Space Shuttle Discovery rocketed from Launch Pad 39A, Kennedy Space Center, on 11 October 2000, at 6:17 PM CDT (23:17 GMT) to begin her mission to rendezvous and dock with ISS. STS-92 spent the next 42+ hours "chasing" ISSy (International Space Station), with docking taking place on 13 October at 12:45 PM CDT (17:45 GMT). The CREW boarded an as yet uninhabited space station to begin seven days of work preparing the craft for the Expedition One Crew, expected at the beginning of November 2000.

The main mission of STS-92 (ISS Assembly Flight 3A) was to deliver and install the primary Cargo which consisted of the Z-1 Truss and PMA-3 (Pressurized Mating Adaptor 3). The Z-1 Truss is of critical importance to ISSy, in that it houses the four control moment gyros, and will mount the main solar arrays. PMA-3 adds another docking port to ISS for visiting Space Shuttles. The Z-1 Truss was positioned on ISSy using Discovery's Canadarm prior to the Astronauts venturing out to complete the final connections.

Four EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) were carried out from the Shuttle airlock by Astronauts Bill McArthur, Leroy Chiao, Jeff Wisoff, and Michael Lopez-Algeria. EVA-1 saw work done with connections and modifications to the Z-1 Truss. EVA-2 was mainly concerned with installing PMA-3 with the help of the Canadarm. Some more work with the Z-1 Truss was also completed. EVA-3 included further work toward completion of the Z-1 installation. EVA-4, the last of them, finished the job of outfitting and setting up the Truss. Total time on EVA was 20 hours 7 minutes.

After a very successful week working on ISSy, the STS-92 crew bid their temporary home goodbye, and undocked on 20 October at 10:08 AM CDT (15:08 GMT). Four days later, Discovery landed safely on 24 October 2000, at 4:01 PM CDT (21:01 GMT). The landing took place at Edwards Air Force Base (NASA's Dryden Research) in the California desert, due to high and dangerous winds at the KSC landing facility. Total flight duration: 12 days 21 hours 43 minutes.

Due to what NASA claimed were "technical difficulties", normally seen Ku-Band full motion TV downlink was "lost" around seven hours into the mission. There were a very few brief bits of television, relayed to NASA Select TV by ground stations. For most of the flight, we were only allowed those annoying S-Band "slide shows", or as NASA refers to them, SSV (Sequential Still Video). With SSV, the frames refresh about every 25 to 30 seconds.

The night of 20 October 2000 was an interesting one. The Crew were asleep during the events which took place outside the Shuttle. They were blissfully unaware that outside, perhaps something else was with them in the vastness of space. The events in question happened on a southeasterly pass over the Pacific Ocean west of Washington State, and high over the Central American country of Honduras. The time was just 1:28 AM CDT (6:28 GMT) in Washington. It was deep in the middle of night, and the Sun plays no part in this drama.

We will first examine an orb-like anomaly seen by the payload bay camera, for just a few moments, west of Washington State above the ocean. Then we'll look at a very strange oddity encountered over Honduras just 14 mintutes later. This writer cannot tell you what these objects might be, but they were there, and not anything normally encountered in space. The S-Band still photos, arranged below in the form of animated GIFs, are presented in the exact order as received from NASA Select Television, broadcast "live" from the payload bay video camera via TDRSS, White Sands N.M., and Houston.

This is a 5 frame animated GIF including those frames allowed the public by NASA. We can see something bright peeking out from behind the solar panel, and travelling a small distance to the left, before it disappears.

Oh darn! Someone must have noticed the object, and realized that it was going out to the public. Quick, turn the camera off!!! Oh oh, too late. We already saw it

Remember that this is still S-Band, and the scene only refreshes every 20-30 seconds. One's first thought would be that this is only the Moon. The fact is, the Moon was very close to the horizon at the time, and the camera was not pointed so low. So this is not the Moon. What it is, I cannot say. There is no light source available, as this incident took place in the deep of night. So the anomaly may be self luminous.

© 2005 MoonCalc

The whole sky chart above is for Seattle Washington, 11:28 PM PDT 19 October 2000 (The exact local time of the event). It gives a pretty accurate account of what was in the sky at the time of the incident. The Moon is just rising on the eastern horizon, and was far too low to account for the object. The only other fairly bright objects in the sky at the time were Jupiter and Saturn. These are very unlikely explanations for the orb-like object picked up by the payload bay camera. There are three main objections to the anomaly being one of the two planets.

One: These planets are too far away across the Solar System to present an orb shape without extreme magnification.

Two: Jupiter and Saturn can be seen in the chart to be at or near zenith.The Shuttle camera was not pointing straight UP at the time of the event.

Three: If one of these planets was the object seen in the payload bay camera, WHY did the INCO rush to cut off the signal from the public?

This is the last frame of the Washington sequence. We now move on to...

The camera has been activated now. As we can see, the view is looking in the same direction as in the Washington sequence just fourteen minutes previous. However, the view has been "zoomed" in closer in on the solar panel.

Because the INCO cut us off so fast in this sequence, there are only 3 frames in this and the enhanced GIFs to come.

Please note that to lower left corner of the picture is a cluster of lights. It is deep in the night, and there is no source of light from the Sun, or the onboard floodlights. We can tell the onboard floodlights are deactivated due to the fact that the solar panel in the view is also dark. Anything seen in space in this picture would have to be self luminous.

In the second frame, a very bright object has appeared next to the solar panel. It is very strange in appearance. What this might be is unknown. Remember, the camera is pointed into deep space, and it's not sensitive enough for astronomical pictures of distant galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters. The object then vanished, and we were left with a simple view of the solar panel in the night.

The camera was turned off again after only a few moments. One can guess that there were just too many uncomfortable things going on for NASA's pleasure. Note that there is another object to the left of the solar panel, after the very bright one. This one is either dimmer, or further away.

This is a 350% blow-up of the mystery object which emerged from behind the solar panel. Some pixilation has set in, but we do get a better idea as to the shape of this thing.

Since the camera was pointed into deep space, this thing is very difficult to explain...

All things considered, the night of 20 October 2000 was a strange one indeed. Due to the fact that the objects observed during these two events, so close together remain unexplained, I must classify them as unknown.

***

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. He also remotely operates the helmet cameras in space suits. 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.

© 2006 Jeff Challender