NASA Spacewalk Sparks Joy in Marie Kondo as Astronauts Declutter Space Station

NASA literally took Marie Kondo's "tidying" concept out of this world — and the decluttering guru herself is paying attention.

Kondo, who is famous for asking people only to keep those things that "spark joy", apparently served as an inspiration for a recent cleanup on the International Space Station of unneeded equipment.

"Did this debris shield spark joy? Sometimes you need to let go of what no longer serves you!," NASA said in an Instagram post Thursday (Nov. 21).  

Related: Astronauts Perform Spacewalk Surgery to Repair Cosmic Ray Detector

Kondo herself replied to the out-of-this world tidying spree. 

"I haven't tried outer space, but am up to the challenge," she said in an Instagram reply. (You can follow Kondo on Instagram here.) 

There's no word yet on whether the bestselling author and Netflix star, whose net worth is in the millions, will purchase a space tourism ticket to try the idea out for herself.

NASA spacewalkers tidying up the space station sparked this joyful message from famed clutter cleanup specialist Marie Kondo on Instagram. (Image credit: NASA/Instagram)

NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Luca Parmitano, an astronaut from the European Space Agency, needed to remove this debris shield during a Nov. 15 spacewalk to repair an ailing dark matter probe, called the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). 

"It was too big to take inside, so the best option was to jettison it behind @iss, where it will disintegrate in the upper atmosphere," NASA added on Instagram, showing a video of Morgan gently pushing away the debris shield on Nov. 15 before taking a picture. Behind the shield is the Earth in full sunlight, and you can also see a portion of the Canadarm2 robotic arm anchoring Morgan in place during his garbage removal duty.

Fixing AMS is such a big job that astronaut teams will need five spacewalks to finish the work, according to current NASA estimates  — the latest was on Friday (Nov. 22).

This series of extra-vehicular activities is the most difficult NASA undertook since 2009, the agency has said, referring to another spacewalk series servicing the Hubble Space Telescope for the last time that year. Unlike Hubble, AMS wasn't even designed to be repaired by spacewalkers, requiring NASA to come up with special tools and procedures for an in-orbit fixup.

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Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com for 10 years before joining full-time. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, flying parabolic, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and a Bachelor of History from Canada's Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science at several institutions since 2015; her experience includes developing and teaching an astronomy course at Canada's Algonquin College (with Indigenous content as well) to more than 1,000 students since 2020. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace