Pierre Thuot, former Space Shuttle astronaut pulls out an Allen Wrench that he discovered floating near the Shuttle during a spacewalk, which he believes had been accidentally left behind by a maintenance worker on the ground.
Thuot says these debris episodes are business-as-usual. He says a problem could occur if the object were orbiting in a different direction from the that of the Shuttle the physics of getting hit by something traveling at 35,000 mph could cause serious problems.
Meanwhile, the official statement of NASA Space Shuttle Program Manager, Wayne Hale was: “…over the years, we have chased many, many, many of these things, maybe not with the visibility that this one has gotten and rarely, if ever have been able to pinpoint exactly where they came from and always finding that it didn’t pose us any hazard.”
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