Space Station Saved By a Toothbrush? - East Idaho News
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Space Station Saved By a Toothbrush?

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Getty 090512 ToothbrushOuterSpace?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1346869738492iStockphoto/Thinkstock(HOUSTON) — A $100 billion space station saved by a simple $3 toothbrush? It was the brainstorm of astronauts Sunita Williams and Akihido Hoshide and NASA engineers on the ground to use the toothbrush as a tool to clean a bolt that gave them so much trouble during a marathon 8-hour spacewalk last week.

They were trying to replace an electrical switching unit, but on Thursday they couldn’t bolt it to the outside of the station.

What to do if there is no hardware store in the neighborhood and the next supply ship is months away? Build it yourself — so they attached a simple toothbrush to a metal pole and voila! They were able to clean out the bolt’s socket and finish the job.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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