “It was completed by a human hand – there are traces of a drill sliding alongside the floor.”
Jason Rhian
Jason Rhian spent a number of years honing his abilities with internships at NASA, the Nationwide House Society and different organizations. He has offered content material for shops corresponding to: Aviation Week & House Know-how, House.com, The Mars Society and Universe At the moment.
