On the sunny afternoon of 8 April 2002, at 3:44 PM CDT (20:44 GMT), Space Shuttle>Atlantis lifted off from Launch Pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Florida. This marked the beginning of the flight of STS-110 which spent the next 44 hours more or less, chasing the International Space Station for rendezvous and docking. Docking took place on 10 April at 11:05 AM CDT (16:06 GMT), and the CREW of STS-110 were greeted by ISS Expedition Crew Four when hatches were opened. This commenced seven days of joint crew operations.

ISS Assembly Flight 8A was pivotal in the construction of ISSy. It delivered the center of the truss system, called the S0 (S-ZERO) truss. It is the central part of the Integrated Truss Structure, which will eventually reach a length of 356 feet (109m). The all important S0 truss is 44 feet long (13.4m) and weighs 27,000 lbs (12,247kg). In addition to nine other categories of Cargo, STS-110 also brought the Mobile Transporter up to ISSy. This is a miniature "rail road" system which spans the length of the main truss, which will allow Canadarm2 to ride back and forth to perform maintenance and construction jobs. There were some glitches involved with the MT, but they were worked out.

Four EVAs were carried out, in two teams, from the Quest Joint Airlock Module by Astronauts Steve Smith, Rex Walheim, Jerry Ross, and Lee Morin. During these four spacewalks, the S0 Truss, the Mobile Transporter, and a number of other hardware elements were installed. This mission saw the first occasion when the Station's Robotic Arm (Canadarm2) was used to maneuver Astronauts around the station, and it was the first time that all EVAs were mounted from the station's Quest Airlock Module.

After completing all the goals set for this flight, Atlantis undocked from ISSy on 17 April 2002, at 1:31 PM CDT (18:31 GMT). For the next two days, STS-110 flew solo. The crew got some rest, and carried out some micro-gravity experiments. They also took time to pack up their equipment, and personal effects, in anticipation of landing. Atlantis landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility , runway 33, on 19 April 2002 at 11:27 AM CDT (16:27 GMT). Total flight time 10 days 19 hours 44 minutes.

During this particular night, there was one brief allowance of live downlink from Atlantis over the west coast of the USA. Specifically, this short pass took place over California. It lasted a mere 1 minute 17 seconds from start to finish. One wonders why the "live" video feed was cut off so swiftly. There were a couple things about this bit of video which make it different from most...

One is that it happened to include a view of my home town (Sacramento CA) from space; the first I'd ever seen.

Secondly, that mask of nasty artificial "snow" was missing throughout. Night time downlink from Shuttles nearly always has this "snow". Occasions where it is missing are very rare. In several years of monitoring live downlink TV from the International Space Station, I've yet to see even ONE MINUTE of video at night during the Live Daily Coverage. The exceptions are when something special and important is going on, such as an EVA ( Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk ), or spacecraft maneuvers. But even these have included the "snow" mask, and have been extremely short in length.

Here we have an animated GIF composed of the two views "before" & "after". The Shuttle/Station Complex was traversing left to right (yellow arrow). The red arrow indicates the direction in which the camera was facing.

The two frames show the distance traveled in the 1 minute 17 seconds of the short live downlink.

This frame shows us what was in the field of view at the start of the live feed from NASA Select TV.

The Moon is about to set. San Francisco and Sacramento (MY Home Town!), as well as Reno Nevada are easily identified.

Some 40 seconds have elapsed, and now we see Southern California, with Los Angleles the brightest city. Las Vegas Nevada stands out, with all its bright lights.

The region just north of Las Vegas is the legendary home of Area 51 and the Nellis Range (USAF Testing Range). They are curiously dark, considering that night photos from the mountains show it brightly lit. Were they warned about this Shuttle pass?

This animation is composed of 13 frames, taken approximately 5 seconds apart. Now we can observe a high speed pass over California compressed into mere seconds.

In any case, my home state of California is pretty from space at night.

It is interesting that there is none of the nasty overlay of artificial "snow" in this scene. Such cases where it's missing are exceeingly rare.

One has to wonder what happened to the "snow"? Could its absence account for why the live feed was cut off so quickly?

GOTCHA!

***

At all times during this incident, the camera was under the control of the CATO 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.)

Good Example of The "Snow" Mask Used By NASA Select TV...

ISS EVA-10b Snow Games

At the end of the day, it's up to YOU to draw your own conclusions.

© 2005 Jeff Challender