Tuesday, November 5, 2024
12.8 C
New York

Look Out for A Piece of the International Space Station Floating Around

Two NASA astronauts working on the International Space Station managed to lose one of the four thermal shields that they were supposed to be installing as it simply floated away into space somewhere. The two astronauts on the mission were Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson.


Although the agency never actually explained how the pair managed to lose the part, it’s definitely no longer on the space station. Experts figure that it could be slowly making its way to Earth where it will eventually be burned up, or it could have gone in the other direction and is somewhere floating around space.

International docking adapters


This is what NASA had to say about the incident, “The duo were also tasked with installing four thermal protection shields on the Tranquility module of the International Space Station. The shields were required to cover the port where the PMA-3 was removed earlier in the week and robotically installed on the Harmony module.  During the spacewalk, one of the shields was inadvertently lost.  The loss posed no immediate danger to the astronauts and Kimbrough and Whitson went on to successfully install the remaining shields on the common berthing mechanism port.”

So, although it was a bit of a mishap, it’s not going to cause major mayhem anywhere in the world.  The worst thing about it was there was no spare part to replace it with.  Luckily the team managed to remove another part of the space station to use as a replacement temporary shield and once again there’s adequate thermal and micrometeoroid protection in place.



More News to Read

Hot this week

Brooklyn Defendants Charged in Rideshare Hacking Scheme: Jailbroken Phones Used to Exploit Uber

Brooklyn federal court has charged two defendants, Eliahou Paldiel...

Detecting Defects in Next-Generation Computer Chips: The Future of TMD-Based Semiconductors

As technology advances, the demand for smaller, more powerful...

Merging Galaxies in the Early Universe: The Birth of a Monster Galaxy

Astronomers have recently observed a fascinating event in the...

Topics

Brooklyn Defendants Charged in Rideshare Hacking Scheme: Jailbroken Phones Used to Exploit Uber

Brooklyn federal court has charged two defendants, Eliahou Paldiel...

Detecting Defects in Next-Generation Computer Chips: The Future of TMD-Based Semiconductors

As technology advances, the demand for smaller, more powerful...

Merging Galaxies in the Early Universe: The Birth of a Monster Galaxy

Astronomers have recently observed a fascinating event in the...

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope to Uncover Galactic Fossils and Dark Matter Mysteries

NASA’s Roman Space Telescope is set to transform our...

Black Myth: Wukong – A Game that Gamers Love Despite Media Backlash

In a gaming industry increasingly influenced by social agendas,...

Gravitational Waves Reveal a ‘Supercool’ Secret About the Big Bang

In 2023, physicists made a groundbreaking discovery that could...

Related Articles

Popular Categories

Send this to a friend