It's not easy holding on to a small bag some 200 miles (320 kilometers) above Earth. Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper proved that Tuesday when a tool bag escaped from her after a grease gun inside it exploded outside the international space station. The briefcase-size bag, containing two grease guns, a putty knife and cloth mitts, was one of the largest items ever to be lost by a spacewalker. It should have been tethered to another bag but it floated away as she tried to clean up the grease. But Stefanyshyn-Piper is not the first person to drop something in space. Bulky gloves and weightlessness have led to a history of some clumsy moments at NASA. Other examples of astronauts accidentally adding to the thousands of pieces of junk already in space: u During a September 2006 spacewalk, astronaut Joe Tanner, working outside the space station with Stefanyshyn-Piper, accidentally released a bolt, spring and washer. u During a July 2006 spacewalk, astronauts Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum lost a 14-inch (35-centimeter) spatula while testing a method to repair the space shuttle. u During a March 2001 spacewalk to mount important equipment to the space station, a foot attachment used to anchor spacewalkers to the end of the space shuttle Discovery's robotic arm managed to float free from astronaut Jim Voss and was lost in space. Later in the mission, Discovery's thrusters had to be fired to move the spacecraft to a higher orbit to dodge the menacing piece of space junk. u During a December 1998 spacewalk, a thermal cover and two tools escaped from astronaut Jerry Ross as he performed construction work outside the space station.
