Oh great! Send a woman into space and what does she do? Drops her tool bag when startled by a greese gun discharge, thus derailing a multi-million dollar project. I wonder if she would have dropped her purse in a similar circumstance. Did she urinate in her suit? Either way, now the universe has yet more floating trash and our country, in the name of "equality" (what a joke) and equal opportunity, has yet another failed mission.

I wasn't impressed or convinced forty years ago and neither am I now. Equal rights? How about equal responsibility, ability, experience, judgement, cool under pressure, proven track record and substance before demands for equality?

Why wasn't the 30lb tool bag tethered. She surely wasn't working one handed, with the other holding the bag, was she?

Nobody does repair work like that, on Earth or in space.

It was really funny. I know i'll be in trouble for this, but what the hell. The seconds immediately prior to the daft bint offloading the toolbox looked exactly like a lost lippy rifle through the handbag type panic.

No respect for toolboxes, and no use with a grease gun. Would have been better at making tea.

Tools are expensive and on earth that tool bags probably worth about £50. Stick NASA on the tools and I bet it's a damn sight more? Was this a million dollar tool box?

Nice vid of it on the beeb

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7736996.stm

If this woman was friends with Lisa "Pampers" Nowak if memory servers When she was arrested, she was carrying a wig, a steel mallet, some duct tape, and a knife( or as OJ calls it, an overnight bag) Maybe this Astronaut was just helping her friend to ditch evidence, Lets face it if they are not going to be getting it back unless it smashes throught he shuttle next time round.

...some sort of high tech carabiner...

...or it might behalf a pair of handcuffs.

What a bunch of sexists we have on board here. How can one tell? Replace "woman" with "black" or some other superficial distinguishing factor, then tell me the statements wouldn't be considered racist. Even as a joke it stopped being funny years ago.

And I'll try to refrain from the obvious: http://www.clichequest.com/index.php?pos=328

The person fucked up not because they were a woman, but because they were just too stupid or hurried (as an individual) to attach a tether.

I assume the engineers DID provide a tether for the toolkit? Because if they didn't, then the real fault lies with them. Not to mention creating a grease gun that doesn't work right in a vacuum.

"Did she urinate in her suit?"

She will probably have urinated, although probably not quite into her suit. Astronauts spacewalking (and even during launch and reentry) where what is tastefully described as a 'Maximum Absorbency Garment' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_Absorbency_Garment), basically an adult nappy to absorb urine (it will absorb faeces as well, although they generally wait until getting back inside to do that)...

Otherwise, it could make it a darn uncomfortable 7 hours or so if you needed a piss after a couple of them!

... must mean that space walks and repair jobs are no longer the stuff of amazement and wonder, but merely business as usual.

Hey Stef, did you remember to punch your time card?

"Considering the difficulty of maintenance, it might have been a good idea to design this Solar Alpha Rotary Joint to not need a periodic lube job."

They did. Their design failed. And since banter is no loger allowed here due to the bra-burners getting tetchy, ill get back on script: I expect it was designed by a man. More women in engineering please.

I want to know what the inertial force of this toolbag is.

More to the point, I want to know just how fast that grease gun is going and whether or not it stands a chance of punching a hole through the side of a satellite or the window of the Shuttle in future orbits.

And how long will it take for the lost items to become shootings stars ? The Shuttle works in low Earth orbit if I'm not mistaken - anything that has mass and no means of maintaining its orbit will plunge back down to the surface in due time. So how long for this bag ?

"More to the point, I want to know just how fast that grease gun is going"

From memory, about 17,000Km/hr - a fair bit of inertia then.

Replace "woman" with "American" in all above posts.

Makes it more accurate and removes any sexism.