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Wednesday August 5, 2009
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After months of circling the planet and getting ever closer, a lost tool bag that belonged to one of NASA's astronauts vaporized in a fiery burst as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up Monday, according to Space.com.
Last November, the astronaut accidentally lost the tool bag during a spacewalk. At the time, it slowly drifted away from the International Space Station, forever out of reach. Ever since, the tool bag has been orbiting earth--and monitored by the U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center, which tracks over 19,000 other pieces of space junk in orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, the report said.
The tool bag weighed about 30 pounds and contained a scraper tool, grease guns, and trash bags. It was about the size of a small backpack, according to the article. This would have been a perfect video clip for YouTube, if someone could have, well, orbited the Earth and filmed it before burning up with the bag. Guess that wouldn't have worked out.
(Another pic after the break.)
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August 5, 2009 4:34 PM
Oh, yeah. I remember that. Guess the internet hasn't screwed over my long term memory just yet.
August 5, 2009 8:34 PM
Oh no! Those poor tools! XD
August 6, 2009 1:15 AM
What goes up, must come down!