Posted on 11/19/2008 7:07:49 AM PST by Red Badger
Flight controllers were revamping plans Wednesday for the remaining spacewalks planned during space shuttle Endeavour's visit to the international space station, after a crucial tool bag floated out to space during a repair trip.
The briefcase-sized tool bag drifted away from astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper on Tuesday as she cleaned and lubed a gummed-up joint on a wing of solar panels on the space station. She and fellow astronaut Stephen Bowen were midway through the first of four spacewalks planned for the mission. The tool bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalker.
As Stefanyshyn-Piper cleaned up a large gob of grease that seeped from a gun used to lubricate the joint, the tool case somehow became untethered from a larger bag and floated away along with a pair of grease guns, wipes and a putty knife attached to it.
"What it boils down to is all it takes is one small mistake for a tether not to be hooked up quite correctly or to slip off, and that's what happened here," said lead spacewalk officer John Ray.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
Make her walk home?.............
You know, that might just work.
Too bad Sally Space-Ride was too busy looking for her house to strap the tools down...
Maybe they will just grab it on the next lap.
Now don’t be too hard on her. She used woman logic. She thought “Why should I tether it? Those MEN are trying to make me look stupid, like it would drop to earth or something without a tether. I know better. Things FLOAT in space.”
If it had been a bag of shoes she would have had a grip on it like grim death!
In the Old COrps, the El Tee would have had her dummy cord all of her gear......
Oh well, it’s in a LEO, so somewhere, in a month or two, someone will see a shooting star.
“DUCK, MARTHA; ITSA’ MONKEY WRENCH !!!”
We're in SCORPIO.................;^)
Nope. That won't pass the TSA checkpoints before flight.
>>”Never let women handle tools.”<<
LOL. You better take cover quick. I’m lucky, in that, my wife has her own hammer and screws for hanging pictures.
Ouch! One more thing. Make sure you’re alone when posting. I swear I didn’t hear her coming in the room. Damn, that hurt.
The Dallas Morning News used a different verb to describe how the glob of grease came about. They reported that the grease gun "exploded." I suspect that this was an unsuspected malfunction and in the course of trying to correct it she lost control of the tool bag.
Give Piper a break! I don't think female foibles were the fault!
Remember that the original Mercury astronauts were male 'cause the German Rocket scientists didn't know how to deal with female plumbing. A guy could poop and pee in plastic bags and faux condums but women were'nt easy to deal with. I met one of those female astronaut wannabes and truth be told they showed better g force tolerance and better flying skills.
And as far as G-tolerance, while they have a lower CG that helps, in a way, the muscle tone and strength of men makes G-tolerance for men much better. And as far as moving around the cockpit while under G, twisting and turning the upper torso while engaged in a dogfight, men have the upper body strength that is missed in women.
I've met many of the wanna-be’s and I disagree with you. . . just me talking.
Duck now! We only lose our tools when we lend them to our husbands!
Hunka Hunka burn’n love, (repeat)
L.A.Zoo member, Pookie the polar bear, gets head crushed in by space tool.PETA not happy! Sorry,for the photoshop, I was bored.
Never, ever, under any circumstances ignore Rule #1!
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