always wondered why space walk is used, doesnt walking infer vertical to the plain of gravity... anyway even space-swim would be wrong but it seems more obvious. I suppose more accuratly would be space float, or space climb, ahh sod it I'll just stick to EVA.

It's not really a space float either - it's a space fall, but miss earth.

Well, until you're not in orbit round the earth, then it's still a space fall, just not necessarily missing the earth.

EVA is the most accurate, until the ISS is so large that they can EVA while being enclosed by other bits of the vehicle ;)

Oh for goodness sake!

Either wrap some newspaper around a magnet and use it to pull out the iron filings or simply blow them out with a can of "spray air".

*How* much training do these so-called egineers get before lift-off? Is it *all* p*ssing about in the vomit comet and poncing around underwater in space suits, or do they do any actual real-problem stuff?

All this faffing about wouldn't have been tolerated in my day.

Harrumph etc.

They used sticky tape to remove some metal filings.

Mines the one with the Blue Peter badge.

The engineers are on the ground. The *nauts are only trained to do the physical labor and make very few judgment calls "in the field". If anything happens out of spec, they wait for instructions from the ground. There was a lengthy discussion about "3 droplets of brown liquid" (or something like that) when they replaced the pump on the toilet last week.