tool kit adds to space garbage

Space Shuttle Endeavour, currently on a two-week visit to the International Space Station, is seen backdropped by a colourful Earth and the blackness of space. In the smaller image, taken by the helmet camera of astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, a tool kit bag is seen floating away. Stefanyshyn-Piper and her colleague Stephen Bowen stepped out of the Station for a walk, hoping to carry out a clean-and-lube job on a gummed-up joint. The joint is jammed by metal grit, and has been unable to point the Station8217;s right-side solar wings toward the sun. Bowen and Stefanyshyn-Piper are connected to the mother ship by 25-metre safety tethers at all times, but their tool kits clearly aren8217;t that safe.

8212;AP/NASA