STS-98 The Three Lights

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Space Shuttle Atlantis served well during the flight of STS-98 in February 2001. Liftoff from Launch Pad 39A Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral Florida, took place on 7 February 2001 at 5:13 PM CST (23:13 GMT). This marked the first NASA Shuttle flight of the 21st Century (Many think that the century & millenium began on New Year's Day 2000, but this is erroneous. The 20th Century ended at Midnight 31 December 2000).

Atlantis docked to the International Space Station on 9 February, at 10:51 AM CST (16:51 GMT). When the hatches between the spacecraft were opened, the Crew of STS-98 were rung aboard Navy style by Commander Bill Shepherd of ISS Expedition 1.

This was ISS Assembly Mission 5A, and its main task was the intallation of the new US built Destiny Laboratory Module. Three EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) were carried out by Astronauts Robert Curbeam and Thomas D. Jones, who helped install and connect Destiny. They executed a number of other tasks outside the Shuttle/Station Complex as well. The science side of the flight included the on orbit SIMPLEX experiment.

The mission ended on 20 February 2001, with a safe landing on Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base (NASA's Dryden Research Center) in the California desert, at 3:33 PM EST (20:33 GMT). My colleague L.L. Wille had access to the NASA internal engineering channel at the time, and captured photos after the landing which showed that the brakes on the port side main landing gear had failed, with a large hydraulic fluid leak seen in the photo at bottom right. Total duration: 12 days 21 hours 21 minutes.

On Atlantis' second orbit, some three hours after liftoff, she passed directly over my (then) home in Sacramento, California. This was the very first time I video taped a Shuttle pass. It was some six weeks later, during the flight of STS-102, that the real inspiration for Project P.R.O.V.E. came to me.
STS-98 Liftoff
Robert Curbeam
Thomas D. Jones
Destiny Module
Landing
THE EVENTS

On Friday 16 February 2001, Atlantis undocked from Space Station Alpha (ISS). During the subsequent routine fly-around, what appeared to possibly be a structured object composed of three lights was seen in the vicinity of the Space Station. The anomaly appeared in only a few frames of the original video tape, recorded from the "live" NASA Select TV broadcast. The anomaly certainly seemed to be in the form of three lights in a row. The interesting thing is that this object was seen twice, about 40 minutes apart. Once in the darkness of full night, and once in daylight. In both incidents, the object was exactly the same.

Below are arranged a series of still, and animated, photos taken from my original VHS recording of the "live" NASA broadcast. What this object might be, and what business it might have near Alpha (ISS), this writer cannot say.
EVENT ONE
We are concerned here with what is within the yellow circle. This odd trio of lights might suggest a structured object. The "object" appeared for 1/6 of a second on the original VHS tape, recorded live from NASA Select TV at the time of the event.

The date is 16 February 2001. The time is 8:19 AM CST (14:19 GMT). This is just about thirteen minutes after undocking from Station Alpha. The Shuttle and Station are in the darkness of night here. The only sources of light are the electric lamps on the two spacecraft. Following are direct quotes from the Mission Control Status Report for 16 February, 2001.

"The crews of the Space Shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station parted company at 8:06 a.m. Central today. (14:06 GMT)

Undocking occurred over the Western Pacific northeast of New Guinea breaking contact with the station after 6 days, 21 hours and 15 minutes."

The full report from which the quotes were copied can be found HERE.
   
Here we have a 250% blow-up of the three lights.
   
This frame is a 375% enlargement of the anomaly. It's as far as enlarging would go before excessive pixilation and loss of definition set in.
 
This animated GIF is composed of 10 frames captured from the original VHS tape. The clip yielding these frames was 0.29 seconds long, allowing us to slow things down considerably. Please note the mask of artificial "snow" overlaid, as well at the color shifting from green, to blue, and finally to red. I believe this is deliberate manipulation of the TV signal to render fine detail harder to discern. The are many examples of night television from Shuttle flights in which these obscuring techniques are not present. We will now advance to...

EVENT TWO
This picture is from 40 minutes after event one. It is now 53 minutes since undocking, and the Sun has risen for the Shuttle and Space Station. The very bright object at the bottom of the picture is Station Alpha. The iris on the payload bay camera has been opened wide, causing the station to appear as a mere shapeless blob of light. The "three light object" can be seen above, and it has not changed from it's appearance in Event One. Very odd looking thing indeed.
   
The above is a 300% enlargement of the lights. Sure does look like the same object as seen 40 minutes earlier before the Sun rose.
   
Now we are looking at a 500% blowup, which has begun to pixilate, and lose definition. But, we can see that the lights have maintained the same pattern, as seen 40 minutes earlier in the dark of night.
   
This frame is what came immediately following cut-off of the live downlink from Shuttle Atlantis. The live video "got the chop" just as the three lights were in view. Atlantis was orbiting high above the eastern Atlantic Ocean at the time, just off the coast of Morocco. Was NASA so shaken up by the appearance of this anomaly that they felt the need to prevent further observation by the public? We may never know...
   
This animated GIF is composed of 21 frames, representing the approximately 24 seconds that the three lights were visible to us during the Second Event. The action moves at about double the original speed to facilitate understanding of the motion involved.

Now, ISSy drops out of the field of view toward the bottom due to the continued traverse of Shuttle Atlantis on her post un-docking fly-around. This fly-around is a routine maneuver, designed to afford engineers on the ground a good all around look at the exterior of the station. Any damage due to micro-meteor strikes, or collision with space junk, will then be noted for future repair if needed.

Because we did not have uninterupted TV coverage of the fly-around for the entire 40 minutes between Event One and Event Two, it is unclear when the three lights changed their position from the left side of ISSy to the right.

Now we shall compare the two appearances of this similar object side by side.
   

As you can see, this is a side by side comparison. It's amazing how much the two resemble each other. One might be tempted to conclude that they are one and the same object. What ever they might be, it's certainly difficult to account for them in conventional terms.

***

At all times during these incidents, the INCO in Houston was running the cameras.

(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