CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A spacewalking astronaut accidentally let go of her tool bag Tuesday after a grease gun inside it exploded — and helplessly watched as the tote and everything inside floated away.
It occurred during an unprecedented attempt to clean and lube a gummed-up joint on a solar panel.
Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper was just starting to work on the joint when the mishap occurred.
She said her grease gun exploded, getting the dark gray stuff all over a camera and her gloves. While wiping off herself, the white, backpack-size bag slipped out of her grip, and she lost all her other tools.
“Oh, great,” she mumbled.
Stefanyshyn-Piper was carrying out the spacewalk with Stephen Bowen. He had his own tool bag with another grease gun.
Mission Control agreed the spacewalk would continue as planned, and that the two astronauts would share tools. Earlier, the spacewalkers spotted a screw floating by, but were too far away to catch it. “I have no idea where it came from,” Stefanyshyn-Piper told Mission Control.
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