On 30 November 2000 at 9:06 PM CST (3:06 GMT 1 December), Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, to begin the flight of STS-97.

Docking to ISSy took place at just before 2:00 PM CST (18:00 GMT) on 2 December. The Crew of Endeavour were greeted by the three man Expedition 1 Crew of the space station, delighted to have their first visitors. The STS-97 crew was welcomed aboard by Station Commander Bill Shepherd ringing ISSy's bell in naval tradition.

This flight was critical to the assembly of the International Space Station. The mission, designated ISS 4A, saw installation of the new Solar Power Array, longest (240 ft - 73 m) man-made structure structure in space to date. This new photo-voltaic array, the first of a projected eight sets, was perched atop the new P-6 Integrated Truss Structure. The P-6 truss was attached to the central Z-1 Truss brought up in October 2000 by STS-92. This first solar array is planned to be moved to the P-5 Integrated Truss Structure when it is delivered on a future construction flight. Also part of the cargo of STS-97 were a number of new batteries for storage of the electric power generated by the array.

Three EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) were carried out, by Astronauts Joseph Tanner (pictured right) and Carlos Noriega, to accomplish this task. The solar array being the highest point expected on ISSy, the two men also placed the traditional "evergreen tree" (pictured right) at the apex, just as is done when constructing a skyscraper on Earth. Total time for the three EVAs of STS-97 was a little over 19 hours.

After a flawless performance of all mission objectives, STS-97 undocked from ISSy at 1:13 PM (19:13 GMT) on 9 December. The Shuttle flew solo for the next two days, and landed safely back at Kennedy Space Center Runway 15, at 5:04 PM CST (23:04 GMT) 11 December 2000. Total duration: 10 days 19 hours 58 minutes.

On 10 December at approximately 3:32 AM CST (9:32 GMT), the day before Endeavour returned home, one of the payload bay cameras was giving us views of Earth. The pictures were relayed to NASA Select TV via the TDRS System. They were in the annoying S-Band "slide show" format, or as NASA refers to them, SSV (Sequential Still Video).

In one frame only, there was an orange orb shaped object visible near the limb of the distant Earth. It came out much whiter in the frames below, but that's just a characteristic of video capture.

The fact that this object came and went in the 20-25 seconds it takes to refresh the S-Band frames proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is NOT astronomical. Things such as the Moon take much longer to pass out of view, even at the 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h) velocity of the Shuttle. What this object actually is, I don't know.

The anomaly is seen within the circle. The location is over the South Atlantic Ocean between South America and Africa. The time is mid-morning on the surface. The Sun is 180° away in the opposite direction from this view.

This is a 250% blowup of the relavant portion of the frame seen above. Please note that the object now has a "flattened" appearance, and a sort of "cloudiness" associated with it. These are not the usual characteristics of ice or debris from Shuttles.

Next we have the animated GIF to show how the object came and went so suddenly.

Now you can see just how fast this thing was. It didn't hang around at all. What it was I cannot say. I can only tell you it wasn't astronomical, and not very likely to be an ice flake or debris. This was Flight Day 10, and by this time on a Shuttle flight, most if not all ice and debris have already left the ship.

The appearance of this object is eerily reminiscient of an event from just about two months later. This was the STS-98 incident I call "An Object At The Edge of Space", from February 2001.

© 2005 Heavens-Above

We have here a whole-sky chart obtained from Heavens-Above.com, for Buenos Aires Argentina, at roughly the same hour as the event. We have to allow for the fact that Endeavour was many hundreds of miles to the east when the object was seen. Problem is, there are no fixed points in the South Atlantic Ocean for which to extract a chart at the exact time on the ground.

There was no Moon in the sky at the time of the event, and Venus was on the extreme eastern horizon. The payload bay camera was pointed in the direction of Antarctica at the time the anomaly made its appearance. As the chart shows, there was nothing in that quadrant of the sky bright enough to show up in daylight. Therefore, I believe it's safe to assume that the object was not a celestial body. I personally conclude that it was an anomaly.

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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.

© 2005 Jeff Challender