Moon Pigeons

What's one of the last things you want to hear about the International Space Station?

Such debris may include fragments of insulation, labels and possibly important components.

IMPORTANT COMPONENTS?!!? WHAT KIND OF IMPORTANT COMPONENTS???

Can you imagine what it must feel like to be sitting there in the space station -- IN SPACE -- and watching parts of it drift away:

Insulation... Insulation... Label... Insulation... Oops, important component!

On the lighter side, the name that NASA folks have come up with for such debris (dates back to at least 1970) is pretty cool: Moon Pigeons. Sounds like a name for an alt.country band. Hmmm. Johnny and the Moon Pigeons...

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For the full article from msnbc (including a link to a "Moon Pigeon" document ca. 1970) see here.