12 November 2023 , 18:44
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Astronauts from NASA mistakenly dropped their toolbox in outer space - and now the equipment is set to orbit the Earth on its own before it crashes back down through the atmosphere in the next few months.
Essential maintenance work at the International Space Station (ISS) meant Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O'Hara had to spend more than six hours floating outside the base. During their mission they accidentally dropped the toolbox, which has remained in space orbiting a few minutes ahead of the ISS at around 17,000mph.
The astronauts’ Japanese colleague Satoshi Furukawa even caught the moment the bag drifted away on camera. Whilst trying to capture a photo of Mount Fuji, he inadvertently snapped the apparatus as it moved into oblivion. Luckily, the pair’s mishap didn’t impact their work and NASA confirmed the missing toolbox was no longer needed. Mission Control added that everyone onboard was safe and classified the toolbox as space junk.
The bag was pictured as it went into orbit on its own (eol.jsc.nasa.gov/SWNS)Despite the object floating outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, experts at cosmic organisation EarthSky say people will be able to spot it from home with just a pair of binoculars. They wrote: “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.”
After dropping the bag, Jasmin Moghbeli told mission control: “In the most improbable of events, Satoshi was actually taking photos of Mount Fuji and also captured a nice photo of a lost item, the nice crew lock bag from yesterday. It wanted to see Mount Fuji, I guess.”
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It is thought the bag drifted away during a task to remove a communications device called a radio frequency group. The astronauts were reportedly running out of time and lost control of the equipment as they lifted some insulation to get a better view.