Tools In Space
Track the International Space Station's famous lost tool bag from your couch.
By HASANI GITTENS
Updated 6:15 PM EST, Tue, Dec 9, 2008
A shiny tool bag, the most famous piece of space junk since Skylab, is now being tracked by amateur astronomers.
The kit was lost in space when Endeavor shuttle astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her grip on the bag on Nov. 18 while doing work outside of the International Space Station.
The bag is listed as a "magnitude 6.4" which means that it is too small to be seen by the naked eye in most conditions.
But one Web site, www.n2yo.com, is providing real-time tracking of the space tools.
If you've got a powerful enough telescope, you can also find out just exactly when the tool bag will be over your house at SpaceWeather.com's Satellite Tracker page.
And The Today Show has footage of what one veteran space watcher believed was the $100,000 kit speeding through the darkened skies over his home in Ontario, Canada.
Meanwhile, with their visit winding down, the world's 10 space travelers zipped up a huge space station shipping crate Wednesday and loaded it back onto shuttle Endeavour for return to Earth.
Their last major task together cleared the decks for a relaxed Thanksgiving.
The astronauts will enjoy each others' company until Thursday evening, when the hatches between the linked shuttle and international space station will be sealed. Endeavour will pull away Friday morning and land Sunday.
Among the home improvement items delivered 1 1/2 weeks ago: a bathroom, kitchenette, two bedrooms, exercise equipment and a system for converting astronauts' urine and sweat into drinking water. All are needed to double the space station's population next year to six.
Copyright Associated Press / NBC Connecticut
First Published: Nov 26, 2008 8:11 PM EST
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