STS-88

The Flashing Object

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The flight of STS-88 began with the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour from Launch Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, at 3:35 AM EST (8:35 GMT), 4 December 1998. This was the last Space Shuttle flight of the year, and the first on orbit ISS assembly mission ( ISS Flight 2A ). The job of the CREW included the complicated task of mating the Russian built Zarya Module ( FGB ) with the American built Unity Node. Unity was equipped with two PMAs (Pressurized Mating Adaptor), whose purpose is to allow modules to connect with each other, and to facilitate the docking of Space Shuttles.

The mission was successfully carried out with no major problems. Endeavour landed safely back at Kennedy Space Center, runway 33, on 15 December 1998 at 10:53 PM EST (3:53 16 December GMT). Total mission duration 11 days 19 hours 18 minutes.

Mission Specialists Jerry Ross, and Jim Newman, performed three EVAs ( Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk ) to connect the many electrical and communications cables between the two new modules. Ross (right) works on cabling between the modules.
( NASA PHOTO )
Zarya has been delicately captured by Endeavour's robotic arm, and is being hoisted into position for mating with the Unity Node. A "Fisheye" lens causes some bending and distortion of the image.
 
Mission accomplished! The modules are mated and the International Space Station is ready for its first visitors. The Canadarm returns to its cradle in the payload bay.
   
Astronauts Jim Newman and Jerry Ross hard at work in the depths of space.
   

During the actual mating of the two modules, something appeared which may, or may not be, an anomaly. When the docking rings of the station segments were within inches of each other, Mission Control decided to put a hold on activities for a few minutes in order to wait for the Sun to rise and improve lighting conditions for the robotic arm operator.
 

This is the scene at the opening of the event. This view is from a black & white camera mounted on the Zarya Module. This camera was in use during the STS-106 docking indicent as well. Very swiftly, the downlink feed was switched over to the payload bay camera aboard Endeavour.

The various components in the field of view are labeled for your convenience.
   
As can be seen above, the two modules are less than one meter apart at this point. This is where ground controllers called for a hold on the operation to await the Sun. It's still night time on the surface of Earth, and we can see that there is an anomalous dot in the circle.
   
It's now approximately one minute after the first frame we inspected. The anomaly has moved, and the surface below is in sunrise. Immediately after this frame the television view changed to a scene with images from both the US and Russian cameras in separate frames. At that point, the object was lost to sight.
   
The arrows in this still frame show the approximate position of Shuttle Endeavour, and the apparent trajectory of the flashing object. Due to the fact that the object came from such an angle, one could surmise that it might not be an ice flake, or bit of debris, originating from the spacecraft itself.
   
This view is what NASA TV switched us to following the appearance of the anomaly.
   
When the TV view was changed back to an exclusive scene from the payload bay camera aboard Endeavour, the object was gone, and the Earth below was in full daylight.
   

 

This animated GIF is provided to allow you to see the full event, time compressed from two minutes down to a few seconds. As can be seen, there was a lot of "jumping around" on the part of the INCO during the event. He switced camera views several times in the short span of only two minutes. Was he trying to hide something from us?

The anomaly seems to move in a "herky-jerky" fashion because there was a shortage of individual frames in which it was visible. It flashed more or less randomly, and was not visible at all most of the time. What it is, I cannot tell you.

***

At all times during this incident, the cameras aboard ISS, and Shuttle were under the direct remote control of operators in Houston (INCO) and Moscow (TsUP).

At all times during this incident, the camera was under the control of the INCO in Houston Mission Control.

(INCO - INstrument & Communication Officer - The man in Houston Mission Control Center who is responsible for operating the Shuttle payload bay, and robotic arm, cameras. In the case of ISS, this officer is referred to as the CATO - Communications And Tracking Officer. In both cases, these persons CONTROL everything which is PERMITTED to go out on broadcast to the public. It is a commonly believed falacy that the cameras are operated by Astronauts & Cosmonauts on the Shuttles, and Space Station. Very little camera work is done by the crews. They're way too busy for that.)

 

At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to draw your own conclusions.

 

© 2005 Jeff Challender