Space Bag That Floated Away Has Been Spotted!
EmailABC’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.
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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 | November 24, 2008, 6:04 pm 6:04 pm
Can a jet get hit by some of this stuff???
Posted by: CW | November 24, 2008, 6:11 pm 6:11 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 | November 24, 2008, 6:12 pm 6:12 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 | November 24, 2008, 6:13 pm 6:13 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 | November 24, 2008, 6:39 pm 6:39 pm
And you can see Russia from up there!!
Posted by: Steve McNeil | November 24, 2008, 6:43 pm 6:43 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 | November 24, 2008, 6:44 pm 6:44 pm
CW, jets don’t go into space.
Posted by: AppeaseThis | November 24, 2008, 6:50 pm 6:50 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 | November 24, 2008, 6:51 pm 6:51 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 | November 24, 2008, 6:52 pm 6:52 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 | November 24, 2008, 6:56 pm 6:56 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 | November 24, 2008, 6:58 pm 6:58 pm
Finally received back bag.
Posted by: Kaushik | November 24, 2008, 7:13 pm 7:13 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 | November 24, 2008, 7:25 pm 7:25 pm
(Maybe THAT’s what happened to my half-inch drive and metric deep socket set . . . )
Posted by: Flick | November 24, 2008, 7:26 pm 7:26 pm
Butterfingers!
Posted by: USAmutt | November 24, 2008, 7:27 pm 7:27 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 | November 24, 2008, 7:41 pm 7:41 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 | November 24, 2008, 7:45 pm 7:45 pm
Anyone struck by the price tag on that bag? What the heck kind of tools cost $100,000?
Posted by: WMD | November 24, 2008, 7:52 pm 7:52 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 | November 24, 2008, 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
ChasB- It wasn’t Heide’s first spacewalk. She’s the second most experienced female spacewalker. She did two EVAs in 2006.
it cleary stated in the article that it was her first spacewalk. instead of trying to outsmart other people on the internet, try using your brain for other things; such as reading carefully.
ChasB- Have you people all suffered brain injuries? Or have you always been stupid? You can’t reason, spell or use capitalization properly.
BTW, unlike you, most of us are at work just skimming through the news. we dont have TIME to sit there fixing our grammer or spelling. maybe you should stop pretending to be sick and go back to school.
Posted by: Cassie | November 24, 2008, 8:15 pm 8:15 pm
ChasB,
You nailed it.
A couple of more thoughts, the bag and contents will most likely burn up completely on reentry. The reentry will likely take place in a few weeks to a few months. It is very difficult to predict exactly with a lot of variables. If the reentry occurs at night, it would make a spectacular fireball. Depending on the construction of the tools (possible titanium components) there is a small chance that a few tiny unrecognizable fragments might survive, but the chance of these hitting anything and doing any damage is miniscule.
The ISS is periodically re-boosted so that it will not reenter. When it is decommissioned many years from now, NASA and the Russians will use a cargo craft to control reentry and have whatever components that do not burn up, crash into the Pacific Ocean (like with MIR, but not Skylab).
The astronauts use tethers so that they do not do not drift off like the tool bag. At various times, NASA has experimented with small jets for the astronauts so that they could self rescue in the unlikely event they became adrift. I don’t know if anything like it currently in use. Also, the shuttle could detach from the station and go pick them up. It is not worth the risk to rescue a tool bag.
Working is zero-G in a bulky spacesuit is very difficult. They astronauts spend years training for their missions, but nothing is like the real thing. Imagine hanging upside down from a rope tied around your ankles doing a valve job on a car engine while wearing several pairs of heavy leather gloves and doing this for seven hours straight with no breaks. That would be easy compared to spacewalking.
Posted by: Achernar | November 24, 2008, 8:17 pm 8:17 pm
Cassie,
It was Heide’s first space walk of the current shuttle mission. She is the lead spacewalker for this mission due to her extensive past experience.
Posted by: Achernar | November 24, 2008, 8:24 pm 8:24 pm
NASA needs to place a “COACH” label on the next bag used by a female astronaut.
I garantee she will not let it go.
Posted by: CHS235 | November 24, 2008, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm
….sorry…..meant “guarantee”……
Posted by: CHS235 | November 24, 2008, 8:32 pm 8:32 pm
I’ve outlined several projects and procedures to address all these issues. (Un)fortunately I can’t won”t be sharing them because I haven’t been permitted to be myself. Signed with love. A REEL starr
Posted by: fifthest | November 24, 2008, 9:27 pm 9:27 pm
Can this guy with the telescope find the bag (I paid $25) that American lost in my last flight?
Posted by: Jacome Lacaca | November 24, 2008, 9:39 pm 9:39 pm
No need to worry. They were Craftsman and will not be totally burned up and they can get a free exchange.
Posted by: Lumberman_63 | November 24, 2008, 10:18 pm 10:18 pm
That’s what NASA gets for allowing a woman to do a mans work. If the tool bag lands on my property it’s going on eBay.
Posted by: SkyFive | November 24, 2008, 11:27 pm 11:27 pm
another 100,000 of my tax dollars…
Posted by: raknyc | November 24, 2008, 11:28 pm 11:28 pm
raknyc: Trust me. That definitely wasn’t 100,000 of YOUR tax dollars.
Posted by: jdoe | November 24, 2008, 11:35 pm 11:35 pm
These tools could be quite dangerous if they enter the Earth’s atmosphere and come hurling towards the ground!
Posted by: E.T. | November 24, 2008, 11:38 pm 11:38 pm
I left my laptop on the hood of my car once and didn’t realize it for an hour but then it was too late. However I believe it had help in “floating” away.
Posted by: Andromeda man | November 25, 2008, 12:25 am 12:25 am
Kind of reminds me of my girl freind: wandering off and leaving her purse full of money and credit cards on a store counter somewhere.
Posted by: ZakD | November 25, 2008, 3:30 am 3:30 am
tendergroins, 120 Feet per second is only 82 miles an hour. Terminal velocity for such an item is probably closer to 200 MPH or more. But the whole bag would burn up on reentry, contents and all. The only question is when (or if) it will re-enter the atmosphere.
The space shuttle was docked to the space station and the two were traveling at the same velocity (about 27,500 Kilometers/hour or about 17,100 MPH), the bag, presumably is traveling at the same (or nearly same) velocity. If the ISS makes course corrections, its orbital vector will change relative to the bag, leaving the bag in its own orbit. If that orbit is stable, that bag could stay there for hundreds, thousands or millions of years. If not, it will be a nice streak in the sky one of these years when it re-enters.
So if you’re calling dibs on the contents of the bags, your extremely distant ancestors may have to be the ones to collect the dust it’s likely to become when it does re-enter.
Posted by: Fatesrider | November 25, 2008, 5:31 am 5:31 am
100,000 Dollars!?!? Sounds like something Palin would wear.
Posted by: Dan | November 25, 2008, 6:56 am 6:56 am
I find it pathetic that this woman still has a job. If I blew $100,000 of company money, I’d get booted right out the front door. Must be nice to work for the government.
Posted by: JT | November 25, 2008, 7:06 am 7:06 am
The “commercials” before and after were longer than the actual story.
Posted by: Chuck | November 25, 2008, 7:07 am 7:07 am
I bet you she would have caught it if it were a Prada tool bag.
Posted by: Jon | November 25, 2008, 8:25 am 8:25 am
First of all–Are some of you really that sexist?!? A man could have easily made the same mistake.
Also, a regular craftsman socket wrench probably cost $100,000 to develop as well. But, Craftsman has sold millions of the socket wrenches to recoup development cost. NASA produces tools for very specific and special circumstances and not to be sold to public.
It would be hilarious if Palin showed up in 2012 with a set for her motorcade.
Posted by: doug | November 25, 2008, 8:31 am 8:31 am
LOL!!! $100,000 for a tool bag. What kind of tools?
Posted by: bb | November 25, 2008, 8:45 am 8:45 am
This just goes to prove that women should stay in the kitchen and let the men do the dirty work.
Posted by: Bob | November 25, 2008, 8:48 am 8:48 am
There is no mountians or rough terrain in space. Its wide open my friend.
Posted by: Eric | November 25, 2008, 9:08 am 9:08 am
Not everyday a tool bag gets lost in space, this is going to be amusing news for a long time. May be someone can write a book about it ! ha ha ha
Posted by: kiwi | November 25, 2008, 12:48 pm 12:48 pm
Space Bag That Floated Away Has Been Spotted! Oh wow!!! Thats the biggest news yet! They’ve spotted Santa’s sleigh already on the move from the North Pole too!!! Oooh! Come on ABC. Thats not news! Stop the crap!
Posted by: brannigon1 | November 25, 2008, 2:56 pm 2:56 pm
From now on she shall be known as
“THE BAG LADY”
Posted by: P A DEPLAND | November 25, 2008, 4:05 pm 4:05 pm
No, a jet is not in danger of being hit by space debris unless earth’s gravity draws the debris into its atmosphere and it survives (unlikely) reentry. From there a jet would have to be “in the right place at the right time” in order to get hit. It all seems very, very, very unlikely.
Posted by: brent | November 25, 2008, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm
anyone knows when you go out for a jog, for a walk, whatever, ya’ leave the purse at home.
Posted by: jack | November 25, 2008, 6:39 pm 6:39 pm
Fatesrider- there are far too many variables to consider proper terminal velocity of the incoming tools, i.e drag, mass of the tool, etc.. But you seem to have missed the supposition for humor rather than the hypothesis of the proposed event. I will say that your calculations are far too high (even mine may have been a bit high) on the term. vel. and laughable for the return to earth. BTW, dont take it so seriously unless you want to start a pool.
Posted by: tendergroins | November 25, 2008, 6:41 pm 6:41 pm
I am all for “Equal Rights Amendment” and all but why am I NOT surprised that a ‘woman’ lost a $100,000 bag?!…. IN SPACE !!… No, not the SPACE Nightclub in Miami… But in the freakin OUTER SPACE!, as in The Sun, planets and the Galaxies, Space!
Posted by: MK | November 26, 2008, 1:16 am 1:16 am
I’d like to answer the question posed on the video,
“Is this the lost tool bag” with a most definite no. It is a surprising that abc news would even report this without asking anyone in the field for their input…
There is no way a backyard astronomer (or a research grade telescope for that matter) could image something in orbit as small as this tool bag. In addition to its size, the tool bag would not be made of reflective material, which it would need to be made of for us to even have a chance of seeing it from the Earth (as what we see down here is reflected sunlight not actual lights from satellites).
The object in the video is just a satellite passing by.
Posted by: drew | November 26, 2008, 12:51 pm 12:51 pm