Joe Skipper/Reuters
NASA astronaut Jasmine Moghbeli departs for the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on August 26, 2023.
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NASA astronaut Jasmine Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara carried out their first spacewalk in a tool bag this month. space.
The two finished their maintenance work outdoors. international space station According to the space agency, it will reach the ISS in 6 hours and 42 minutes.
During the November 1 spacewalk, Moghbeli and O’Hara completed work on the station’s solar array that tracks the sun, but ran out of time to remove and stow the communications electronics box. Leaving this mission to a future spacewalk, the pair instead conducted an assessment of how the mission could be carried out.
Vyacheslav Oseredko/AFP/Getty Images
NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara, a member of the International Space Station Expedition 70-71 core crew, undergoes a spacesuit test during pre-launch preparations in Kazakhstan on September 15, 2023. There is.
NASA said the tool bag slipped and was “lost” during the hours-long mission, and was discovered by flight controllers using the station’s external cameras. Fortunately, no tools were required for the rest of the work.
“Mission control analyzed the bag’s trajectory and determined that the risk of re-contacting the station is low, the crew and the space station are safe, and no action is necessary,” NASA said in a statement. Official blog.
According to EarthSky, a website that tracks space events, the toolbag is currently orbiting Earth ahead of the ISS, so it could be discovered. It will be observed from Earth through binoculars for several months before it disintegrates in Earth’s atmosphere.
This isn’t the first time astronauts have done this. tools lost in space. In 2008, Heide’s Stefan Herring’s Piper was cleaning and lubricating the gear on his malfunctioning rotary joint when the bag floated away. During the 2006 spacewalk, astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum lost a 14-inch spatula while testing a repair method for the space shuttle.
Space junk and trash, Like these objects, it is a man-made substance that orbits the Earth, but it is no longer functional. It can be anything from small pieces of paint to discarded parts during a rocket launch.
In September 2023, european space agency An estimated 35,290 objects were tracked and cataloged. There are various space surveillance networks, and the total mass of objects orbiting the Earth exceeds 11,000 tons.