Soyuz MS-09

Soyuz MS-09 was a Soyuz spaceflight that launched on 6 June 2018.^[1] It transported three members of the Expedition 56/57 crew to the International Space Station (ISS). MS-09 is the 138th flight of a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew consisted of a Russian commander along with an American and a German flight engineer. The mission ended at 05:02 UTC on 20 December 2018.

Soyuz MS-09

Soyuz MS-09 docked to the Rassvet module
Mission type	ISS crew transport
Operator	Roscosmos
COSPAR ID	2018-051A
SATCAT no.	43493
Mission duration	196 days, 17 hours, 50 minutes
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Soyuz MS No. 739
Spacecraft type	Soyuz MS (11F747)
Manufacturer	Energia
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Sergey Prokopyev Alexander Gerst Serena Auñón-Chancellor
Callsign	Altai
Expedition	Expedition 56 / 57
Start of mission
Launch date	6 June 2018, 11:12:41 (2018-06-06UTC11:12:41Z) UTC[1]
Rocket	Soyuz-FG
Launch site	Baikonur, Pad 1/5
Contractor	RKTs Progress
End of mission
Landing date	20 December 2018, 05:02:00 (2018-12-20UTC05:03Z) UTC[2]
Landing site	Kazakh Steppe[2]
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Geocentric
Regime	Low Earth
Docking with ISS
Docking port	Rassvet nadir
Docking date	8 June 2018, 13:01 UTC
Undocking date	20 December 2018, 01:42 UTC[2]
Time docked	194 days, 12 hours, 41 minutes
Mission insignia From left: Prokopyev, Gerst and Auñón-Chancellor Soyuz programme (crewed) ← Soyuz MS-08 Soyuz MS-10 →

Crew

Prime crew

Position	Crew
Commander	Sergey Prokopyev, Roscosmos Expedition 56/57 First spaceflight
Flight engineer	Alexander Gerst, ESA Expedition 56/57 Second spaceflight
Flight engineer	Serena Auñón-Chancellor, NASA Expedition 56/57 Only spaceflight

Backup crew

Position[3]	Crew
Commander	Oleg Kononenko, Roscosmos
Flight engineer	David Saint-Jacques, CSA
Flight engineer	Anne McClain, NASA

Air leak

During the night of 29 August 2018,^[4] a small air leak in the ISS was noticed by ground control. A 2 mm (0.079 in) hole in the orbital module was discovered,^[5] later stated to have been "hidden with a low-quality patch job".^[6] Russian crew members used Kapton tape to temporarily seal the leak while a permanent fix was devised. The leak was successfully sealed with the use of a repair kit based on an epoxy sealant, and no further changes in air pressure were noted as of 31 August.^[5][7] On 4 September 2018, it was announced that the hole was created by a drill, but it was unclear if it was accidental or deliberate.^[8] Russian officials indicated the hole was some kind of sabotage, perhaps during the module's manufacturing process.^[6] Russian officials even speculated that one of the NASA crew members had drilled the hole.^[9]

On 11 December 2018, Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev conducted an EVA, cutting into the thermal blankets and pulling away insulation in order to examine the external hull, take images of the area and retrieve samples of residue to be used in the investigation. As the hole was in the orbital module that is jettisoned before re-entry, the return flight was not endangered.^[10] The return of the MS-09 crew was briefly delayed by the launch failure of Soyuz MS-10 (until the arrival of the next crew on MS-11). MS-09 landed on 20 December at about 05:03 UTC.^[2]

Further reports and investigations were enacted thereafter.^[11] Prokopyev was quoted as saying that the drill hole was made from the inside, but it is unclear when it was made.^[12] (According to NASA officials, they know exactly when the leak began and no US astronauts were reportedly near the Russian segment, where the Soyuz was docked.)^[13] In September 2019, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, claimed that Roscosmos knows exactly what happened but that the agency would keep this information secret.^[14] On 20 April 2021, major Russian language tabloid Moskovskij Komsomolets published an article citing a Facebook post by Vadim Lukashevich which claimed that the hole was drilled by Serena Auñón-Chancellor, after a blood clot developed in her jugular vein (a medical case which did occur),^[15][16] which was disputed by NASA and called "preposterous" by Ars Technica.^[17] The results of a Roscosmos investigation were later handed over to "law enforcement authorities" in late 2021, with state media promoting a new theory: that Auñón-Chancellor drilled the hole while "due to suffering [psychologically] after a failed romantic relationship with one of the crew members".^[18]

• 
  Hole in the Soyuz MS-09 module
• 
  The hole patched with epoxy
• 
  Oleg Kononenko on EVA to examine the external hull, standing on a Strela crane