THE first bagpipes to be played in space are to join other “space junk” in 17,500mph orbit.
The Scots-made pipes, on which astronaut Kjell Lindgren played Amazing Grace, will be jettisoned from the international space station because its capacity is limited.
Lindgren, 42, played in tribute to his scientist and instructor colleague Victor Hurst, who died last month aged 48.
He had ordered the £450 plastic pipes from McCallum’s of Kilmarnock in the hope of performing in orbit.
Kenny Macleod, of McCallum’s, said: “Kjell asked for the lightest pipes that could be packed away into the smallest space.
“And he said at the outset said there was a fair chance that the pipes would be ejected because of the issues involved in space and storage.
“They’ll probably just put them into space.
“Who knows, 100 years from now, someone might find them. I’d be confident they would play OK.
Like all space debris over 5cm in size, the pipes will be monitored by NASA. The agency said: “There are more than 20,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth.
“They travel at up to 17,500mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft.
“There are 500,000 pieces of debris the size of a marble or larger.”