Russian cosmonauts stab Space Station with a knife to investigate 'hole drilled in wall'

Is a saboteur really running amok on the International Space Station – and using a drill to create tiny holes in the wall of the Russian section?

This week, two Russian cosmonauts took an eight-hour space walk to find out the cause of a mysterious hole which appeared in August – and cut into the side of the space station with knives.

Cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Prokopyev set out on a spacewalk on Tuesday and investigated a hole in the Soyuz capsule suspected to be sabotage.

The cosmonauts walked 100 feet along the space station, removed an insulation panel using a knife, and examined the 2mm hole.

From the exterior, the cosmonauts said, there appeared to be no drill holes, unlike on the inside.

Previously, wild and unsubstantiated rumours had circulated in Russian media that the hole had been drilled by a NASA astronaut – possibly because he was homesick and wished to return to Earth.

Dmitry Rogozin, director general of Roscosmos said, ‘I would like to congratulate you on successfully completing the mission.

‘The spacewalk itself, I would say, was unprecedented in terms of complexity and risks. You coped with it with huge success.’

Rogozin said the samples were ‘extremely important for completing all investigative procedures and establishing the causes of the spacecraft’s damage.’

Roscosmos and NASA both opened their own investigations of the hole, which was 2mm wide and appeared in August on a Russian Soyuz capsule.

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