Astronaut who lost tool bag admits making mistake

November 19th, 2008 By MARCIA DUNN , AP Aerospace Writer

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In this image from NASA TV, the hand of astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper is seen at left, through her helmet camera, reaching for a tool kit bag that was lost from her grasp during a procedure during a space walk outside the International Space Station, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/NASA TV)

(AP) -- The astronaut who lost her tool bag on a spacewalk admits she made a mistake and says she should have checked to make sure it was tied down.

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• IVAN3MAN - Nov 19, 2008
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  You would have thought that she should have already had enough practice with handling her own bloody handbag back on Earth, and so not make a silly mistake like that.
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• robbycoats - Nov 19, 2008
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  So her tool bag floated off into oblivion, so what, it happens to the best of us. She's in Fing space, for crying out loud, I'm still looking up to her; we all are. A real embarrassment would be if SHE floated off, and the space shuttle commander had to make the unprecedented decision to undock and follow her into a higher orbit to scoop her up with the open cargo bay or robot arm.
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• PPihkala - Nov 19, 2008
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  It's described that astronauts have tethers to keep them safe. Why was that bag not tethered to relevant astronaut? She could just have pulled it back.
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• PPihkala - Nov 19, 2008
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  Aha, it was originally tethered. I found this from another article after I left this comment:
  http://www.physor...661.html
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  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."
  
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• Thadieus - Nov 19, 2008
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  To bad it wasn't duct tape. An alien could pick it up and say "hey these Earthlings are not so dumb after all. I could use this to repair my warp front bumper!"
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• Paradox - Nov 19, 2008
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  Thats NASA for you. Teach them all to tie a bunch of knots. It reminds me of the space pen(when a pencil will do).
  Should have used Carabiners.
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• deepsand - Nov 19, 2008
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  To bad it wasn't duct tape. An alien could pick it up and say "hey these Earthlings are not so dumb after all. I could use this to repair my warp front bumper!"

  
  The only thing that Duct Tape is guaranteed to stick to is Duct Tape.
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• Eco_R1 - Nov 19, 2008
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  thats what happens when you send a gurl to do a man's job!
  
  bare foot, pregnant and in the kitchen....not floating in spaceand losing a "grip" on everything!
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• deepsand - Nov 21, 2008
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  thats what happens when you send a gurl to do a man's job!

  
  Well, I know many a "man" who would not have owned up to the mistake as this "girl" did.
  
  In fact, there are so many that, in the Navy we've a term for them - Sea Lawyers.
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• zevkirsh - Nov 22, 2008
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  dude, i blame nasa more than any astronaut.
  seriously . no way to get this thing back?
  what crap.
  
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• yyz - Nov 23, 2008
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  Amateur video of the "lost" tool bag taken 11-22-08 here http://www.spacew...j68es6e2
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• Velanarris - Nov 26, 2008
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  Anyone ever thought of putting a magnet in the bag?
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• lengould100 - Nov 28, 2008
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  So the team lost "a pair of grease guns, wipes and a putty knife". What the heck's the big deal about? $5.00 at the local hardware, right? Sure, would have been better not to loose it, but surely won't cripple the mission, I'd think. Send up two extra tubes of grease with the next construction crew.
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