Russia Has Legally Threatened A NASA Astronaut For Drilling A Hole In The ISS

It was reported that a hole had been drilled into the International Space Station (ISS) back in 2018. The cause was not known or revealed. However, Russia is now ready to file a lawsuit against NASA on criminal grounds as the country’s space agency thinks that the American space agency’s astronauts deliberately damaged a module of the station.

Roscosmos is the name of the Russian space agency and it just finished its investigation of the 2018 incident where the cosmonauts discovered a hole drilled into its Soyuz spacecraft, according to a report by a Russian news publication RIA Novosti. Now NASA is going to be blamed for it. Roscosmos will soon be taking this investigation to law enforcement.

The hole was patched and fixed as quickly as it was found. If it was left unattended, it had the potential of destroying the Space Station completely in just a matter of two weeks. It would have looked bad on Russia as the hole was found in their module and was threatening to its own cosmonauts along with the international team of astronauts.

Several Russian media and government persons have accused NASA of this hole. They have even gone that far as to call Serena Auñón-Chancellor the culprit. It was reported by the Russian news state agency that she experienced “an acute psychological crisis” in the ISS and might have drilled the hole in order to get sent back to Earth early. 

The space agency, NASA has denied all these claims. Bill Nelson, the agency chief said that “attacks are false and lack any credibility.”

However, it is to be noted that Russia must be careful as the lawsuit can backfire. It recently carried out anti-satellite missile tests that threatened the lives of the ISS crewmembers. Also, earlier, malfunctions on the Russian end caused the ISS to spin out of control.

The news has created more tension between both countries in the matters of space exploration. These huge claims against a US astronaut can lead to serious rivalry.