Astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper, who took part in the first of the mission's four planned spacewalks, had just started working on a jammed joint on a solar panel of the International Space Station (ISS) when the accident occured.

NASA Television transmitted live images showing the tool bag, with all the tools inside, slipping away, after Stefanyshyn-Piper removed grease that had leaked out of a grease gun onto the bag's contents.

"Oh, great!" she exclaimed.

Mission Control at the Johnson Space Center in Houston however said the mission to work on the ISS's solar antenna rotation system would continue.

Stefanyshyn-Piper borrowed tools from her companion spacewalker Steve Bowen, who carried the same contents in his bag, and she resumed work on the rotation system ball bearings around 2033 GMT Tuesday.

Apart from the lost bag mishap, the spacewalk took place as planned.

NASA tracks objects lost close to the ISS and the space shuttle because they can be harmful if they later collide with spaceships.

The two spacewalkers emerged from the ISS decompression chamber at 1809 GMT, approximately forty minutes ahead of schedule for the spacewalk, which is scheduled to last 6.5 hours.

Both astronauts also detached an empty nitrogen tank on the ISS in order to place it in the docked shuttle for return to Earth.

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