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.
Could it be a UFO???
I know! It's so annoying...
Having worked two "station" assembly flights as a launch package engineer, its hard not to enjoy talking shop with people who are so interested in the program, yet I guess I can't poke a little fun at the process...
I know two crewmembers who joined, and post occasionally, on FR years ago...One of them flew on the RTF mission...And the other was an increment crewmember on the station when the Columbia went down...
But in all candor, I stand by my Jimmy Hoffa comment...;-)
And they would most likely agree with me...
It's Kucinich's house!
That's a great guess, especially if they changed the attitude to do the hydraulic tests. Sunlight on a different part of the Shuttle would cause the structure to bend differently.
"That's no small chunk of space debris!"
That would be eight unexplained events. Could be a Taliban in there trying to light his shoe.
Makes me less nervous, actually. As RW suggested above, it's more indicative of thermal effects than of impact (you'd only expect one of those). The Shuttle bends A LOT due to thermal effects -- cold on one side, hot on the other.
If they changed the Shuttle attitude to do the tests, different places would become hot from the sunlight, and a change in the bending profile might very well occur. It would almost certainly be accompanied by multiple "ticks" that would be picked up by these sensors. (And I think they're new sensors ... meaning that this could have happened all along, and this is just the first time it was picked up.)
I'm just thinking of the creaks groans and pops the house makes as the sun moves across the sky. One of these days the gor-tex panels will give a final squeek and pop right off and lay in the driveway.
Exactly.
XENU looking for Tom Cruise.
Tool box?
The hidden Imam
Elvis
175 posts and no Marvin!
I thought that at first as well, until I saw a video clip of the object from a ground station as it passed over a cloudless area. not sure where the clip came from, but it showed the station, the shuttle, and a shiny object that was pulsing as it caught the light. It appeared to be large enough to do so, and was, I would surmise, probably the size of 1/2 sheet of plywood to do this as it related to the size of the shuttle. There was no explanation of the clip, but it was related to this problem.
The size aspect aside, the debris must have come from the shuttle to be close and at the same speed.
Some new info reported, they think the sensors picked up hydraulic noise and vibrations or the thruster pops, but they are not sure which. They don't think it was a debris strike as earlier reported on ABC.
Also, I am not hearing anything that verifies the size of the object. I don't know if I saw something that they did not, or if they just have not yet put everything together.
The object to me, appeared large and I trust my ability to judge spatial relationships on these 2-D pics. I'm thinking it is a reflective blanket section. These are pretty big, about 3x5 in some places.
I am still pretty worried about this, although NASA is not panicking. The crew is in sleep mode and there will be little more for the next 8 hours.
Watching NASA vid feed now for press confrence.
They can't tell how large it is.
seems to be pacing the shuttle.
I'm guessing it is debris off the shuttle.
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