Astronautics Question:

Astronauts try not to lose anything, including tools because they float off into orbit. Later you might be going along in orbit and that tool could smash into the shuttle. Fortunately something like that would not stay in orbit forever. The shuttle is only a few hundred miles up. There is a very small amount of atmosphere up there, just enough to gradually slow space junk down so that it eventually falls into the atmosphere and burns up.