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.
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Last seen by @Astro_Satoshi while floating over Mount Fuji ? the 'Orbital Police' can confirm that the lost EVA gear is being tracked ? https://t.co/wz4MITmAfM pic.twitter.com/eksfu9fPFw
— Dr Meganne Christian (@astro_meganne) November 5, 2023
A tool bag was lost during last week’s EVA to replace a trundle bearing on the port solar alpha array. The object is now listed in the catalog as ID 1998-067WC/58229. The tool bag as a +6th magnitude ‘star’ currently about a minute ahead of the ISS.https://t.co/2YZf3PnjzV
— Dave Dickinson (@Astroguyz) November 6, 2023
The crew lock bag that floated free during the Nov 1 EVA-89 spacewalk has been cataloged as 58229 / 1998-067WC in a 415 x 416 km orbit
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) November 5, 2023
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.
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.
Meanwhile, observers that have a visible pass of the International Space Station can also try to spot the tool bag, which is a dim object (around visual magnitude +6), visible using binoculars. The strategy is to observe the trajectory of the ISS, and to scan the sky in the area just ahead of the space station.
As the small object gradually loses height, it should appear a few seconds ahead of the ISS during the next few days, and a minute or two ahead during the next weeks.
Read: How to see ISS in your sky
And this isn’t the first time a NASA astronaut has lost a tool bag. On November 18, 2008, astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper was performing a similar repair at the International Space Station when she inadvertently lost a tool bag.
Even some two months later, on January 12, 2009, the object was still visible ahead of ISS and was seen with binoculars by Joxelle Velazquez among others during a star party at Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. See the image below.
And there’ve been earlier losses of astronauts’ items, too, to the junkyard of near-Earth orbit. Victor Tangermann at Futurism reported on November 3:
It’s far from the first time astronauts have lost track of tools in space. Back in 1965, NASA astronaut Ed White infamously lost a spare glove during a spacewalk outside of his Gemini 4 spacecraft. Over the decades, several other astronauts have lost other objects, from spare bolts in 2006 to an entire bag ironically containing a debris shield in 2017.
And, although NASA has determined that the 2023 tool bag isn’t on a trajectory that’s dangerous to the astronauts aboard ISS at this time, the problem of litter in near-Earth orbit remains and is serious. As Tangermann wrote at Futurism:
The problem, of course, is that not every piece of space debris will stay out of the way of future space travelers.
And that is a sad truth.
Bottom line: NASA astronauts were servicing the solar panels on the International Space Station on November 2, when one of them lost a tool bag. It’s now orbiting just ahead of ISS.
The post Orbital oopsy: A tool bag is now orbiting Earth first appeared on EarthSky.
