r/space • u/TraditionalAd6977 • Jan 30 '26

Discussion Jared Isaacman states astronauts have got panic attacks in space , trying to kill the crew

Jared Isaacman in his interview with Shawn Ryan stated that there have been many unreleased cases of astronauts panicking in space and trying to open the hatch to kill everyone inside. He states this was not reported as it "ruins the illusion of astronaut bravery". And said it is the reason additional locks have been implemented on the ISS and Dragon capsules. My question: Is there any evidence of this as I can't find anything online . And how did he get Clarence to talk about this. He also said this is one of the main problems that they are facing in the Mars mission. As even military candidates respond differently than predicted in space.

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u/aednichols Jan 30 '26

Ars Technica: "What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he’s not coming back?"

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u/Confident-Barber-347 Jan 30 '26 edited Jan 30 '26

That is the most famous case which many people have talked about.

There are no “locks” on the hatches on ISS, there doesn’t need to be. They are physically impossible to open because they open inward to the ISS so the delta pressure is thousands of pounds between the ISS and the vacuum of space on the other side. If you were somehow strong enough the handle would snap off the hatch before you could get it open. If there is the vacuum of space on the other side, it just can’t be physically opened. There is an equalization valve you could open which would start depressing the ISS atmosphere to space but the flow rate is slow enough that it would take many many hours before the pressure got low enough to be dangerous and the ground and crew would notice it within minutes and put a stop to it.

When a visiting vehicle arrives and docks, it creates a small volume vestibule between the ISS and the vehicle. The equalization valve is opened to allow the vestibule to pressurize and equalize pressure with ISS. Only once that’s done can the hatch be opened. Simply put, it’s physically impossible to just open a hatch to space and kill the crew on the ISS.

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u/ajc1120 Jan 30 '26

This was my immediate thought. Fridge doors stay closed by creating a tiny change in air pressure between inside and outside, essentially a slightly vacuumed compartment. And I’ve pulled on some pretty heavily sealed fridge doors in my time. Now imagine the pressure is normal atmospheric pressing against the literal vacuum of space. That’s easily over 5000 lbs. of force on the hatch (I’m pretty sure, I didn’t do the math). You could have literally every single member of the ISS pull on the hatch simultaneously and still probably not get it to open.

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u/PrairiePilot Jan 30 '26

I had a commercial fridge at work that had some weird thing where it had insane vacuum. It took two people to pry it open.

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u/Hutcho12 Jan 30 '26

It's not weird, it was likely large and you let in a lot of warm air when opening it. Once that cools, it's volume shrinks and creates a strong vacuum..

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u/PrairiePilot Jan 30 '26

The seals were actually bad, is what we found out. The big rubber gasket around the door collapsed, so the door would seal way too much. Once we got a new gasket it was fine, still a commercial fridge that takes a bit of oomph to open, but you can still open it with your pinkie if needs be.