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By this time, the Sun was well risen and far too bright to look at. Remember, at orbital velocity a "day" lasts only 45 minutes, rather than the 8 to 14 hours we experience on the ground. So this means that in the minutes since sunrise for the Astronauts, the Sun has gone way above the horizon...and there is NO atmosphere to filter it's intensity, even AT the horizon, as there is for us on Earth.

About two minutes after the "Hey Scott!" incident, Parazynski seems to have tried to cover the oddity by claiming, out of the blue mind you, that the two had been admiring the sunrise. Yeah right! Sure they were. This is pure balderdash!

Not only had these two guys been seeing 16 sunrises per day since reaching orbit three days earlier, but when this happened, the Sun was obviously in a different direction from where they were looking. See for yourself in the photos above. The sun was toward the top of the "screen", and the two men were looking to the left of the page. What ever caught their attention, we can be very sure it wasn't the sunrise. One can also remind them, and the public, that an Astronaut's time on EVA is very carefully planned, and there is NO time for idle sightseeing during an EVA. Here is the exact transcript of Astronaut Scott Parazynski's remarks. Doesn't it sound to you like he was trying to cover up for the implications of his exchange, and shock, over what Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield called his attention to mere moments before?

S - "WOW! Look at that in the distance! WOW! Beautiful!"

................................(5 second pause)

..................... ..............."Sunrise!"

J- "Let's do it."

S - "You ready for us to move then?"

End Transcript

One final note on this event, and possible consequences. Very soon after STS-100 landed back on Earth, Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield suddenly quit the Astronaut corps, after only two flights, with no explanation. Did something "up there" scare him into leaving NASA? Or did he get his ears burned for drawing attention to something not acknowledged; over an open radio link? We can only wonder about these questions. Also, we can only speculate on just exactly WHAT it was that so captivated two busy Astronauts carrying out a critical mission on a long planned, and trained for, EVA.

***

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.

On 19 April 2001, at 1:41 PM CDT (18:41 GMT), Space Shuttle Endeavour lifted off from Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. STS-100 spent the next two days chasing the International Space Station with an eye to rendezvous and docking. Final docking took place on 21 April at 8:59 AM CDT (13:59 GMT). When the hatches were opened, the STS-100 Crew were welcomed aboard by the space station crew of ISS Expedition Two. There followed eight days of joint operations between the two. Unfortunately, several computer crashes onboard ISSy hampered some of the planned activities. The main goal of ISS Assembly Flight 6A was to install the new robotic arm, contributed by the Canadian Space Agency, onto the exterior of the station. Two EVAs (E.xtra V.ehicular A.ctivity or spacewalk) were carried out by Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield and American Astronaut Scott Parazynski (pictured on EVA at right) for that purpose, also installing a new High Frequency Antenna to enhance station to ground communications. STS-100 Pilot Jeff Ashby, and ESA Astronaut Umberto Guidoni, assisted the two spacewalkers by operating the Shuttle's Canadarm during the EVAs. During the installation of Canadarm 2, there occured what was called the "Canadian Handshake", as one Canadarm grappled the other. (pictured right) The arm, known as Canadarm 2, is the most advanced robotic arm yet, bringing many new capabilities to the Space Station. (Comparison of the shuttle robotic arm with the station robotic arm.) The Italian built Raffaello MPLM-1 was deployed for delivery of cargo and supplies to ISS, and reloaded with experiments and refuse to be returned to Earth with Endeavour. The flight was successful in completing all assigned tasks. Endeavour undocked from ISSy at 12:34 AM CDT (7:34 GMT) on 29 April 2001. STS-100 and her crew landed safely two days later at Edwards Air Force Base (NASA's Dryden Research Center) in the California desert at 11:11 CDT (16:11 GMT) on 1 May 2001. Total flight duration was 11 days 21 hours 30 minutes. American entreprenour Dennis Tito (Story Here) set out on his flight to ISSy aboard a Soyuz craft launched from the Russian space center, at Baykonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on 28 May 2001. The Soyuz docked with ISSy on 1 May 2001; the same day Endeavour landed back on Earth. Mr. Tito spent a quiet week helping his crewmates, shooting pictures of Earth through the windows, and listening to opera music. He landed safely in his Soyuz descent module back in Kazakhstan on 6 May 2001.
	STS-100 Liftoff

	Chris Hadfield

	Scott Parazynski

	"Canadian Handshake"

	STS-100 Landing

SETTING THE SCENE
	Moments before the sun comes up, the Astronauts are working in the dark and cold of airless space, all the while, relentlessly zooming along at 17,500 mph (28,000 kph). The new robotic arm, Canadarm II, can be seen as the large white object extending from center screen.

	The Sun has just risen for the men, and MCC Houston has reminded them to check suit settings and readings as a safety precaution.

	This moment is exactly during the 9 second pause after Scott Parazynski said... *"WOW!"*
There is a part two to this incident. We will now continue with an examination of the pertinent factors, beginning with a still frame. This portion of the event took place just about two minutes after what happened in the above sequence.
PART TWO
	The still frame at left shows the scene when Astronaut Parazynski made his remarks following the incident with his partner two minutes earlier.



STS-100 EVA 1 - "Hey Scott!" DVDs Now Available At Project P.R.O.V.E.!