Russia's space program just threw a NASA astronaut under the bus

[Eugene]

Source: Ars Technica

FIGHTING WORDS —

Russia’s space program just threw a NASA astronaut under the bus

"The Americans refused to perform a polygraph examination."

ERIC BERGER - 8/12/2021, 7:52 PM

Russia's state-owned news service, TASS, has published an extraordinarily defamatory article about NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor. The publication claims that Auñón-Chancellor had an emotional breakdown in space, then damaged a Russian spacecraft in order to return early. This, of course, is a complete fabrication.

The context for the article is the recent, near-disastrous docking of the Russian Nauka science module with the International Space Station. The TASS article attempts to rebut criticism in US publications (including Ars Technica) that covered the incident and raised questions about the future of the Roscosmos-NASA partnership in space.

One of a dozen rebuttals in the TASS article concerns a 2018 incident—a 2 mm breach in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle docked with the International Space Station. Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, and NASA's Auñón-Chancellor had flown to the station inside this Soyuz in June. The leak was discovered in late August.

Left unchecked, the small hole would have depressurized the station in about two weeks. Fortunately, cosmonauts were able to patch the hole with epoxy, and the Soyuz spacecraft was deemed safe to fly its crew of three back to Earth.

Attention quickly turned to what had caused the hole to appear. A micrometeoroid strike was ruled out. Some Russian media reported that it had been caused by a manufacturing or testing defect, and this seems to be the most plausible theory. At the same time, however, sources in the Russian government started baseless rumors that perhaps a disgruntled NASA astronaut had drilled the hole.

-snip-

Read more: https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/08/russias-space-program-just-threw-a-nasa-astronaut-under-the-bus/

[AZ8theist]

1. FUCK THE RUSSIANS

We don't need them anymore.

With SpaceX crew Dragon, we can stop subsidizing the failed Russian economy. Thereby limiting their souce of income to fuck up our democracy.

NEVER FORGET:

[Crowman2009]

3. We could probably just make a new Skylab with a propulsion system to replace the Russian section.

Probably have SpaceX Cargo Dragon attached to it for replacing the Progress for emergency maneuvers.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Looks like she may have flattened herself between the wheels & let bus pass over her. It's crashing.

[Ford_Prefect]

4. The expert practitioners of Fake News, or Propaganda as the real world calls it, strike once again.

Putin's trolls will say anything to shift the focus from the facts to produce a preferred perception. The facts of the situation completely fail to support the assertions made by the propagandists.

[paleotn]

5. TASS? Lying?

Surely not!! Shoddy Russian manufacturing? Since when?

Now, aren't the Russians going to go off and do their own little rinky dink ISS knockoff? I do wish they would.

[Crowman2009]

6. Guess NASA will be using the Falcon Heavy for launching future ISS modules.

Because the Russian Proton rockets aren't reliable either.