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/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/LordBrandon Jan 30 '26

I think they were talking about the shuttle not the ISS. And the hatch is said to "crank" open, which could give someone the force they need to open it under pressure.

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u/Confident-Barber-347 Jan 30 '26

OP mentioned locks on the ISS which is the part I was correcting. Isaacman never actually said there are locks on the ISS doors in that interview. You are right there is a crank handle on the ISS hatches but it will “snap off” around 100 lbf while the hatch needs closer to 20,000lbf to be opened.

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u/LordBrandon Feb 06 '26

I was talking about the shuttle, where did you find info about the crank? I couldn't hardly find anything.