- Russian space authorities have speculated that a rogue engineer at Baikonur cosmodrome made a mistake and then tried to cover it up
- The 2mm hole was found in the body of the Russian Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft, which transported a team of three astronauts to the ISS in March
- Russian space authorities say they are not ruling out the possibility that one of the astronauts aboard the Soyuz MS-08 is the perpetrator
- Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency said it appears there were 'several attempts of drilling' and the hole does not look accidental
The Soyuz MS-08 spacecraft leak at the International Space Station could be a result of damage during testing conducted by Russian engineers before it left the earth, it has been claimed.
Space authorities have raised the possibility that someone at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan may have made an error and then tried to cover it up.
'Someone may have messed up and then got scared and sealed up the hole,' an industry source said, and then the sealant 'dried up and fell off' when the Soyuz reached the ISS.
A team of three astronauts - three Americans and a Russian commander - were transported via Soyuz to the International Space Station (ISS) in March.
Last week, mission controllers in Houston and Moscow noticed a fall in cabin pressure on the ISS - which was later discovered to be caused by a 2mm hole on the spacecraft.
A Russian official has said the International Space Station leak (pictured) could have been caused by deliberate sabotage. A leading theory from an unnamed source at Russia's Energia space manufacturing company has said that the hole was made on the ground
NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel (left), Richard Arnold (right) and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev (centre) pose for pictures as they attend the final training for their upcoming space mission in Star City outside Moscow
A commission will seek to identify the culprit by name, Rogozin said, calling this a 'matter of honour' for Russia's Energiya space manufacturing company that made the Soyuz space craft (pictured)
The cause of the leak had been blamed on impact from space debris or a tiny meteorite, a manufacturing fault, or structural fatigue.
But an investigation led by Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russia's Roscosmos space agency, also suggested that the hole could have been deliberately drilled.
Rogozin said there appeared to be 'several attempts at drilling' and it had been held by a 'wavering hand.'
It has since been confirmed that the ISS has a drill on board that is capable of making the hole.
The hole has since been fixed using special sealing tape, but astronauts would have ran out of air in 18 days had it not been found.
Interestingly, however, the drill-hole is in a section of the Soyuz module discarded in orbit and not used to carry crew back to Earth.
If it was caused deliberately, the perpetrator may have become desperate to leave the space station and so decided to inflict damage to force an emergency evacuation — but not in a way that would prevent a safe return to Earth.
The ISS, with its huge solar panels spanning the size of a soccer pitch, is the largest single structure humans have ever put into space and was largely assembled in orbit between 1998 and 2011.
Crew inside the International Space Station (pictured) raced to patch a small 'leak' likely caused by a collision with a small meteorite last week. A top Russian official has now claimed the small hole was caused by sabotage
But with accommodation for a maximum of six astronauts, it is no place to be cooped up with a mentally unstable crew member who may be bent on murder/suicide while orbiting the Earth at some 17,150mph (about five miles per second).
Within its claustrophobic confines, the crew members — two Russian cosmonauts, three Nasa astronauts and a German from the European Space Agency — must now be eyeing each other's every move.
The alarm was first raised last week, when mission controllers in Houston and Moscow noticed a fall in cabin pressure on the ISS. Astronauts tasked with finding the cause then discovered the hole in the Russian module currently connected to it.
A growing body of research is finding that even the most psychologically robust brains can crack up amid the rigors of space.
It is not only the pressures of physical confinement and danger that torment the psyche of astronauts. Still more worrying is the damage micro-gravity and cosmic radiation can wreak on human grey matter, and the pathological behaviours that this may cause.
Indeed, considering more than 230 astronauts have spent up to 15 months on the station, it's surprising there haven't been reports of psychological breakdown.
The ISS provides many opportunities for scientific investigation, not least how the human mind and body change in space to help space agencies prepare for prolonged future missions to the moon, Mars or beyond.
WHAT IS RUSSIA'S SOYUZ SPACECRAFT?
Soyuz is a Russian spacecraft that carries astronauts and supplies to and from the International Space (ISS) station, as well as bringing people back to Earth.
It’s comprised of a rocket which carries a capsule into space. After launch the capsule and the rocket separate, with the rocket returning to Earth and the capsule continuing onward.
The capsule has space for three passengers and acts like a lifeboat for the ISS, with at least one Soyuz capsule always attached to the space station.
Each capsule has three parts, called modules. Crew members spend their time in orbit in the Orbital Module, which is about the size of a large van.
A US-Russian crew launched to the ISS from Kazakhstan aboard a Soyuz rocket on March 21
The Descent Module is used by astronauts when approaching the ISS or returning to Earth. A third module houses life support systems and instruments, including batteries, solar panels and steering engines.
Soyuz launches from Kazakhstan, Russia’s southerly neighbour, and takes just six hours to get to the space station. The crew uses the hatch on the Soyuz to enter and leave the station. When the crew is ready to come home, they ride in the Soyuz capsule back to Earth.
To land, Soyuz drops through Earth's atmosphere and deploys parachutes which slow its descent. When Soyuz gets close to the ground, it fires small rocket engines to further reduce its momentum.
Astronauts have shown evidence of potentially disabling changes to their muscles, bones, hearts and eyes after lengthy periods in space, while a Nasa-backed study by scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York has warned brain damage from radiation may affect emotions.
Writing in the journal Experimental Neurology, they said prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation attacks stem cells in the part of the brain responsible for controlling mood and emotions. The brain damage gets worse the deeper one ventures into space.Other studies have found evidence of mental interference and hallucinations caused by space radiation.
During a 2012 mission on the International Space Station, astronaut Don Pettit described being haunted by 'flashes . . . like luminous dancing fairies'. Tests showed that they were caused by cosmic rays 'zapping' through the nerves in his eyes and brain.
The physical damage from cosmic radiation may cause dementia-like impairments, too, according to animal studies.
In 2015, radiation experts at the University of California, Irvine, bombarded laboratory rats with cosmic levels of radiation and found brain tissue became badly inflamed. This compromised communication between brain cells in a manner similar to the ravages of Alzheimer's disease.
If you add to this the psychological strain of being cooped up with several others in deep space for months, then it does not make for a happy ship.
WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION?
The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.
It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000.
The space station is currently home to two Russians, three Americans and one Japanese.
Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.
The International Space Station (file photo) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth
ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.
The US space agency, Nasa, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, a level of funding that is endorsed by the Trump administration and Congress.
A U.S. House of Representatives committee that oversees Nasa has begun looking at whether to extend the program beyond 2024.
Alternatively the money could be used to speed up planned human space initiatives to the moon and Mars.One Russian cosmonaut aboard the MIR space station (which operated from 1986 to 2001) recorded that interpersonal conflicts took up 30 per cent of the crew's time.
In a 110-day space-travel simulation in 1999, two Russian volunteers got in a fight so violent that it quite literally left blood on the walls. Fortunately, their capsule had never left Earth and scientists could gain access to separate them.
During the American Skylab 4 mission in 1973, disagreements and exhaustion caused the crew to switch off their radio link and spend a day ignoring Nasa while orbiting Earth, giving two fingers (figuratively at least) out of the window.
So could similar emotional and psychological problems be triggering irrational behavior by a crew member aboard the ISS?
Indeed, Maxim Surayev, a Russian MP and a former cosmonaut, has suggested exactly that scenario.
'We are all human and anyone might want to go home, but this method is really low,' said Surayev, who spent two tours on the ISS.
'I wish to God this is a production defect, although that's very sad, too. If a cosmonaut pulled this strange stunt, it's really bad.'
Whatever the cause, it will be some time before it is definitively identified. The Russian authorities have established a commission seeking to identify the culprit by name, calling it a 'matter of honour' for Energiya, the company that makes the Soyuz.
In the meantime, look upwards and pity the six astronauts who are possibly trapped together in a web of suspicion.
At night, the ISS is visible to the naked eye as it circles the Earth once every 90 minutes. It reminds me of an old aviators' adage, often recited when witnessing a fellow flyer in trouble: 'Thank God you're down here looking up there, rather than up there looking down here.'
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