The 1990’s was a time of great space exploration but mankind also left a few things behind. Here I have listed the top 10 strangest types of space pollution.
1. A glove
During the first US space walk in 1965, astronaut Edward White lost a spare glove. For a month, the item orbited space at 17,389mph before re-entering the atmosphere.
2. A Spatula
In July 2005, space-walker Piers Sellers admitted that, bizarrely, he’d lost a spatula on a spacewalk. It was nicknamed “spatsat” by junk watchers.
3. Rubbish
Bin liners full of rubbish were jettisoned by the Soviet Mir cosmonauts on board the space station. Later, an Indonesian satellite was struck by urine and fecal matter.
4. A camera
A camera became a satellite after the device cam undone during a seven hour spacewalk in 1996
5. A toothbrush
The cabinet that held astronaut Michael Foale’s toothbrush was ripped of the Mir space station after a collision with an unmanned vehicle. He sent a message urgently requesting a new one.
6. Pliers
During a two-and-a-half hour mission to repair solar panels, Dr Scott Parazynski, managed to lose his specially designed pliers. They’re now being tracked by NASA.
7. Nuclear fuel
Old Soviet nuclear-powered spy satellites are losing coolant into space that is congealing into balls about one-inch in diameter and causing problems for other satellites.
8. A rocket
A mysterious object labelled “J002ER” drifted into Earth’s orbit in 2002 - scientists were baffled. It turned out to be a rocket from the Apollo 12 mission from 1969.
9. A pen
Pedro Duue kept all loose items on bits of string. But his method proved flawed after his ballpoint pen was torn off during a space walk in 2003.
10. Bolts
More careless construction work on board the International Space Station. This time, two separate Astro-mechanics lost bolts to the eternal void in 1996.
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I can’t say that I am surprised any of these.
I’m pretty surprised by the lost spatula. This was a great post!
No more fried eggs on that space mission!
This is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. Excellent post.
John
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LOL @ the quote… “Later, an Indonesian satellite was struck by urine and fecal matter.” That’s priceless, you can’t make that stuff up.
Hahaha , nice list , the one I like the best is the spatula , I wonder what exactly the astronauts did that caused that thing to end up in space.
I’m a little worried about the nuclear fuel though , I hope it won’t fall back to earth and cause some damage.
So is all that junk still orbiting the earth? Aren’t we satisfied with polluting the planet, must we pollute the heavens as well?
Those are really weird. I wonder how these items were lost in space. I liked the Spatsat most. Cool name.