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Spacewalking Astronaut Loses Mirror, Newest Space Junk

posted by Fnord666 on Sunday June 28 2020, @11:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the lost-in-space dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:

Spacewalking astronaut loses mirror, newest space junk:

A spacewalking astronaut added to the millions of pieces of junk orbiting the Earth on Friday, losing a small mirror on his sleeve as soon as he emerged from the International Space Station for battery work.

Commander Chris Cassidy said the mirror quickly floated away. The lost item posed no risk to either the spacewalk or the station, according to NASA.

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 in order 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 5-by-3 inches (7-by-12 centimeters), and together with its band has a mass of barely one-tenth of a pound (50 grams).

The mirror came loose in darkness. Cassidy inspected his spacesuit sleeve later in sunlight but didn't see any clues that might explain how the mirror came off.

The rest of the six-hour spacewalk went swimmingly.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @12:31AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 29 2020, @12:31AM (#1013906)

    Why isn't there mention of the tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that SpaceX and others want to launch over the next decade?

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  • (Score: 2) by NickM on Monday June 29 2020, @12:36AM

    by NickM (2867) on Monday June 29 2020, @12:36AM (#1013909) Journal
    You probably missed https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/10/16/1153215 [soylentnews.org]
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    I a master of typographic, grammatical and miscellaneous errors !

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday June 29 2020, @03:48PM

    by Freeman (732) on Monday June 29 2020, @03:48PM (#1014120) Journal

    You mean the space junk that won't be launched to an orbit where it will stay there forever, where the catastrophic failure mode, is it will de-orbit on it's own in a few years, that space junk?

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    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"