The afternoon of 7 October 2002 was bright and clear at Kennedy Space Center, in Cape Canaveral Florida. At 2:46 PM CDT (19:46 GMT), the calm was broken by the thundering liftoff of Space Shuttle .Atlantis from Launch Pad 39B, thus beginning her 44 hour journey to rendezvous and docking with ISS. STS-112 (aka ISS Assembly Flight 9A) docked with ISSy at 10:17 AM (15:17 GMT) on 9 October. ISS Expedition Crew Five greeted the Crew of STS-112 after hatches were opened between the two spacecraft. They spent the next seven days carrying out joint operations.

The main Cargo of STS-112 was delivery and installation of the S-1 Truss segment. Some expanation of this truss segment, and its contents from NASA: "The large truss contains: a new external cooling system for the station that is slated to be activated in 2003; a second S-Band communications system to provide enhanced and extended voice and data capability; a cart that will serve as a mobile work platform for future spacewalkers; two new external television cameras; and the first Thermal Radiator Rotary Joint, which will provide the mechanical and electrical energy for rotating the station's heat-rejecting radiators based on various system requirements." Some other cargo items were transferred from Shuttle to Station as well.

Three EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) were conducted from the Quest Joint Airlock Module by Astronauts David Wolf and Piers Sellers. The two men worked to fit and activate the S-1 Truss to the S-0 segment delivered the previous spring by STS-110. The results of the three spacewalks, totaling 19 hours 41 minutes, was completely successful.

After the full week of joint activities was over, the Expedition Five Crew wished their departing guests bon voyage. STS-112 undocked from the Station at 8:13 AM CDT (13:13 GMT) on 16 October. She spent the next two days flying on her own, affording the crew a bit of rest and time to pack up for the return home. Atlantis landed safely at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility, on runway 33 at 10:44 AM CDT (15:44 GMT) 18 October 2002. Total flight duration: 10 days 19 hours 59 minutes.

In the case at hand, Shuttle Atlantis was making a night pass over the Sea of Japan. Docking with ISSy was about six hours away, so she was still racing toward rendezvous at this point. The Shuttle had just crossed China and Korea. It would soon be over the inky black Pacific Ocean.

As the payload bay camera scanned the seas below, a series of unusual lights came into view. They were arranged in clusters, much the same as in the STS-111 Japan Incident of several months before. The map below shows the area and, the white line, the rough trajectory of Atlantis' across the region.

As pointed out in the STS-111 Japan Incident, cities have undefined edges. They simply fade to fuzziness toward the outskirts. The mystery objects are very sharp edged, telling us that their being cities is pretty much out of the question.

Several have suggested that the objects are fishing fleets, or aircraft. This is patently impossible. If such man-made machines were so easily seen from orbit, 240 or so miles (400km) above, then all the World's oceans overflown by Shuttles at night would be littered with them. The fact that we don't see scads of ships and planes in the oceans of the world from Shuttle cameras proves that these mystery lights are NOT man-made. They must of necessity be VERY large and VERY bright to be seen from such distances.

The 15 frame animated GIF at left illustrates what was downlinked "live" from Atlantis that night. These are taken at 1/2 second intervals from the original VHS tape.

Note that NASA's artificial mask of "snow" is very much in evidence here. More examples from STS-105 & ISS EVA 10b

The pictures and animations above show what was seen from Atlantis' layload bay cameras on the night of 9 October 2002. As the Shuttle sailed along at 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h), the mysterious clusters passed beneath. The Sea of Japan was temporary home to something quite strange that night, and the lights were NOT fishing boats. Just imagine trying to see something like a cluster of streetlamps, directed TOWARD THE GROUND, from 300 or more MILES (500km) away? I believe they were SOMETHING ELSE entirely.

Because the light clusters do not match locations of known islands in the Sea of Japan, and they are not ships, planes, cities, or other man-made light emitters, I must classify these as unknowns.

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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.)

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

© 2005 Jeff Challender