Roscosmos has handed over the results of their investigation to law enforcement agencies, according to a November 26 report from the Russian news service TASS.
On August 30, 2018, cosmonauts detected a pressure leak aboard their Soyuz MS-09 ship docked with the International Space Station. Apparently, the hole was made from the inside (as opposed to from the outside, like a meteorite), and was consistent with an untrained person trying to use an unsupported power drill in zero gravity.
Now of course anyone aboard could have done this, including a cosmonaut. However, the camera between the Russian and American sections of the ISS was mysteriously malfunctioning, NASA refused to allow the astronauts to be given a polygraph test, and also refused to allow an inspection of the American power drills aboard. That chain of events does not exactly fill me with confidence.
But at this point, there was no harm done. The leak had been quickly spotted and fixed, and no one was hurt. Roscosmos didn’t make much of the incident at the time. And there really was no need for a scandal.
Fast forward to July 29, 2021. The Russian research module Nauka docked with the ISS. Three hours later, the Nauka’s thrusters fired, causing the ISS to be “thrown out of control.” NASA quickly took credit for handling the emergency and congratulated their quick-thinking control team at Houston. Again, no harm done. But not according to the American media. They immediately flipped into hysteria mode.
Eric Berger, the senior space editor at ARS Technica published Brother, Can You Spare a Ruble? In this article, Berger accuses the Russians of “shoddy work” and being unreliable, then concludes:
These technical errors have occurred as Roscosmos has had difficulty paying its engineers and technicians a living wage. And now the country’s space budget faces further pressure as NASA no longer needs to buy Soyuz seats for its astronauts to ride to the International Space Station—thanks to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon vehicle and, hopefully soon, Boeing’s Starliner…
The question for NASA becomes, then, how long it is willing to rely on a partner that is clearly having technical issues with its workforce, is always asking for more money, and making noises about wanting to exit the space station partnership that has existed for about three decades now.
Berger went into great detail about why he despises the Russian space program, listing off everything they’ve done wrong, including… the 2018 leak aboard the Soyuz spacecraft.
David Axe at the Daily Nazi Daily Beast went even further than Berger did, with a hit piece titled Inside the Dangerous Consequences of Russia’s Space Screwups. Axe hysterically claimed the Russians “have a worse record than any other major space power” (how many major space powers are there?), accused the cosmonauts of not contributing to science experiments, and declared that Russia is “isolated and militaristic.” Axe also boasted that American astronauts “command” the ISS, and control the thrusters (remember that one). Unsurprisingly Axe repeated NASA’s congratulatory noises of expertly manoeuvring the space station to safety.
Like Berger, Axe cited the Soyuz incident as an example that the Russians are bad and need a final solution aren’t reliable partners. Again, a reminder that Eric Berger, David Axe, and the other American liberals were getting this mad over an accident that harmed nobody.
Roscosmos was used to American journalists howling Russia Russia Russia! But apparently, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. On August 12, science reporter Mikhail Kotov published an article in TASS. Citing an anonymous source in Roscosmos, Kotov offered rebuttals to the major accusations coming from the American media, and mentioned Berger and Axe by name. Read the full article for yourself, but here are some of the most significant points made:
- It is weird for the USA to complain about technical problems in Roscosmos while sanctioning Roscosmos.
- Roscosmos agreed to the idea of missions to the Moon and Mars, but only as an equal partner. NASA refused.
- Cosmonauts do contribute to science experiments. When the Soyuz program started giving away seats to astronauts (consequencially reducing the number of cosmonauts), the station’s productivity went down, by a lot.
- American modules on the ISS break down frequently, forcing the astronauts to spend considerable periods of time in the Russian “neighborhood.”
- How do Americans “command” the ISS when all of the station’s thrusters are located on Russian modules?
Not good, but here’s the accusation that really stirred the pot. The drilling incident aboard the Soyuz was a clear act of sabotage, and Roscosmos is confident they know who did it; astronaut Serena Maria Aunon-Chancellor. Aunon-Chancellor allegedly had a severe psychological incident and deliberately damaged the Soyuz so she could get home sooner.
Kotov’s article paints a very ugly picture of NASA. And unlike Axe/Berger, he provides hard data to back it up. Berger did pen a response. He claimed that the hole must have been caused by a Russian technician on the ground. Here’s a picture of the hole:
Uh, Mr. Berger, that looks a lot like a deliberate hole to me. Also, as cited by the TASS story, it’s not in a place that makes any sense for somebody to be drilling. And even if someone on the ground did decide he wanted to put a hole there, why all the scuff marks? Was the guy blind? An idiot? Both? I’m not qualified to say if the TASS accusation is true, but dismissing the claim as “defamatory” while offering no evidence to the contrary is a little disingenuous. If the story is so preposterous, why didn’t NASA simply refute it?
This would not be the first time an astronaut had a mental breakdown. In 2007, Lisa Nowak drove 900 miles in a jealousy-fueled rage, reportedly wearing diapers so she wouldn’t need to stop for bathroom breaks, and attacked her crush’s girlfriend. By no means am I making fun of a person for having a psychological episode. But what I am saying is that NASA has a long track record of preferring diversity over competence, and this attitude has gotten people being killed.
The NASA Artemis mission aims to, in their words, “land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.” Is this one person or two persons? Unclear, sir. I actually don’t think that is woke enough. I demand that the first woman on the Moon be trans! Not that any of this matters, because Team Biden has quietly pushed back the launch date. I will be seriously surprised if NASA ever gets back on the Moon. I’ll be equally surprised if NASA is capable of putting up a new station after the ISS retires. The Russia Russia Russia bleating is just a tactic for the regime to divert attention from America’s crumbling infrastructure, failed wars, and yes, failing space program. It’s time to start being honest and acknowledge that the future of space exploration will most likely be in the hands of the Russians and the Chinese. Meanwhile, American “exploration” will be focused on sending billionaires into the upper atmosphere. Maybe instead of constantly whining about Russia, Eric Berger and David Axe should reflect on American affairs, and what we can do to improve them.
Header Image Source: “12222786” on Pixabay
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