During yesterday’s repair session, the astronauts had a bit of trouble with their activity. Astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper lost her grip on the tool bag used to clean the space station’s damaged rotary joint.

While working on the cranky joint, she noticed that one of the two grease guns exploded, covering her gloves and her camera with the substance. She began cleaning and for a few seconds lost track of the tool bag which began floating away and reached the back of the station. Aside from the two grease guns, inside the bag were some scrapers, wipes, bearing assemblies and other pieces of equipment.

Fellow spacewalker Stephen Bowen assisted Stefanyshyn-Piper with his set of tools and they managed to complete the assigned tasks after a period of about seven hours.

These floating tools represent a great concern for NASA and the Air Force, as they represent a collision threat for the shuttles, the space station and the satellites.

At this point it is not clear whether the mishap will have a significant impact on the other three spacewalks scheduled for the days to come. The tasks are focused on fixing one of the two joints that rotate the space station's giant solar wings, which has been acting up and for the past few months limited the device’s ability to track the sun and generate power at its maximum ability. The two astronauts have to clean off the metal debris by using terry-cloth mitts and also lubricate all the pieces with a special grease designed to handle the extreme temperatures of space.

So far, they managed to replace the first two of the 11 sets of bearing assemblies and even though the tool bag was lost, the spacewalk was considered a success. "We were running well ahead of time going into the beginning of the SARJ (solar alpha rotary joint) work," said spacewalk officer John Ray.

"In spite of our little hiccup there -- or major hiccup -- I think we did a good job out there," Stefanyshyn-Piper said.

"Houston concurs," flight communicator Mark Vande Hei said from the Johnson Space Center. "You all were champs. You rolled with the punches, and made it all happen ahead of the timeline."

The tasks will continue tomorrow, with the astronauts looking to lubricate the station’s left rotary joint, which even though works fine, must be looked at prevent future damage.

"We've got spares of everything we can replace for the other EVAs except for the grease guns. But we've got some options we're looking into and some folks are working on that right now," explained Mr. Ray.

NASA’s plans for next year include the transport of a new gear ring, which will replace the damaged one. The installation process will demand at least 10 more spacewalks and the preparations have already begun.

The space station is now equipped with a new water recycling gear, a new toilet and also crew sleep stations, ensuring an environment which from now on will be able to house up to six astronauts.