ISS airleak an accidental drill hole on ground
The airleak last week on ISS in the orbital module of a Soyuz capsule was not caused by a micrometeorite but by an accidental drill hole made by a technician on the ground who then, rather than reporting it, sealed it and covered it up..
“The hole was made on the ground. The person responsible for the act of negligence has been identified,” the source told the news agency.
Another source said a worker apparently accidentally drilled the hole, but instead of reporting it, simply sealed it. The sealant held for at least the two months the Soyuz spacecraft spent in orbit, before finally drying up and being pushed out of the hole by air pressure.
According to a Moskovsky Komsomolets report, the hole was located near the toilet and covered by decorative fabric. The Russian crew members used an epoxy-based sealant with metallic additives to plug both the hole and a fracture in the outer hull of the Soyuz located behind it, the newspaper said.
Well, if anything is going to put an end to the resistance to using privately built American manned capsule, this should do it. This is also going to do a great deal of harm to the Russian desire to sell tourist seats on their Soyuz.
Posted from Heber, Arizona.
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The airleak last week on ISS in the orbital module of a Soyuz capsule was not caused by a micrometeorite but by an accidental drill hole made by a technician on the ground who then, rather than reporting it, sealed it and covered it up..
“The hole was made on the ground. The person responsible for the act of negligence has been identified,” the source told the news agency.
Another source said a worker apparently accidentally drilled the hole, but instead of reporting it, simply sealed it. The sealant held for at least the two months the Soyuz spacecraft spent in orbit, before finally drying up and being pushed out of the hole by air pressure.
According to a Moskovsky Komsomolets report, the hole was located near the toilet and covered by decorative fabric. The Russian crew members used an epoxy-based sealant with metallic additives to plug both the hole and a fracture in the outer hull of the Soyuz located behind it, the newspaper said.
Well, if anything is going to put an end to the resistance to using privately built American manned capsule, this should do it. This is also going to do a great deal of harm to the Russian desire to sell tourist seats on their Soyuz.
Posted from Heber, Arizona.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either. IMPORTANT! If you donate enough to get a book, please email me separately to tell me which book you want and the address to mail it to.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Russian quality control – an oxymoron
What did he try to seal it with? Beaumont Egg ?
1. “Nor could they cater for the deceit of some unscrupulous foundries, whose employees would disguise poor castings with lead or Beaumont’s Egg; a mixture of beeswax, fiddler’s rosin, finest iron borings and lamp black.”
2. “After the Tay Bridge disaster in Scotland in 1879, the court of enquiry found that the failure of the bridge had been due in part to lack of bracing. However, it also came to light that blow holes in the cast iron pillars had been filled with a substance known as Beaumont Egg which if I remember correctly was some sort of witches brew of iron filings, beeswax, varnish etc.
” Old-time manufacturers were not so concerned about the quality of the castings they used – and had no qualms about applying a filler composed of lamp black, fiddler’s rosin and iron filings or “borings” to cover up faults in the metal (an alternative was a mixture of sulphur, cast iron siftings and sal-ammoniac). The first mix, almost universally used, was known in the foundry trade as ‘Beaumont’s Egg’ , possibly from a corruption of “beamontage”, a filler used in the furniture trade. To hide minor faults in a casting Beaumont’s Egg was run into blow holes and porous areas by melting it with a hot iron bar followed by rubbing down to make it almost undetectable. As an interesting aside the supplier of the cast-iron columns that collapsed in the Tay-bridge disaster used ‘Beaumont’s Egg’ to cover his poor workmanship.”
It’s good to see that tradition is being upheld in Mother Russia
Handyman methods work in space too.
They temporarily fixed it with duct tape and permanently fixed it with JB Weld!
@ Col Beausabre: Impressive, sir. The comments on this blog can be as edifying as the posts.
“The person responsible for the act of negligence has been identified,” the source told the news agency.”
That certainly sounds like 20 years in the gulag.
Armageddon –
Space Station scene
https://youtu.be/kbr6hGKD3Tk
5:12
@Mitch S
“Handyman methods work in space too.”
Well, there’s vacuum and huge temperature changes and weightlessness and radiation and atomic oxygen and electric charging of the hull and whatnot to account for too when patching up a hull on a spacecraft. Handyman methods work for sure, but different such.
At this stage in the development of the space craft why are they STILL hand drilling holes in spaces close to the skin of the craft?
Those holes should be known and documented and drilled long before the skin gets placed on the craft.