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.
SPECTRE
Algore
John Kerry.....
One of the missing "BOLTS"?
Monolith.
No it's Teddy the blimp
I'm sorry Dave. (i hate that movie!)
They showed some video on Fox News. Very odd, traveling at about the same speed too? I'm surprised our military doesn't know what it is.
Didn't someone drop some equipment a few days ago up there?
I mean it would probably still going the same speed as the shuttle. But I don't know how big that piece of equipments was. Could have been a bolt or washer or something.
They have no idea. FNC played the video
Rosie O'Donnell
From the video they showed, it appeared much bigger than a bolt or washer.
Gas cap.
Yeah I saw the video, strange indeed
Jimmy Hoffa...
Not one of the missing pieces of hardware. This likely came off the Shuttle. Now news says it hit the Shuttle.
I haven't seen the video. Could you describe what you saw?
Louis Farrakhan's mothership.
Romulans testing a new weapon.
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