A tool bag that gave astronauts the slip during a spacewalk at the International Space Station is surprisingly bright and can be seen with binoculars.
      • thatsTheCatch@lemmy.nz
        91·
        1 year ago

        I have ad blockers on my PC, but haven’t gotten around to putting any on my phone. It’s rarely a problem as I don’t visit many sites on my phone. But I should probably add one. I was just pointing out an experience I had. I think you were a bit rude with your comment. Please try to be more kind in the future; that’s what helps communities like Lemmy thrive

      • glimse@lemmy.world
        4·
        1 year ago

        Lemmy Connect preview with Chrome even if you have Firefox installed. You can click Open External but for me once the ads become obtrusive, I’m already over it and stop reading. Now I don’t click those sites at all but come to the comments to see if a summary bot posted

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Joining stars, planets, nebulas, and galaxies as a target for skywatchers is now a surprisingly bright tool bag floating through the space around Earth.

    The bag of tools gave NASA astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli and Loral O’Hara the slip on Nov. 2, 2023, as they were conducting a spacewalk outside of the International Space Station (ISS).

    European Space Agency (ESA) reserve astronaut Meganne Christian shared footage of the moment the tool bag escaped the grasp of Moghbeli on her X account.

    Also on X, Harvard Center for Astrophysics (CfA) astronomer Jonathan McDowell revealed that the bag is circling Earth in a roughly 258 by 258 mile (415 by 416 kilometer) orbit.

    In 2008, as NASA astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper attempted to repair a jammed gear on an ISS solar panel, she lost her grip on another tool bag with then circled our planet.

    Late NASA astronaut Piers Sellers lost his grip on the kitchen implement as he was using it to spread heat-shield repair slime during the space shuttle Discovery’s flight STS-121 in 2006.

    The original article contains 479 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 64%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
      211·
      1 year ago

      repair slime

      I find it oddly comforting that even for astronauts in space, many repairs still consist of smearing various types of schmoo on things.

      • BossDj@lemm.ee
        5·
        1 year ago

        I think the two numbers are perigee and apogee distance. (Closest orbital point and furthest orbital point)

        • TauZero
          1·
          1 year ago

          The joke is that the orbit was clearly originally reported in kilometers, but the article editor “helpfully” converted it to miles and reported it in miles as default, but it makes no sense now because the same “miles” number now equals two different “kilometers” numbers.

      • HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        1 year ago

        My only understanding is those two distances are the latitude/longitude and the height. Basically imagine it corkscrewing around the earth.

      • nova_ad_vitum@lemmy.ca
        22·
        1 year ago

        I think that means it’s nearly geostationary but instead going in a 415ish km circle above the same spot on earth? Idk.

  • JillyB@beehaw.org
    4·
    1 year ago

    I’ll bet a 10mm socket was in there. If so, it doomed the rest of the bag and NASA should have known better.