Posted on 09/19/2006 8:53:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA mission controllers are tracking a mystery object hovering between the space shuttle Atlantis and Earth, and traveling at roughly the same speed as the orbiter, agency officials said Tuesday.
“Right now they’re just tying to figure out exactly what it is, how far away it is,” NASA spokesperson Kimberly Harle told SPACE.com. “It’s pretty much assessing the whole situation.”
arle said that at 2:45 a.m. EDT (0645 GMT), just after Atlantis completed a check of its reaction control thrusters, the instrumentation and communications officer at NASA’s shuttle Mission Control room at Johnson Space Center noted an object between the orbiter and Earth, and traveling at about the same speed of the spacecraft.
Flight controllers are now using video cameras mounted along Atlantis’ robotic arm and payload bay to survey visible areas of the orbiter, including its wing leading edges and other vital heat shield areas, Harle said.
“Everything is still under assessment,” Harle said.
For now, Atlantis’ STS-115 shuttle crew will not stow their Ku-band antenna – the primary video and data link to Earth – to allow flight controllers to continue to study the object.
NASA is broadcasting Atlantis’ STS-115 mission to the ISS live via NASA TV. You are invited to follow the shuttle's progress using SPACE.com's NASA TV feed, which is available by clicking here or using the button at the left.
Any word on how big this thing is?
Most fascinating information, thank you!
On one of the SLS missions they took a gaggle of jellyfish up there, and could have flushed a few that mis-behaved...
Oh great.
We'll soon find out...That arm extension was made to look over that area as thoroughly as possible...
Drudge just put that up??? I was just over there and he didn't say squat to me! How rude!
"Where's the Ka-Boom?"
With all the imaging technology we have these days, why are pics of "UFOs" still unresolvable points?
That looks like a diaper.
Has someone up there lost their Depends?
Am at the college. No info outside FR ATT.
Please ping me if you find out anything.
Was surprised at the publicity. Sounds like there was some speculation it was possibly from the Shuttle. This was before I left the house.
PIGS IN SPACE
Odd to me how from a distance it looked black against the earth but a zoom-in showed it to be translucent. Curious.
Why all the NASA publicity.
Why all the concern. Seems odd given all the past secrecy etc.
BTW, Kevin, this photo you use is virtually identical to the UFO that Jocko Manning and I saw through our binoculars a week or 3 ago. The only difference is that we couldn't distinguish what your photo shows in the center. Was too far away. And, the lights seemed to take up a larger proportion of the corners/craft.
Ouch. Could be hugh and series.
Oh, crap.
Get these guys back to the ISS, and assess the damage from there.
We all know how the re-entry of a damaged shuttle will probably go.
Why all the NASA publicity.
Why all the concern. Seems odd given all the past secrecy etc.
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A good way to get attention for "DISCLOSURE..."?
Conceivable but I don't think so in this case.
What have you noticed about the recent--last 6-9 months-- of programs etc. re UFO's? What changes; differences from before?
Heading off to an in-service mtg.Thx
Very interesting!!
See #256.
I'll bet that this thing came off of the shuttle, since Las Vegas Dave recently indicated that the shuttle was struck by something.
NASA is probably prepping us for some really bad news.
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