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 theyre just tying to figure out exactly what it is, how far away it is, NASA spokesperson Kimberly Harle told SPACE.com. Its 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 NASAs 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.
Hope not. Certainly plausible.
Thx
Hmmmm.
Headed home in 15-20
Show it to some illegals and see if they think it's the Virgin Mary.
283 posts and no "Bush's fault"
That's because the President's opinion polls are up from 39% to 44%! :0)
Can't give Bush any credit for his polls going up...it's not his fault!
Yahooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
That looks like a close-up of a woman in a sweater.
It is a digital photo of the TV screen. The vertical lines alway show up when you you take a picture of the TV with a mid to low grade digital camera. Someone wanted to know what we were seeing when the story broke today. I wanted them to see how tiny it was on the TV screen.
Yall ever decide how big this thing is supposed to be?
Whatever it is, it cost more than $1 million, I guarantee.
What do you mean?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.