On 1 March 2002, Space Shuttle Columbia lifted off at 5:22 AM CST (11:22 GMT) from Launch Complex 39A, at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This was to be Columbia's last successful flight. Due to safety concerns, STS-109 was also to be the final manned service mission (SM3B) to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). (Following the loss of STS-107 on 1 February 2003, it was decided that Shuttles would only fly to ISS) The Crew accomplished capture of HST on 3 March at 3:31 AM CST (9:31 GMT).

No less than five EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk), in five consecutive days, were carried out to repair and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. That's as heavy a schedule of EVAs as you'll ever see. The EVAs were mounted by two teams of Astronauts: John Grunsfeld - Richard Linnehan and James Newman - Michael Massimino. Astronaut Nancy Currie operated the Canadarm in support.

A number of new Hubble components were on the STS-109 Cargo manifest, for installation on the HST. The major work done on Hubble included installation of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). This phone booth sized unit will, amongst other things, take part in the search for extra-solar planets. Hubble's two solar arrays were replaced, improving the telescope's ability to power itself. The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) received a new cryocooler, capable of maintaining temperatures as low as -334°F (-203°C). A new Power Control Unit (PCU) was installed as an upgrade to the electrical system. Finally, a fourth Reaction Wheel Assembly (RWA) was added to the previous array of three, to increase the telescope's stability during long photographic exposures.

The Hubble Space Telescope was released back to orbit on 9 March at 4:04 AM CST (10:04 GMT). The mission had gone exactly as planned, and there were no glitches with the work on Hubble. Columbia flew solo for her last two days on orbit. A safe landing was accomplished on 12 March at 3:32 AM CST (9:32 GMT). STS-109 touched down at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility on Runway 33. Total flight duration: 10 days 22 hours 11 minutes.

During The Third EVA, a total of three anomalies appeared in less than three minutes. These anomalies, as a group, are what I call "The Big One".

The object we will deal with on this page was the second of them. (Hence the designation Pt.2) The other objects, all seen within mere moments of each other, are "STS-109 The Big One Pt.1 - A Fast Object!" and "STS-109 The Big One Pt.3 - Yet Another Fast Object!".

The second object of "The Big One" has to be one of the most fantastic anomaly events I've ever found in my NASA recordings. As Astronaut Richard Linnehan was sorting through his tool kit for what he needed next, his helmet camera caught an object in the distance which came from "beneath" Columbia. It then stopped dead in its tracks; finally making a right angle turn to the left, and speeding back "under" the Shuttle. The entire elapsed time for this event? Less than 2 seconds in real time. (Way too fast for the INCO to percieve and censor) The animations presented on this page run at just about 75% normal speed.

At that time (March 2002), I had a discreet contact inside NASA. I made a very short MPEG-2 clip of the anomaly, and sent it to this contact via e-mail. The response is below...

(Direct quote from the person's e-mail follows. These are their exact words, using copy and paste. The Name of this person must remain confidential for obvious reasons)

"Man!!!! You were right!!!! It definitely made a 90 degree left turn!!!!! I couldn't believe my eyes!!!! I must've played it over and over at least a hundred times!!!!!!! I just put it in a loop mode and let it play!!!

It was quite clear and the turn was very apparent once I
adjusted the contrast!!!!

Wow!!!! How can they explain that one???!!!! Satellites don't do that!!!!!

Jeff...I'm pretty excited right now...and angry....and speechless!!!!!

Consider me your "Anonymous Ally"!!!!! Take care and we'll be in touch........"

Unfortunately, our "alliance" was destroyed soon after. The person was threatened with job loss, blacklisting, and worse. The person wrote me at a later date to say they would no longer be able to communicate with me, and briefly explaining why... (Sorry, there is no more that can be revealed in public without further endangering this brave soul.)

I "sat" on this, and many other events from my VHS NASA tapes, until I had sufficiently mastered the use of my GIF animation software to do justice to them. It's only now that I feel the quality of the animated GIF is good enough to illustrate what happened for you.

Sooooo, we let's have a look at what happened that day. The camera iris is open far too wide, causing much of the detail to be "washed out". In this particular case, that was probably fortuitous. Had the camera iris been stopped down where it should normally be, we most likely would not have detected the subtle object at all.

Our first GIF sets the scene for all events in "The Big One".

In this frame, we can see Astronaut Richard Linnehan perched on the end of the Canadarm, along with his equipment rack. Earth is in the background, of course.

The blue arrow is the direction he was facing in Pt.1 of "The Big One". He was looking in the direction indicated by the red arrow in Pt.2, and the purple arrow indicates his orientation when the object in Pt.3 passed by.

All things considered "The Big One", and this right angle turn, was one of the major events of STS-109, or any Shuttle flight I've analyzed over the last eight years. Due to the factors of its appearance, and sudden course change, AND the corroboration of a NASA employee, I must classify this object as unknown.

STS-109 yielded another incident very similar in character to this turn. It is called "STS-109 Oren's Turn" (Discovered and recorded by my friend and colleague Dr. Oren Swearingen DDS of Texas), and is also available on this site. The flight of STS-114 also had an anomaly which behaved much like the above. That is "The 90° Turn".

Just seconds after the object examined on this page came and went, the third object of the larger event I call "The Big One" was seen. That will be examined in the next page, called "STS-109 The Big One Pt.3 - Yet Another Fast Object!". The first in the series is called "STS-109 The Big One Pt.1 - A Fast Object!" All three should be taken in order. This will facilitate understanding how the sequence of events went along.

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At all times during this event, 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