Russian crew to inspect mysterious hole in Soyuz spacecraft

The Guardian, UK : Two Russian cosmonauts are preparing to venture outside the International Space Station to investigate a mysterious leak.
It was spotted on 30 August in the Russian Soyuz spacecraft attached to the station. The crew quickly located and sealed the tiny hole that created a slight loss of pressure. Space officials said the station remained safe to operate.
Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopyev will conduct a six-hour spacewalk to inspect the Soyuz’s exterior on Tuesday. They will uncover the thermal insulation covering the patched hole and take samples that will be studied by experts. Kononenko, who arrived at the station this month with the Nasa astronaut Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency, said the spacewalk would be a strenuous effort. “It’s going to be challenging both physically and technically,” he said.
Dmitry Rogozin, the chief executive of Roscosmos, the Russian state space agency, said in September the hole could have been drilled deliberately during manufacture or while in orbit. He did not say if he suspected any of the crew but the statement caused some bewilderment.
Rogozin has since said he never blamed US astronauts for the leak and accused the media of twisting his words.
The official Russian investigation was ongoing, he said, and some of the station’s crew who were due to return to Earth this month would take the samples collected during the spacewalk. Roscosmos would discuss the findings of the investigation with Nasa and other space station partners, Rogozin said.