The astronauts lost detail from the ISS during a space walk

March 30, NASA astronauts Shane Kimbro and Peggy Whitson left the International space station and went on a seven-hour walk through the space. The pair had to install four heat shield to the module "Tranquility" to protect the docking station.

Unfortunately, one screen during a space walk lost. The object did not represent an immediate danger to the astronauts, and they continued to be installed on the host other screens. Lost screen was in orbit at some distance from the front of the station. It can be seen from Earth with the help of good binoculars.

On the evening of 3 April Marco Langbroek from Leiden in the Netherlands took a picture of the screen that flew through the night sky. The excellent images he did, the screen appears very dim thin strip (left). A minute later, followed by the ISS — thick strip (right).

Screen size is 1.5 to 0.6 meters. It is expected that he will be displaced from the orbit and burn up in the atmosphere for several months. "The object is a very low risk. Occasional loss like this was expected, given the complexity and difficulties in working during a space walk," says Holger Craig, head of space debris the European space Agency. He says that the incident drew attention to the current situation with space debris. "In orbit about 750 thousands of junk objects from 1 to 10 cm, and any of them can damage or destroy a working satellite," said Craig.

Translated by «Yandex.Translator»