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Space Bag That Floated Away Has Been Spotted!
November 24, 2008 5:03 PM
ABC's Gina Sunseri reports:
The $100,000 tool kit lost in space last week has turned up orbiting over the northeast. It was spotted today in Ontario and if you had a good telescope you could have seen it from New York.
Astronaut Heidi Stefanyshyn Piper lost the bag during her first spacewalk - she was struggling with an exploding grease gun and the mess if left when her bag, which she thought was hooked to a tether, just slipped away. "Oh, great, she muttered, clearly frustrated with the turn of events.
She later said, "It was definitely not the high point of the EVA (spacewalk) to open up the bag and realize there was grease everywhere, it was exploded if that was the right word to use, it was a continuous ooze and that was very disheartening.
Then she saw her tool bag float away, and made a grab for it, but it was moving too fast. "There was split second, when I started for it, I thought, can I reach and get it and I thought , no that would just make things worse"
The bag was gone, but not forgotten. Space observers from around the world have been looking for it. Veteran space watcher Kevin Fetter in Ontario spotted it today, orbiting over his back yard.
It's just another piece of space junk now. The numbers are staggering: 13,000 pieces of junk larger than ten meters are orbiting in space. There are at least another 100,000 pieces of orbital debris that measure between one and ten centimeters, and the number of pieces smaller than 1 centimeter orbiting around the Earth is in the millions. It’s a mess up there.
November 24, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (51)
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We can spot a small tool bag floating in space from NY with a telescope but we still can't find Bin Laden.
Posted by: kevingets | Nov 24, 2008 6:04:34 PM
Can a jet get hit by some of this stuff???
Posted by: CW | Nov 24, 2008 6:11:17 PM
exactly kevingets! he's in a cave somewhere. except, he's on dialysis. so how come we can't find the bugger?? sounds conspiratol (sp?). i love that this guy saw it floating. wow. could it drop to earth or is it outside our gravity? crazy.
Posted by: emma | Nov 24, 2008 6:12:02 PM
OH THANK GOD!! i was worried sick...>!!
but u know, watching that tape made me wonder abt the possibility of the astronauts themselves floating away.. Is that possible?? coz that bag sure just floated away and she didn't seem like all that protected fro its fate. so how exactly does it work?
also, shall we send an envoy to fetch it? I'm not doing anything towards the end of the week...
Posted by: Question | Nov 24, 2008 6:13:09 PM
My mom used to make me clip my mittens to my coat so I wouldn't lose them. Perhaps NASA ought to consider something similar for our astronauts.
Posted by: Michael | Nov 24, 2008 6:39:35 PM
And you can see Russia from up there!!
Posted by: Steve McNeil | Nov 24, 2008 6:43:36 PM
I got dibs on the wrenches.
I suppose, first, as it begins to fall through the atmosphere it will quickly burn away the bag, leaving the tools to scatter about to a spread of about 20 to 30 feet. Each one of the tools will heat up rather quickly, depending on their metallic density. They wont be that recognizable when they strike the earth travelling at 120ft per second. Hopefully, no one will be standing within the trajectory. As far as seeing their descent (trail like a meteor) they will be too small to visualize with the naked eye.
Posted by: tendergroins | Nov 24, 2008 6:44:29 PM
CW, jets don't go into space.
Posted by: AppeaseThis | Nov 24, 2008 6:50:27 PM
The question by Question...Can floating away happen to an astronauts. According to the old TV series Lost In Space, it happened to a whole family. Remember we saw the astronauts walk on the moon on TV.
Posted by: Java Joe | Nov 24, 2008 6:51:40 PM
The ISS is only 4 minutes behind the tool bag. If they speed up just a bit, they may be able to catch up to it and retrieve it. Or they could just stop and wait for the bag to catch up to them. Wonder how long the ISS can just hang in space?
Posted by: Raynman | Nov 24, 2008 6:52:52 PM
poor lady it was her first time out. she's still a rookie. we have all done something silly (not like that but something silly) that we look back and laugh at. im sure you all can remember your first day at a new job where you were the rookie. we all learned didn't we?
Posted by: Cristina | Nov 24, 2008 6:56:36 PM
Serves her right for not taking her husbands last name. You're either married or you're not, not this hyphenated bullcrap!
Posted by: MBNA Joe | Nov 24, 2008 6:58:52 PM
Finally received back bag.
Posted by: Kaushik | Nov 24, 2008 7:13:36 PM
I hope it re-enters the atmosphere.
The more debris that acuumulates out there,the more dangerouse theses missions become.
Posted by: brian dillon | Nov 24, 2008 7:25:48 PM
(Maybe THAT's what happened to my half-inch drive and metric deep socket set . . . )
Posted by: Flick | Nov 24, 2008 7:26:57 PM
Butterfingers!
Posted by: USAmutt | Nov 24, 2008 7:27:08 PM
And for all those who can spell. See what happened to our country once we started to over educate. We've learned to outsmart ourselves and now we don't have any money.
Posted by: BSC | Nov 24, 2008 7:41:26 PM
that tool bag is not big enough to hold $100,000 worth of tools.i would like to replace the 2 screwdrivers and pliers and hammer and will throw in a new tool belt with safety latch for the one time price of $90,000
Posted by: mike | Nov 24, 2008 7:45:36 PM
Anyone struck by the price tag on that bag? What the heck kind of tools cost $100,000?
Posted by: WMD | Nov 24, 2008 7:52:36 PM
My guess is tools that can fix orbiting space stations aren't in your dad's (or mom's) garage tool box.
Hence, they are more expensive... or they are orbiting somewhere near those military toilets and tools!
A question was asked... would an astronaut float away in space? Logic says yes, space doesn't differentiate between organic and inorganic untethered items.
Posted by: dassis | Nov 24, 2008 8:13:51 PM
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