When an astronaut leaves his ship to make two or three repairs in the middle of space, it’s best not to make a misstep, much less drop his toolbox. That’s exactly what happened on November 2nd outside the International Space Station.
Goodbye screws
The error occurred during an exit outside the spacecraft that was intended to replace a mechanism that allowed the International Space Station’s solar panels to remain pointed at the sun. Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara, two of the eleven astronauts currently on the ISS, were responsible for the mission. But obviously nothing went as planned.
In the middle of DIY work, her tool bag was “accidentally lost,” reports the medium Futurism, which is based on a NASA press release. Everything disappeared, far away from the ship, which orbits around 400 km around the earth. In other words, we are not ready to find him.
Fortunately, the error shouldn’t have any consequences. The loss of this tool bag has no impact on the lifespan of the ISS. Very important point: the trajectory taken by the bag does not pose the risk of becoming a spoilsport by hitting the station.
Not a premiere
This type of event, while surprising, is not really a surprise. Mistakes also happen on spaceships, where tools are lost from time to time.
In 1965, for example, a spare glove was lost in a similar manner. In 2006 it was the turn of small screws, then in 2008 a complete set of tools. In 2017, an entire bag of debris shields was even lost. In short, just because you’re an astronaut doesn’t mean you’re not clumsy from time to time.
Most of the time this has no consequences. But in the long term, this contributes to a phenomenon that scares scientists: the accumulation of space debris orbiting our planet. Within 10 years, the number of this space debris in orbit has doubled. Most remnants of rockets and satellites constantly break apart during collisions, actively endangering the lives of astronauts.