The Roscosmos Corporation does not accuse NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor of drilling a hole in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft in 2018. This was announced on August 15 by the head of the state corporation Dmitry Rogozin.
"No one has ever accused her. < ... > Roscosmos does not accuse anyone. We don't want any trouble for our cooperation, " one of the subscribers commented on Twitter.
Earlier, on August 2, TASS published an article "Twelve theses of American claims against Roscosmos and answers to them", the author of which, referring to a high — ranking official of the Russian space industry, said that Aunion Chancellor had a disease that was provoked by an "acute psychological crisis" - it "could lead to attempts in various ways to accelerate her return" to Earth.
Rogozin stressed that it was not necessary to arrange a "hysteria" about the opinion of one of the bloggers.
The material also provided information that at that time a hole was drilled in the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft by a person unfamiliar with the device of the ship and in zero gravity conditions. The source also said that Russian cosmonauts passed a polygraph test because of this situation, while NASA astronauts refused it. In addition, for unknown reasons, the video camera at the junction of the Russian and American segments did not work at that time.
The head of the NASA space flight program, Kathy Luders, and astronaut Bill Nelson said on Twitter that they support Serena and her professionalism and do not consider any accusations against her credible.
On August 13, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said that they did not believe in the versions according to which an American astronaut drilled a hole on the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft.
Russian cosmonaut Andrey Borisenko, commenting on the received statements, stressed that only professional cosmonauts or astronauts work on the ISS.
Serena Aunon-Chancellor made a flight to the International Space Station (ISS) on board the Soyuz in 2018. She was an engineer on the expedition and stayed in space for 197 days. On August 30, 2018, an air leak occurred on the ISS. A hole about 3 cm long was found in the manned compartment of the docked Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft. Experts expressed the opinion that the hole was made by a drill. Versions of damage to the ship were considered both on Earth and in space.
On March 25, 2019, the head of the state corporation Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, reported that traces of metal dust from drilling a hole in the Soyuz MS-09 hull were found in the household compartment of the spacecraft. According to him, there is no answer yet to the question of why the dust was found in certain places of the household compartment.
