Space station leak could have been sabotage, Russia says.

Source: NBC News

The chief of Russia's space agency is claiming that the small hole that caused an air leak on the International Space Station last week wasn't caused by a meteorite, as originally thought, but was deliberately drilled and could be evidence of sabotage.

"We are considering all the theories," Dmitry Rogozin, the space agency chief, told the Russian news agency Tass on Monday. "The one about the meteorite impact has been rejected because the spaceship's hull was evidently impacted from inside ... It was done by a human hand — there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface."

The hole, a 2-millimeter (0.08-inch) perforation that was found last Wednesday in a Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station, could have been an "accidental defect" introduced during construction of the craft or a "deliberate spoilage," Rogozin told Tass, adding that it could have been made on Earth or in space.

"Now it is essential to see the reason, to learn the name of the one responsible for that," he said. "And we will find out, without fail." A NASA spokesperson declined to comment on the report, but the agency said last week that a commission had been convened to determine the source of the leak, which was successfully sealed on Thursday by astronauts aboard the station.




Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/space-station-leak-could-have-been-sabotage-russia-says-ncna906201