When we think about astronauts, it’s most likely that we imagine completely perfect individuals, capable of doing things the rest of humanity can’t (among them, traveling to space; no big deal, right?). The thing is, we forget that as much as these professionals are at the peak of their respective fields, they are still flesh-and-blood humans.
Yes, the same people who will dedicate themselves to cultivating brains in space also make mistakes, just like everyone else (I, for instance, sometimes miss a comma in addressing someone, something I deeply regret). A curious example happened the other day outside the International Space Station (ISS) when some tools were lost in the infinite space never to return.
During a mission on November 1st, astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara were supposed to perform repairs on the ISS‘s solar panels, but they ran out of time to remove and stow away an electronic communications box. Leaving this task for a future spacewalk, the pair proceeded to evaluate how the work could be done.
However, due to sheer forgetfulness, the astronauts accidentally let a tool bag slip away during the mission hours, and it was “lost,” according to NASA. It was later spotted by flight controllers thanks to the ISS’s external cameras. Luckily, the astronauts didn’t need those tools to complete their tasks.
But the anecdote doesn’t end there. The tool bag could be seen (and can still be seen) from Earth with just a pair of binoculars. According to observations by the EarthSky website, which tracks cosmic events, the bag orbits around the Earth, ahead of the ISS, and will continue to do so for several months until it eventually disintegrates in our atmosphere.
Undoubtedly, it’s an anecdote that friends and family will be reminding them of for the rest of their lives (with laughter, of course), but it doesn’t in any way tarnish the great scientific work they carry out in outer space.
