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Astronauts dropped a bag of tools in space, and you can see it with binoculars

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

There's a bright new object shining in the night sky, and you only need binoculars to see it, but it's not your typical heavenly body.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Nope. Earlier this month, NASA astronauts Loral O'Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli were doing repairs at the International Space Station when a tool bag accidentally slipped off into space.

SHAPIRO: This isn't the first time astronauts have lost track of something up there. In 2006, NASA astronaut Piers Sellers was using a spatula to apply heat-resistant slime to the Discovery space shuttle, and he reportedly told his fellow astronauts, that was my favorite spatch (ph). Don't tell the other spatulas.

CHANG: The spatch burned up in Earth's atmosphere about four months later, and this tool bag will likely meet the same fate. But for now, you can see it orbiting Earth using just a pair of binoculars. It's a little ahead of the space station, which you can locate using an online tool from NASA. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Kai McNamee
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Sarah Handel
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Ailsa Chang is an award-winning journalist who hosts All Things Considered along with Ari Shapiro, Audie Cornish, and Mary Louise Kelly. She landed in public radio after practicing law for a few years.
Ari Shapiro has been one of the hosts of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine, since 2015. During his first two years on the program, listenership to All Things Considered grew at an unprecedented rate, with more people tuning in during a typical quarter-hour than any other program on the radio.