At 5:42 AM CST (11:42 GMT), on the morning of 8 March 2001, Space Shuttle Discovery lit her mighty rockets and lifted off from the wetlands of Launch Complex 39B, Kennedy Space Center Florida. STS-102 spent the next 44 hours chasing the International Space Station, making rendezvous on 10 March. Docking to ISSy occured at 12:38 AM CST (8:38 GMT). The Crew of STS-102, along with the incoming ISS Expedition 2 Crew, were greeted by the ISS Expedition 1 Crew when the hatches were opened. All were rung aboard, in fine Naval tradition, by station Commander Bill Shepherd.

The primary purpose of ISS Assembly Flight 5A.1 was ISS Expedition Crew exchange. The first crew was going home, and the fresh second crew taking over for their increment. The Italian contribution to the ISS program is the MPLM, of which there are three. On this flight, the Leonardo MPLM "moving van" was employed for the first time. Carrying nearly 15 tons of supplies, the largest portion of the cargo was composed of instruments and equipment for bringing the Destiny Laboratory Module up to function. The Destiny Module had been delivered just a month earlier aboard STS-98.

Two EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) were carried out by Astronauts Andy Thomas, Susan Helms, Paul Richards, and Jim Voss. Both EVAs were successful, and included work on the MPLM to prepare it for docking to PMA-3. The spacewalks also accomplished preparation work for ISS Assembly Flight 6A, to come later.

STS-102 landed safely at Kennedy Space Center Runway 15 on 21 March 2001 at 1:33 AM CST (7:33 GMT). The Crew of Discovery flawlessly accomplished all of their assigned goals. Total flight duration was 12 days 19 hours 52 minutes. 

STS-102 was the Shuttle flight which ended up inspiring Project P.R.O.V.E. The event which spawned the idea for the project was "The Washington Sequence".

The night of 19 March, 2001, saw the Astronauts preparing for the trip home. They had undocked from ISSy, and were packing things up; getting ready to meet their families again.

About two hours before sunrise in the eastern USA and Canada, Discovery was cruising high above the Great Lakes. Below was Lake Erie, and all the surrounding cities and towns. In these night views, bodies of water are seen as pure black voids. Urban areas show up as fuzzy bright patches, fading toward the edges. Just as the Sun rose for the Shuttle on orbit, something came into view of the payload bay camera from the east. It was heading WEST, which man-made space objects NEVER DO, EVER! All Earth based space craft, with the exception of those in polar orbits, are launched to the east in order to "steal" a fuel-saving kick from the rotation of the Earth. This extra speed ranges from about 1000 mph for equatorial launches, to around 750 mph for mid-latitude launches. No one launches to the west. The Russians launched one or two satellites to the west back in the 1970's, just to prove it could be done. After this successful stunt, it was never tried again.

Before we look at the animated GIF of the incident, we have several still frames to aid us in understanding the circumstances, and finding the anomaly.

This is where the event took place. Discovery was about 240-250 statute miles above the surface at this time.

All of these images were captured from my VHS tapes, recorded from "live" broadcast on NASA Select TV.

The debunkers will, as always, cry "ice or debris!", but this was the 11th day on orbit for Discovery. The likelyhood of such things STILL coming off the Shuttle this late in the mission is rather low. That sort of "junk" is usually all gone by the second or third day in space.

An exception are routine water dumps. However, in the case of a water dump from the Shuttles, there is NEVER just ONE object, but hundreds flitting in every direction. An example of such was recorded during the flight of STS-114, in July/August 2005. See it here:

STS-114 The Water Dump

Another is from STS-115, September 2006:

STS-115 The Water Dump!

When the object became too obvious, the INCO cut the live feed, and returned us to the computer generated orbital tracker that we'd much prefer to watch instead of live views from space. ....Yeah, right!

An indident very similar to this one took place some five months later. It is the "STS-105 Aleutian Sunset" event. You may compare the two by just clicking on the link.

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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. 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