Astronauts Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen, Mission Specialists on the STS-126 space shuttle Endeavor mission, embarked on their first of four planned spacewalks on Tuesday, November 18, after spending the night in the Quest airlock with its lower air pressure. Their objective was to clean and lubricate a stubborn hinge on the Space Station. In the process, lead spacewalker Stefanyshyn-Piper lost a crucial bag of tools.
Mission Specialist Heidemarie, a Captain in the U.S. Navy, was cleaning up a grease gun explosion in one of her equipment bags when a tool bag, about the size of a briefcase, became untethered from a larger bag and floated away. The accident happened midway through the first 7 hour trek outside the Space Shuttle Endeavor. She completed her portion of the cleaning and lubing activities by sharing tools with partner Bowen, a U.S. Navy Submariner on his first space flight.
At the completion of the first spacewalk, Stefanyshyn-Piper said, “Despite my little hiccup, or major hiccup, I think we did a good job out there.” The Minnesotan flew her first shuttle mission in September 2006. At that time she carried out two spacewalks totaling 12 hours.
Flight STS-126 transported a reusable logistics module that will hold supplies and equipment, including additional crew quarters, a second treadmill, equipment for the regenerative life support system and spare hardware.
Check out the floating tool purse below, as seen through the helmet camera of Astonaut Heidimarie Stefanyshyn-Piper. One can only imagine what she might have been uttering under her breath at this point.