Spacewalker Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, arranging tools and work bags before beginning work to clean and lubricate a space station solar array rotary joint, lost a tool kit overboard and along with it two grease guns, a scraper, a debris container and a large trash bag.

When the tool kit floated away, she was struggling to clean up grease inside the bag that somehow leaked out. Flight controllers told her to use tools in fellow spacewalker Steve Bowen's toolkit to replace those that were lost. They may slow the astronauts down a bit - they will be working on opposite sides of the 10-foot-wide solar array drive gear - but they presumably can still accomplish their major objectives.

"I think we had a grease gun explode in the large bag," she reported around 3:33 p.m. "Because there's grease in the bag."

"Ah, it must have been the pressure changes," Bowen observed.

"OK, copy that," Robert "Shane" Kimbrough called from inside the shuttle-station complex. "We're looking at your WVS (helmet television camera) now."

"Yeah, it's on the (still) camera, I got a little bit on my glove," Stefanyshyn-Piper said.

"Endeavour, Houston, for EVA. On the big loop," Mark Vande Hei called from mission control. "We monitored about the grease for Heide, getting deployed in the bag. We recommend using a dry wipe to clean up the camera."

"OK, copy. Heide, did you copy that?" Kimbrough asked.

"I'm cleaning my glove first," she said. A few minutes later, she added: "It's kind of all over the inside of the bag. Not sure what it's coming out of. Oh, one of the J-hooks..."

"Maybe we can get it out and temp stow it on the outside or something," Kimbrough said.

"Well... no, it didn't come off of that one," she said. "It might have come off one of the guns on Steve's bag."

A few moments later, she lost the tool bag.

"Oh, great. We have a lost tool, uh, I guess one of my crew (air)lock bags was not transferred and it's loose."

"OK, Heide, crew lock bag?"

"Yeah," she said. "See it?"

"Yeah, we see it," Kimbrough replied. Television shots from the station showed the soft-sided bag floating away against the backdrop of Earth.

"And I'm still cleaning up grease," she said a moment later.

"Endeavour, Houston, on the big loop for EVA," Vande Hei called. "Concerning the crew lock bag that's floating away, could we get a general direction for which direction it's floating away in?"

"It is floating station aft and starboard," Stefanyshyn-Piper reported.

A few minutes later, she reported that "everything else in this bag is tethered."

"OK, good deal. Looks like you're cleaning up everything, that's great, just keep it nice and slow, no big deal," Kimbrough said.

Kimbrough later told Vande Hei the lost crew lock back included "two grease guns, a wipe caddy, the scraper debris container, the scraper and a large trash bag. We think Steve's got all that stuff as well, so Heide can get working with Steve's equipment if you agree with that and then we'll just share when he gets over here."

Stefanyshyn-Piper then began work cleaning the starboard solar alpha rotary joint, removing a trundle bearing assembly to reach the contaminated bearing surfaces.

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VIDEO: NARRATED ANIMATION OF SPACEWALK SWAPOUT PLAY
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VIDEO: PREVIEW ANIMATION OF LEONARDO MODULE ATTACHMENT PLAY
VIDEO: SUMMARY OF CARGO BEING DELIVERED TO SPACE STATION PLAY

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VIDEO: SUNDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
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VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR PERFORMS THE 360-DEGREE BACKFLIP PLAY
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VIDEO: PREVIEW ANIMATION OF RENDEZVOUS AND DOCKING PLAY

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VIDEO: SATURDAY'S MISSION STATUS BRIEFING PLAY
VIDEO: SATURDAY'S MISSION MANAGEMENT TEAM UPDATE PLAY
VIDEO: FLIGHT DIRECTOR'S SUMMARY OF FLIGHT DAY 2 PLAY
VIDEO: PREVIEW ANIMATION OF HEAT SHIELD INSPECTIONS PLAY
VIDEO: NARRATED TOUR OF ENDEAVOUR'S PAYLOAD BAY PLAY

VIDEO: FLIGHT DAY 1 HIGHLIGHTS MOVIE PLAY
VIDEO: SPACE SHUTTLE ENDEAVOUR BLASTS OFF! PLAY
VIDEO: SPACEFLIGHT NOW'S LAUNCH PAD CAMERA PLAY
VIDEO: THE FULL STS-126 LAUNCH EXPERIENCE PLAY
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VIDEO: PILOT ERIC BOE BOARDS ENDEAVOUR PLAY
VIDEO: COMMANDER CHRIS FERGUSON BOARDS ENDEAVOUR PLAY
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VIDEO: ASTRONAUTS DON SPACESUITS FOR LAUNCH PLAY
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VIDEO: NARRATED RECAP OF PAYLOADS' PRE-FLIGHT CAMPAIGN PLAY

VIDEO: PAD 39A SERVICE GANTRY RETRACTED FOR LAUNCH PLAY
VIDEO: THURSDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER UPDATE PLAY
VIDEO: WEDNESDAY'S PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE PLAY
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VIDEO: TUESDAY'S COUNTDOWN STATUS AND WEATHER UPDATE PLAY

VIDEO: STATION ASTRONAUTS PREPARE FOR SHUTTLE ARRIVAL PLAY
VIDEO: ENDEAVOUR'S PAYLOADS READIED FOR TREK TO SPACE PLAY

VIDEO: UPDATE ON SHUTTLE AND STATION PROGRAMS PLAY
VIDEO: STS-126 MISSION OVERVIEW PLAY
VIDEO: PREVIEW BRIEFING ON MISSION'S SPACEWALKS PLAY
VIDEO: THE ASTRONAUTS' PRE-FLIGHT NEWS BRIEFING PLAY

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