NASA Astronaut Accidentally Drops Mirror In Space during Spacewalk

By: | June 29th, 2020

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

On 27 June, an astronaut dropped a small mirror into space by accident. Astronauts Cassidy and Behnken were on their spacewalk journey, accidentally commander Cassidy lost control of the mirror attached to his spacesuit.

The mirror flew away with a speed of one foot per second. According to NASA, luckily dropped mirror posed no risk to either the spacewalk or the station.

Astronauts have to wear wrist mirrors on each sleeve so as to get better views while working. Although the size of mirror is just 5 inches by 3 inches, it is now one among many pieces of junk orbiting the Earth.

Astronauts were on the first of at least four spacewalks for replacing the last bunch of old station batteries

According to NASA, installation of six new lithium-ion batteries will keep the orbiting lab good for the rest of its operational life. The task to replace batteries began in 2017. Previous crews have already installed 18 lithium-ion batteries. Cassidy and Behnken have to install six more of these batteries to complete the job.

However installing these batteries is not a joke. As each of battery is about a yard tall and wide, with a mass of 400 pounds.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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