Astronauts Make Space Station Fix With ... Toothbrush

Astronauts, NASA have to make improvised tool
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 5, 2012 3:58 PM CDT
Astronauts Make Space Station Fix With ... Toothbrush
Astronauts Sunita Williams and Aki Hoshide (out of frame) on a spacewalk last week.   (AP Photo/NASA)

Astronauts pulled a MacGyver in space today when they fixed the $100 billion space station with the help of a $3 toothbrush. An electrical power unit affixed to the station needed replacing, but a stubborn bolt was malfunctioning. NASA engineers and astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihido Hoshide ultimately solved the obstacle by attaching a toothbrush to a metal pole and cleaning out the socket of the sticky bolt, reports ABC News.

"Looks like you guys just fixed the station," astronaut Jack Fischer said from Mission Control in Houston, according to Space.com. "It's been like living on the set of Apollo 13 the past few days," he said, referring to the improvising of tools required to salvage that mission. "NASA does impossible pretty darn well, so congratulations to the whole team." (More outer space stories.)

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