NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara left the cozy confines of the International Space Station in early November for a spacewalk to work on a solar array. It went well except for one unexpected twist: a tool bag got loose and floated away. That tool bag is now off on a solo adventure in orbit around Earth, and it’s become a bit of a space celebrity.
Down on the planet’s surface, paparazzi in the form of a telescope snapped a photo of the runaway tool bag on Wednesday as it zipped along its orbital path.
The Virtual Telescope Project shared the image, which looks like a bright dot against a dark, streaky background. You can’t see any details of the NASA bag, but the image is remarkable for how the telescope was able to snag a view of a small, fast-moving object. The streaks in the background are star trails.
The Virtual Telescope Project uses robotic telescopes to spot and track space sights and share videos and images with the public. This ranges from observations of eclipses to tracking asteroids to snapping images of spacecraft. The tool bag is one of the smaller objects the project has managed to capture.
European Space Agency astronaut Meganne Christian shared a video on X of the moment when the bag, more officially known as a “crew lock bag,” made its escape. The footage came from a camera mounted on Moghbeli’s helmet. The rectangular white bag can be seen slipping away from the astronaut.
The tool kit quickly went from being a functional item to becoming space junk. “Mission Control analyzed the bag’s trajectory and determined that risk of recontacting the station is low and that the onboard crew and space station are safe with no action required,” NASA said in a statement after the spacewalk ended on November 1. The space agency said the tools weren’t needed for the remainder of the spacewalk.
The bag contained tethers and sockets. ISS deputy program manager Dana Weigel called the contents “common items” in a NASA press briefing on November 8 and said their loss wasn’t a huge impact. Weigel said it was still unknown how the tool bag got loose.
The rogue bag isn’t the first item to bolt from a spacewalk. Former NASA astronaut (and current Arizona senator) Mark Kelly shared his thoughts on X: “Happens to the best of us,” Kelly tweeted. “I still remember when Piers Sellers dropped a spatula on STS-121. He was so upset when I told him his putty knife was floating away.” Kelly was referring to a 2006 Space Shuttle mission to the ISS. Sellers was on a spacewalk when a spatula he was using as a tool got free.
Space junk has become a serious problem around Earth as bits of debris, expended rocket parts, defunct satellites and other detritus crowd into orbit. Even a small object can cause big damage to a satellite or spacecraft, including the space station. The ISS occasionally has to shift its orbital path to steer clear of potential collisions.
The tool bag’s freedom has an expiration date. It will eventually burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, putting an end to its romp. That will be worth a small celebration as at least one piece of space junk is gone from orbit.
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