Thursday, November 20, 2008

Tool Bag Floats Away During Spacewalk

CAPE CANAVERAL -- The astronaut who lost her tool bag on a spacewalk admitted Wednesday that she made a mistake by not checking to see if the sack was tied down, and said she's still smarting over the whole thing.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper said in an interview with the Associated Press that it was "very disheartening" to lose her bag full of tools. She was trying to clean up grease that had oozed out of a grease gun in the backpack-size bag, when the tote and everything in it floated away Tuesday.

The bag was one of the largest items ever lost by a spacewalking astronaut.

For a second, she thought she might be able to grab it and she tried to judge how far away it was. Just as quickly, "I thought, no, that would probably just make things worse and the best thing to do would be to just let it go."

She noted that there were three more spacewalks and promised not to let the mistake happen again. The next spacewalk is Thursday.

No Sign Woman Was Tortured

NEW YORK -- A prosecutor says the U.S. government has found no evidence that a Pakistani woman accused of trying to kill a U.S. soldier and FBI agents was abducted or tortured in the five years before her arrest. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Raskin said U.S. agencies had searched for evidence to support reports that Aafia Siddiqui was detained in 2003 but had found none. He spoke at a hearing to discuss a psychologist's conclusion that Siddiqui is mentally unfit for trial.

-- From News Services