Astronauts Lose Spatula During Spacewalk

[matcom]

<snip>

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Two astronauts lost a bit of time and a spatula during their spacewalk Wednesday, but otherwise their test of new repair techniques that might some day be necessary to save a damaged space shuttle went well.

The main job of Discovery astronauts Michael Fossum and Piers Sellers, squeezing out putty-like sealant and patting it down, went slowly as bubbles kept appearing in the peanut butter-like material designed to fix cracks in the shuttle's delicate heat shield.

The bubbles were expected, but it meant that the two spacewalkers could only complete seven of their 12 repair tasks in the scheduled six-and-a-half hour spacewalk and were ordered to move on to other work.

"It's behaving very differently now," Sellers said. "It's bubbling. It's growing. It's scary looking."

At times, Fossum worried that they did not have a good repair, but Mission Control was happy with much of the work. The real test will come when the patch jobs are put to test in ground labs after Discovery lands July 17.

Sellers provided a bit of excitement when the spatula -- about the size of a normal kitchen tool -- he used to spread the sealant disappeared when he wasn't looking.

"No sign of the spatula; I think it's gone, gone, gone," Sellers said.

NASA officials said it is not common to lose instruments in a spacewalk, but it's happened before and bigger items have been lost with no ill effects.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/9505428/detail.html

[texanwitch]

1. So Sellers didn't know that in space things just float away if not tied

down. I wonder how much it cost.