Not all space junk comes from discarded rocket stages and defunct satellites. In some cases, the objects fell from astronauts' own hands. According to NASA's official Gemini X mission page, astronaut Michael Collins lost his camera when conducting an extravehicular activity in July 1966. Then the experiment he had gone outside to retrieve slipped away from him again on his way back inside the spacecraft. This is a small but memorable detail from one of NASA's more ambitious Gemini missions. However, it says a lot about the state of spacewalk technology in 1966. Astronauts did not move around freely like they do today. They had to learn as they went.
What actually happened on Collins' spacewalk
Gemini X took off into space on July 18, 1966, with John Young as command pilot and Michael Collins as pilot. On the second day of the mission, NASA planned a first: to fly to the dead Agena target vehicle left from Gemini VIII and have Collins go outside to remove a micrometeorite experiment device installed on it. Young brought Gemini X near the satellite, and Collins pushed himself and reached it. That proved difficult. According to NASA, there were no handholds on Agena for an astronaut; he was held only by his tether and kept drifting away from the spacecraft, so he had to use his maneuvering thruster to return and continue his work. Collins managed to unscrew the package, but somehow he lost his camera. Moreover, according to NASA's account of the mission, as Collins made his way back through the hatch with the experiment, it came loose and drifted back out into space before the hatch was sealed.
