Russian space chief vows to find “full name” of technician who caused ISS leak

[nir]

"We want to find out the full name of who is at fault—and we will."

 

Last week, a pressure leak occurred on the International Space Station. It was slow and posed no immediate threat to the crew, with the atmosphere leaving the station at a rate such that depressurization of the station would have taken 14 days.

 

Eventually, US and Russian crew members traced the leak to a 2mm breach in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle that had flown to the space station in June. The module had carried Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, and NASA's Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor.

 

The crew on the station was in no danger, and, over the course of several hours, Russian engineers devised a fix that involved epoxy. A preliminary analysis concluded that the vehicle is safe for return to Earth (the orbital module detaches from the small Soyuz capsule before entry into Earth's atmosphere).

 

The drama might have ended there, as it was initially presumed that the breach had been caused by a tiny bit of orbital debris. However, recent Russian news reports have shown that the problem was, in fact, a manufacturing defect. It remains unclear whether the hole was an accidental error or intentional. There is evidence that a technician saw the drilling mistake and covered the hole with glue, which prevented the problem from being detected during a vacuum test.

 

“We are able to narrow down the cause to a technological mistake of a technician. We can see the mark where the drill bit slid along the surface of the hull,” Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, told RIA Novosti. (A translation of the Russian articles in this story was provided to Ars by Robinson Mitchell). “We want to find out the full name of who is at fault—and we will.”

 

Ongoing technical problems

 

NASA spokesman Dan Huot, based in Houston where the space station program is managed, deferred all comment on the issue to Roscosmos.

 

The spacecraft was manufactured by Energia, a Russian corporation. A former employee of the company who is now a professor at Moscow State University told another Russian publication that these kinds of incidents have occurred before at Energia.

 

“I have conducted investigations of all kinds of spacecraft, and after landing, we discovered a hole drilled completely through the hull of a re-entry module," the former Energia employee, Viktor Minenko, said in Gazeta.RU. "But the technician didn't report the defect to anyone but sealed up the hole with epoxy. We found the person, and after a commotion he was terminated,” said Minenko.

 

In this case, the technician used glue instead of epoxy. As the Soyuz hull is made from an aluminum alloy, it could have been properly repaired on Earth by welding, had the technician reported the mistake.

 

The Soyuz manufacturing issue represents another significant problem for the Russian space agency's suppliers and its quality control processes. Already, the manufacturer of Proton rockets, Khrunichev, has had several serious problems that have led to launch failures. Rogozin was recently installed as the leader of Roscosmos to try to clean up corruption and address these kinds of issues.

 

He has his work cut out for him.

 

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[steven36]

Everybody  makes a  mistake  every now and then that's why  it's so important to have quality control  inspectors to check components before they leave the plant .. So really  while  someone made a mistake it's the plant that should be blamed  because  they let it leave there like that knowing it was going to be used in space..  Workers  come and go  and the tech may or may not even still work there. But manufacturers hardly ever cease to exist  even if they close a plant and open them up somewhere else.

 

For all we know it was the plant that told the tech to use glue to cut corners to begin with. The whole plant needs audited not just one worker. Most plants push there workers very hard and if they don't make there quota  they be in fear of losing there jobs . So fear of making  a mistake  would never never work in a production environment were there being pushed .  It's nothing  for 1000s of cars  that have a bad part in them to be recalled , it happens all the time  and mistakes happen.

 

NASA Remembers Three Space Tragedies

https://www.space.com/4879-nasa-remembers-space-tragedies.html

 

Riding in a car down the road something could happen and you could die .When you leave earth into space those chances increase about a million times because your  whole life depends on something that is man made . .  Thats why they should  just use  machines  that don't need food ,oxygen and water to live up there . Humans  tell this day are not capable of making anything that is totally safe  for humans  traveling in space .

[steven36]

Space Station Leak May Have Been Caused by Human Error, Russian Reports Say

 

A small leak detected last week in a Soyuz transport capsule temporarily docked to the International Space Station may have been caused by a human before the spacecraft launched, according to Russian reports. The Soyuz is the only spacecraft currently able to bring crewmembers to the space station, and it remains connected to the orbiting laboratory until they head home again.

 

NASA hasn't yet commented on what might have caused the 2-millimeter (0.08 inches) hole, which resulted in temporary and minor depressurization before astronauts successfully patched it on Aug. 30.

 

But according to TASS, a Russian news agency, Dmitry Rogozin — head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos — tentatively blamed human error that would have taken place on the ground, before the Soyuz capsule's June launch. "We are considering all the theories. The one about a meteorite impact has been rejected because the spaceship's hull was evidently impacted from inside," Rogozin said according to the TASS report.

 

"However, it is too early to say definitely what happened," he said, according to TASS. "But, it seems to be done by a faltering hand … it is a technological error by a specialist. It was done by a human hand — there are traces of a drill sliding along the surface. We don't reject any theories."

 

According to TASS, Rogozin continued by calling for an investigation into the incident. "It is a matter of honor for Energia Rocket and Space Corporation to find the one responsible for that, to find out whether it was an accidental defect or a deliberate spoilage and where it was done — either on Earth or in space," he said, according to the news agency.

 

If the theory that the hole was created by a human with a drill is true, it would make it more likely the damage was done on Earth, because drilling is extremely difficult in microgravity environments. That suggests the damage may have first occurred during the capsule's manufacture or during prelaunch testing.

 

The leak was never a serious danger to astronauts currently aboard the space station, NASA statements confirmed. The Soyuz will still be able to safely ferry astronauts home, as the hole is in a part of the module that does not survive re-entry, according to NASA.

 

Source

[knowledge-Spammer]

We want to find out the full name of who is at fault—and we will.

and they did

[steven36]

Russians expect to have space station leak investigation done by mid-September

 

Russian officials have said they will complete their investigation into the cause of the hole found on the international space station by mid-September. The hole resulted in an air leak last week.

Design engineers in Russia initially thought the hole was caused by space debris but now believe it was the result of sloppy drill work, either on Earth or in space.

 

The next Soyuz flight to low Earth orbit, where the station flies, is scheduled for Oct. 11 and will include NASA astronaut Nick Hague. It's not yet clear how this discovery will impact that flight.

 

"Now it is essential to see the reason, to learn the name of the one responsible for that," Dmitry Rogozin, CEO of Russia's state space corporation Roscosmos said. "And we will find out, without fail."

 

The Soyuz has been the only way to get to the orbiting laboratory since 2011, when NASA's space shuttle program was shuttered. The upper section of the Soyuz, where the hole was detected, does not return to Earth.

 

NASA said in a statement Tuesday that officials were confident the Russians will find what caused the leak via a Russian State Commission.

 

"International Space Station partners all participate in multiple reviews prior to every major station activity to assess and ensure the safety of all crew members," NASA said. "Our Russian partners have demonstrated their human and technological resilience many times throughout the history of their efforts in human spaceflight."

 

For Russia, determining what happened is of utmost importance.

 

"It is a matter of honor," Rogozin said Monday, "...to find the one responsible for that, to find out whether it was an accidental defect or a deliberate spoilage and where it was done — either on Earth or in space."

 

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