Posted on 11/13/2023 9:01:46 AM PST by Red Badger
An astronaut tool bag dropped during a spacewalk can be seen orbiting Earth on Nov. 2, 2023. (Image credit: NASA/JSC) Some astronomy targets are less celestial in nature than others.
Joining stars, planets, nebulas, and galaxies as a target for skywatchers is now a surprisingly bright tool bag floating through the space around Earth. The bag of tools gave NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara the slip on Nov. 2, 2023, as they were conducting a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station (ISS).
The tool bag is now orbiting our planet just ahead of the ISS with a visual magnitude of around 6, according to EarthSky. That means it is slightly less bright than the ice giant Uranus, the seventh planet from the sun. As a result, the bag — officially known as a crew lock bag — is slightly too dim to be visible to the unaided eye, but skywatchers should be able to pick it up with binoculars.
To see it for yourself, first find out when you can find spot the space station over the next few months (NASA even has a new app to help you). The bag should be floating two to four minutes ahead of the station. As it descends rapidly, the bag is likely to disintegrate when it reaches an altitude of around 70 miles (113 kilometers) over Earth.
European Space Agency (ESA) reserve astronaut Meganne Christian shared footage of the moment the tool bag escaped the grasp of Moghbeli on her X account. She added that the bag had last been sighted at that time by Crew-7 astronaut Satoshi Furukawa as it floated high above Mount Fuji.
Also on X, Harvard Center for Astrophysics (CfA) astronomer Jonathan McDowell revealed that the bag is circling Earth in a roughly 258 by 258 mile (415 by 416 kilometer) orbit. McDowell also explained that the bag has also been given its own categorization in the U.S. space force cataloging system for artificial objects in orbit officially designated 58229 / 1998–067WC.
The tool bag joins a vast array of artificial space junk in orbit around Earth, ranging from pieces of shuttles and smashed-up satellites to tools used by astronauts. This isn't even the first tool bag to reach orbit. In 2008, as NASA astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper attempted to repair a jammed gear on an ISS solar panel, she lost her grip on another tool bag with then circled our planet.
And these definitely aren't the weirdest objects to find their way to orbiting Earth. That honor goes to a humble spatula. Late NASA astronaut Piers Sellers lost his grip on the kitchen implement as he was using it to spread heat-shield repair slime during the space shuttle Discovery's flight STS-121 in 2006. "That was my favorite spatch. Don't tell the other spatulas," Sellers reportedly said about the loss.
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I thought they used strap on tools in Space.
Don’t look up!....................
IIRC, one of the Gemini astronauts lost control of a Hasselblad camera on orbit, thus giving Sweden its first satellite.
thank you...
2 WOMEN Astronauts!!!omg.
“I thought they used strap on tools in Space.”
Now that is just a nasty thought
I don’t think atmospheric burn up is covered under Craftsman’s warranty...
Find the classic Andy Rooney commentary on handbags.
I had to look at your FR profile to see where you live. I guessed PA but I was wrong. Just another guy whose wife’s name is “her” or “she”...
I have cousins in PA who always refer to their wives as “she” and “her.” I remind them their wives have names but they’re not listening. They’re too old to change now. Their dad did the same thing with his wife, my aunt.
Had two high school friends in upstate NY who were raised in PA and they also refer to their wives the same way..
Now to the thread itself - being a female, I’ve probably said more than enough for one post...
Well that’s the last time I’ll lend NASA my lawn mower.
Well in this neck of the woods the old timers refer to their wives as “Mothuah”
“”2 WOMEN Astronauts!!!omg.””
Glad you said it and I didn’t have to...
“”My wife has this amazing power such that when she is finished using any tool, all she has to do is open her hand and that tool CEASES TO EXIST.””
THAT is funny...clever!
Touching my husband’s tools was a NO NO - if they were, they better be back where he put them the next time he reached for them....He’s no longer with us and I’d even welcome back those days of him fussing and fuming over whatever!!!
I don’t think I’ll even ask what part of the country you’re from - LOL.....
Had some young neighbors. The wife asked if I could help her husband install new french doors in the kitchen to the patio. I went over as she was heading to the store. Helped the husband get the doors from the garage out to the patio and he looked at me pleading with his eyes for me to tell him what next.
I said, okay, we need to get the old doors off. We need a drill with a phillips head bit. He said to hold on and went back to the garage. After a few minutes, I stepped back in to see what the hold up was. The door was open to the garage and I could hear him on the phone to his wife... “Hey Honey? Where do you keep the drill?...”
Ugh, So I yelled to him I’d be right back and slid back to my shop and packed a pouch full of tools. I give him some credit though. He was good and humble about it and picked up things pretty quick.
Between 1977 and 1980 I was making a living doing marine electronics repair. No kids at the time. By 1983, I had purchased a new house and had two kids. My tools were on my bench in the garage and only used as necessary for occasional tasks. Over time, I discovered some of the contents were missing. My kids were taking tools out to neighbors houses to "fix" problems and just leaving them. I put locks on all my toolboxes to stop the loss.
Dooney and Bourke Handbags
Funny but no tools are replaceable without the old tool in hand. And Craftsman as it was no longer exists.
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