A leak on board the International Space Station could not have been caused by any member of the international crew, according to a Russian space industry expert.
“I would not like to use the word nonsense, but all this does not fit in well with logic,” Alexander Zheleznyakov, a member of the K.E. Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics, told state-run media.
Zhelenyakov’s assessment undermines the Russian government’s suggestion that a leak on a Soyuz space craft docked at the space station could have been carried out in orbit. Russia uses Soyuz space craft to ferry humans to and from the ISS, which is manned by a crew of Russians and Americans.
“What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?” Dmitry Rogozhin, the director-general of Russia’s state-run space corporation Roscosmos said late Monday. “We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space.”
The International Space Station was launched in 1998. Space cooperation has persisted in recent years, even as the broader U.S.-Russia relationship has deteriorated. But the suggestion that a crew member might have attempted to sabotage a spacecraft brings to mind various “false flag” accusations that Russia has leveled against the United States in terrestrial controversies.
“Judging by what I saw on the photos, it must have been done on Earth,” Zheleznyakov said. “The hole is in a place that is very hard to get to. Drilling it would not be easy.”
