A spacewalking astronaut on Friday added to the millions of pieces of junk orbiting the Earth, losing a small mirror on his sleeve as soon as he emerged from the International Space Station for battery work.
Commander Chris Cassidy said that the mirror quickly floated away.
The lost item posed no risk to either the spacewalk or the station, NASA said.
Photo: NASA / Joel Kowsky / EPA-EFE
While millions of pieces of space debris orbit Earth, more than 20,000 items, including old rocket parts and busted satellites, are big enough to be tracked to safeguard the space station and working satellites.
Spacewalking astronauts wear a wrist mirror on each sleeve to get better views while working. The mirror is just 7cm by 12cm and together with its band has a mass of barely 50g.
The mirror came loose in darkness. Cassidy inspected his spacesuit sleeve later in sunlight, but did not see any clues that might explain how the mirror came off.
The rest of the six-hour spacewalk went swimmingly.
Cassidy and Bob Behnken hustled through the first of four planned spacewalks to replace the last bunch of old station batteries. They removed five old batteries and installed two new ones — which checked out fine — getting a jump on their next spacewalk on Wednesday.
They have four more to plug in before the job is complete.
“I think we’ve done enough for one day,” Behnken said.
Once all the new batteries are installed in the coming weeks, the orbiting lab should be good for the rest of its life, according to NASA.
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