A top Russian politician said Wednesday that it’s wrong to blame U.S. or Russian astronauts for damage done to the International Space Station.
“It is absolutely impermissible to cast a shadow either on our cosmonauts or U.S. astronauts,” Russian deputy prime minister Yuri Borisov said, according to TASS, a state-run outlet.
The International Space Station is a habitable environment in low-earth orbit, with a six-person crew of astronauts drawn from Russia, the United States, and the European Space Agency. A leak caused the space station to lose pressure somewhat in late August, sparking an investigation and worries that the U.S.-Russia rivalry had marred the most cooperative space venture in the world.
“The investigation is still on,” Borisov said. “Labeling and witch-hunt will be shortsighted and risky, to say the least.”
ISS astronauts are carried to the station by Russian spacecraft; one such capsule sprang a two-millimeter hole that was detected last month. Russian space agency chief Dmitry Rogozhin called it “a matter of honor” to find out how the leak happened, adding that it could have been intentional.
“What is this: a production defect or some premeditated actions?” Rogozhin, the CEO of Roscosmos, said last week. “We are checking the Earth version. But there is another version that we do not rule out: deliberate interference in space.”
Another Russian outlet reported that “the Roscosmos probe was considering, among other likely causes of the damage to Soyuz, deliberate actions by U.S. astronauts, who in this way wished to speed up their return home.”
That report apparently spurred Borisov to quash the rumors. “A probe is underway,” he said. “As long as the investigation continues, it will be utterly wrong to pronounce any such verdicts. The final results are to be obtained first to find out the origin of the hole. It should not be ruled out that faulty workmanship is to blame.”
Rogozhin then followed his lead.
“The recent gossip and rumors circulating about the incident at the ISS hinder the work of Roscosmos experts and are designed to subvert the friendly relations among the crew members of the space station,” he said in a Facebook post, according to state media. “All statements citing unnamed sources are inadmissible until Roscosmos special commission concludes its work.”
