Satellite Tracker Captures Lost Toolbag on Video

by Nancy Atkinson on November 23, 2008

j Toolbag just out of the reach of Heide Stefanyshn-Piper. Credit: AP/NASA TV

j Toolbag just out of the reach of Heide Stefanyshn-Piper. Credit: AP/NASA TV


The toolbag lost by spacewalkers this past week is being tracked by satellite observers and one veteran observer actually captured the toolbag whizzing by on video! Kevin Fetter from Brockville, Ontario video-recorded the backpack-sized toolbag last night, Nov. 22 from his backyard. “It was easily 8th magnitude or brighter as it passed by the 4th magnitude star eta Pisces,” Fetter said. Check out the video here. What these “amateurs” can’t do these days! If you’d like to try to see the toolbag yourself, here’s the link to Space Weather’s Satellite Tracker, so you can find out when it will be traveling over your backyard. This site provides satellite observations times for residents of the US and Canada. The expensive toolbag floated away from Endeavour astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper during the STS-126 mission’s first spacewalk on Nov. 18th. Whoever said the toolbag was lost never to be seen again!

And just why does that toolbag cost $100,000?

Lost tool bag floats away from the ISS. Credit: NASA

Lost tool bag floats away from the ISS. Credit: NASA


“The cost included the EVA crew lock bag itself, four retractable tethers, two adjustable equipment tethers, a grease gun with a straight nozzle, two wire ties, a grease gun with a J-hook nozzle, an EVA wipe caddy, six EVA wipes (two wet, four dry), a scraper debris container, a SARJ scraper and a large trash bag,” NASA spokesman Mike Curie.

Most of that equipment and the bag are not just something you can pick up at your local hardware store. They are specialized hardware that had to be specifically created and certified for the harsh environment of space, able to work properly in a vacuum and withstand temperature swings from plus 200 degrees F (93 C) and minus 200 degrees F (-128 C).

And if you want to complain about astronauts losing things in space, then you go put on a pair of bulky, stiff gloves and a spacesuit (and a diaper) and try to do some very intricate, demanding work in zero gravity for about seven hours!

sources: SpaceWeather.com, Orlando Sentinel


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  • Jon Hanford

    Thanks, Nancy, for a great article on the whereabouts of the famous “lost” toolkit from STS-126 and all the links to video and tracking sites. This story was posted just after I commented on the Edmonton fireball not being related to the toolkit, and this story bears this out. Any rough idea on when this object may reenter? Given its’ size & weight, it should create a brilliant fireball but probably burn up entirely before reaching the ground.

  • Salacious B. Crumb

    Monitoring the item and where it is going is one thing, controlling what it might hit in orbit or where crash land is another.
    Again, with all these excuses, their variants, and seemingly biassed nationalism stated cannot hide the original complacency.
    Clearly, common sense tells us that the uncontrolled loss of anything in orbit is dangerous practice. Really all those occupying low Earth orbit and those organising the mission on the ground, have a important responsibility of both safety and prevention of potential present and future dangers if they are in orbit.
    The issue in the end isn’t really the astronaut in question, the fault lies in the adopted operational procedures adopted by NASA and the consortium of the International Space Station. No one expects Heidemarie to do things like fine needle work in orbit, but what we expect is some redundancy methods so such careless in avoided in the future. Anyway, still reckon she ought to be “hauled over the coals” for the incident.

  • AstroNut

    “And if you want to complain”? If the incident is brushed a side and excused on account of a diaper, then you soon be tracking real astronauts.

  • Chris D

    Good thing I wasn’t in that space suit, NASA would have had to bleep the living bleep out of my radio comms…. :)

    Unfortunate, but it just goes to show astronauts are humans.

  • Dominion

    the $100,000 price tag included four tethers that apparently were still in the bag instead of being attached to it and something else. No one is complaining about the work done in space with bulky gloves and suits on, but maybe some extra steps taken before the gloves went on could have prevented this.

  • Salacious B. Crumb

    Silver Thread said

    “So much whining about the tool bag getting loose. Worse is bound to happen, we learn from mistakes and move ahead, now for sake of not being total douche bags about it, stop trolling and move on.”

    Again you miss the point. The problem isn’t really loosing the the tool bag. It is basically the need for denial and cover-up by the general media – including the NASA publicity department.
    If we are supposed to “learn from mistakes and move ahead”, well the question is why haven’t we do so?
    Really. Let’s talk about facts….
    According to studies done in 1999, there is estimated to 1.8 million kilograms of space junk in orbit. With roughly 110,000 objects larger than 1 centimetre! Most are stray nuts and bolts lost by carelessness, and all have the capacity of permanently disabling spacecraft.
    According to the official NASA Orbital Debris Program Office as of today, on their “Orbital Debris : Frequently Asked Questions”
    “Approximately 17,000 objects larger than 10 cm are known to exist. The estimated population of particles between 1 and 10 cm in diameter is greater than 200,000. The number of particles smaller than 1 cm probably exceeds tens of millions.”
    Of this, because of the size, only 2% to 5% of the all particles could be tracked by NASA and the Space Command. Worst, is that most cannot be tracked over all places over the Earth.
    As to “learning from mistakes”, but three incidences for me highlight the concern if anyone is heeding the warning.

    - On the Gemini 4 mission, Edward White in 1965 (now 44 years ago!) lost a glove in orbit during the U.S.’s first ever space walk

    - A U.S. Pegasus rocket upper stage was exploded in 1996, which presumable generated between 300000 and 400000 fragments. The orbit is high enough so that the majority remains in Earth orbit to at least 2050, and is travelling in the path of Hubble Space Telescope.

    - In May 1963, under the title “Project West Ford”, America launched bunches of copper needles into Earth’s orbit in an ill-conceived plan for post-nuclear war communications. They are 1.8 centimetres long weight 40 micrograms apiece and
    These needles are still there in a vastly expanding donut cloud (15×30 km) some 3,700 kilometres above the Earth!
    Historically, there has been some rare interest in the topic,
    like the informative CBS New report of 14th September 2006. I.e.

    Spacewalkers Add to Orbiting Space Junk
    The interesting and relevant (damning) quote is made from a former astronaut, Jay Ap in 2006, who said; “You worry about (losing tools) all the time,”

    Therefore Silver Thread saying, “So much whining about the tool bag getting loose.” does not really get to solving the actual problem – the first being of course, just admitting there is a problem in the first place!

    As Mark Matney, a chief scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre rightly says; “The astronauts living aboard the orbiting lab may not think of it as junk, but for me, every spacecraft is destined to become debris.”

  • Ron

    Where can I take NASA up on their offer? Give me a space suit so I can do this the right way.

  • Silver Thread

    So much whining about the tool bag getting loose. Worse is bound to happen, we learn from mistakes and move ahead, now for sake of not being total douche bags about it, stop trolling and move on.

  • http://lablemminglounge.blogspot.com Lab Lemming

    I wonder if they can calculate its track well enough to pick it up on the way down…

  • law mc

    wow, so people make mistakes, yes it happens… why you focussing so hard on the toolkit? i understand you have an issue with space junk but using the toolkit as a trojan horse to get that issue more attention is just silly really, and looks more like you are simply trying to bash the US space program and its astronauts…
    im a euro btw, so no nationalism here…

  • Salacious B. Crumb

    law mc,
    True, we all make mistakes, but are not supposed to learn from them and avoid them in the future?
    Also the significant issue here of the “toolkit” is the overall media response that is really avoiding the facts and direct responsibility – basically trivialising the consequences of ones actions.
    One of these days a serious catastrophic accident will happen, and we will get the usual incriminations, blame-shifting and “we should do more.” We have already seen the consequences of the two Shuttle disasters – with the loss of all on board – caused by what was seemingly only minor impacts on the spacecraft’s fragile surface. The result was inspections of all the Shuttle’s surfaces before re-entry – if only for the sake of the safety of the astronauts – but also for the loss of expensive hardware of the orbiter. In this case I have great admiration of the ingenuity to solve it. I also respect the bravery astronauts knowing the dangers and still willing to go into space.
    Yet in all, I really rue (and I hate having to say this) – when the day comes – when some manned craft is destroyed and all hands are lost. We would be probably unable to recover their bodies from the surrounding debris field for years, and we would have to live knowing full-well they are continuously orbiting the Earth above us. Surely this would be the bitterest feeling of all.
    In then end there are direct consequences for our actions – if not now but for our future. How sad is it if we know that just by using procedures in prevention we could reduces the risks. In this view it is no joke.

  • Salacious B. Crumb

    law mc
    You said “im a euro btw, so no nationalism here…”, which I assume was in my direct response in saying ; “…and seemingly biassed nationalism.”

    To clarify. I really meant to say here is that It is hard to criticise ones own country against negative events or consequences – biassing just on your nationalistic viewpoint. This view just of the U.S., though but applies to all nations.
    Conceded, Americans collectively are a particularly prideful people, and while sometimes acting somewhat “over the top”, does not mean they should be universally condoned for what they have so far achieved or haven’t achieved in space or elsewhere. Far from it.
    Nationalism does have its really advantages – but it is fair to say sometimes it is not always positive. Perhaps by hiding behind our nationalism just deludes us from the realities or even the underlying truth.
    From the some of the general responses in this thread and the November 19th, 2008 Universe Today thread “Lost in Space: Tool Bag Overboard, Spider Missing.”; clearly shows the fragility of challenging strongly held nationalism views against this same underlying truth.
    After all, it is not as George W. said on 6th November 2001; “Over time it’s going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity. Your either with us or against us.” We can still be with you, but we don’t necessarily have the same coloured glasses.

  • Yael Dragwyla

    Salacious B Crumb — There’s this phenomenon called “entropy.” *No* process is perfect; there are bound to be losses of mass/energy in some form during the course of any process. While we must ever strive to minimize losses, I’d say the world’s space programs have done far better in that respect than most Earth-bound activities. Astronauts and others in the space industry work constantly to minimize accidents like the loss of the toobag. Okay, it happened. Now let’s get over it and do what can be done.

  • huma

    loved your comments, crumb. thank you.

  • Maxwell

    People mess up, stuff gets lost, and what are we supposed to do?
    Send someone to jail every time they drop a hammer?

    We have to build thing in space, and that means we have to repair things. That means we’ll be dropping things and not every job will got to plan.

    Learn what you can and move on. Self flagellation wont achieve anything.

  • Dominion

    Yes, we are only human and humans make mistakes from time to time. But we expect more from our trained professionals. Would you just let it go if your doctor gave you the wrong medication or performed the wrong surgery? What if your auto mechanic put volkswagen parts into your ford? Suppose the fire truck showed up to your burning home without hoses? I work in a factory making air conditioners. It is a relatively low skilled, low wage kind of job. If I lost a tool kit, especially one with that kind of price tag, I would be fired. But maybe that would be my boss’s mistake. He’s only human after all.

  • Salacious B. Crumb

    When I was writing the responses above, I was unaware of a heartfelt developing story in the Australian media. Although seemingly unrelated to this incident, it brought home to me the direct of avoiding consequences of using prevention against ones actions.
    It might be seemingly contrite, but it involves the sad death of a 4 year old little girl from a dam in Queensland, Australia.
    Here a dam bladder, a device to control water flow, burst, and 6000 megalitres of water was released, flowing down stream taking an innocent group at Blackwater who were engaging in a harmless picnic into a catastrophic flood.
    Paradoxically, the dam bladder was put in place to prevent flooding, caused by large floods which incidentally broke years of devastating drought in the region.
    Losing a young child with her life before her is very tragic, but it more devastating to think that the reason why she died was only because the Queensland Government was rightly trying to prevent problems with water security in times of drought and climate change.
    Whilst no fault can be really be immediately ascertained at the moment, it highlights the best intentions can still lead to devastating disaster. The same issue faces catastrophic impacts to low-Earth orbits.
    Although fortunately something as heart-wrenching as this has not happened in this region of space, it generally shows that even with the best knowledge and intentions, we are vulnerable
    to our seemingly inconsequential actions.

    Food for thought, methinks.

    Note: The report of this sad event is at;

    Dam tragedy: Nelani dies a week before birthday

  • Salacious B. Crumb

    Maxwell
    All I can say is ; Just do you best and plan for every possible contingency.
    Some things are avoidable, but the genius solves the problems before it actually happens.

  • Salacious B. Crumb

    For the cynics. I still wept for the loss of this child..

  • Salacious B. Crumb

    According to Mexico’s President, Felipe Calderon,

    “The next US administration must assume leadership in a very firm manner – not just for Americans but for the whole world.”

    Let’s hope so…

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