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In a space cadet “whoopsie” of cosmic proportions, an all-female astronaut team recently turned their historic spacewalk into a floating tool bag spectacle. Yes, in a true “Gravity” meets “I Love Lucy” moment, these NASA ladies managed to accidentally launch their very important toolkit straight into orbit. Talk about a star-studded slip-up, right?

EarthSky:

A tool bag is orbiting Earth, and night sky observers might catch a glimpse of it. NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara were conducting a spacewalk from the International Space Station (ISS) on November 2, 2023, when Moghbeli somehow let a tool bag slip away. The tool bag is now orbiting Earth just ahead of the International Space Station. It’s surprisingly bright (for a tool bag), shining just below the limit of visibility to the unaided eye at around magnitude +6. That means some sky observers should be able to pick it up with binoculars.

The tool bag should remain in orbit around Earth for a few months, after which it’ll disintegrate in Earth’s atmosphere. Unlike the ISS, the tool bag will rapidly descend in orbit until, after a few months, it will reach about 70 miles (113 km) and disintegrate. Preliminary estimates indicate the tool bag should reenter the atmosphere around March 2024.

The spacewalkers were conducting repairs on assemblies that allow the ISS solar arrays to track the sun continuously. A blog post at SciTechDaily, which was describing the spacewalk, explained:

During the activity, one tool bag was inadvertently lost. Flight controllers spotted the tool bag using external station cameras. The tools were not needed for the remainder of the spacewalk. 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.

Here’s the moment the tool bag broke free and floated off into a galaxy far, far away. Notice in the video the lady’s hand trying to reach for it… lol.

According to EarthSky the tool bag is now orbiting Earth just ahead of the International Space Station.

The real shame in all of this is that NASA will be paying for that bag of floating hammers for the next 30 years or so. Thanks, diversity…

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