NASA signaled the beginning of a much safer era of space travel, Wednesday, emailing the design of a socket wrench to astronauts so they could print it out in orbit.

The immediate implication for NASA and passengers on its risky ride is that, properly trained and equipped, the crew of a space flight should now be able to repair most things even if there’s no replacement for the part that broke, or if the repair itself requires a special tool no one thought to bring along.

It was not a spontaneous socket wrench, however. And it was not the first tool to be printed on the International Space Station (ISS).

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