Accusing US Astronauts Of Causing ISS Air Leak Unsuitable - Russian Deputy Prime Minister

Accusing US Astronauts of Causing ISS Air Leak Unsuitable - Russian Deputy Prime Minister

Making bald assertions that US astronauts were responsible for a recent air leak at the International Space Station (ISS) are unacceptable and dangerous, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said on Wednesday.

IRKUTSK (Russia) (UrduPoint news / Sputnik - 12th September, 2018) Making bald assertions that US astronauts were responsible for a recent air leak at the International Space Station (ISS) are unacceptable and dangerous, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said on Wednesday.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper reported earlier in the day, citing a source in the Russian space agency Roscosmos, that the corporation's commission, investigating the incident, has been considering a version that US astronauts might have been responsible for the emergence of a hole in the fabric of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, which was docked with the ISS.

"It is absolutely unacceptable to cast a shadow on neither our cosmonauts nor the US astronauts ... The commission is working, so it is absolutely unacceptable to make such assertions now, we should wait for the final results of this work and determine the origin of this hole.

We cannot rule out that [the reason behind the hole emergence] might be a manufacturing failure. There can be an indefinite number of variants ... Today, it is, to put it mildly, a short-sighted and dangerous approach to attach labels and conduct a witch hunt before the inquiry is completed," Borisov told reporters, commenting on the Kommersant report.

"The fact is that the air pressure started falling after the spacecraft spent several months in space. The hole is very small, it is very good that it was detected and the necessary measures were taken in a timely manner," Borisov continued.