That strange object floating outside the shuttle should be no stranger to we "do-it-yourselfers" (DIY) who have ever assembled a bicycle or repaired a toaster. There are always parts left over! This shuttle mission to the International Space Station is nothing more than a huge DIY job, by a bunch of amateur hobbyists. None of them are professional repairmen. They're astronauts. If you're going to build something, hire trained professionals. Or at least, hire someone who's had lots of experience assembling stuff in orbit, like former astronaut Jeff Hoffman, who repaired the Hubble.

Remembe those lost washers? That should have been a clue to anyone who knows the working end of a box wrench that something was going to go wrong on this mission. We're working with parts. Lots of them. And they get lost. Except... on the space station, when you drop a washer into the gadget, you can't turn it upside down, shake it, and watch where it rolls on the garage floor. Been there, done that.

Now for that floating plastic baggie... NASA says that "it came from somewhere and got loose." Well...let's not even go there!