On the morning of 9 September 2006, at 10:15 AM CDT (15:15 GMT), Space Shuttle Atlantis boosted away from Launch Complex 39B, at Kennedy Space Center Florida. This marked the beginning of flight STS-115 (ISS Assembly Flight 12A). After roughly nine minutes of powered flight, the engines were cut off, and orbit attained.

Two days later, after a complicated chase and rendezvous, Atlantis docked to ISS on 11 September. Once a hard seal had been achieved with Pressurized Mating Adapter 3 mounted to the U.S. Destiny Laboratory Module, hatches were opened, and the two crews greeted each other. ISS Expedition 13 members Pavel Vinogradov (Commander), Jeff Williams (Flight Engineer), and Thomas Reiter (ESA Astronaut) were very happy to welcome the STS-115 Crew aboard.

In the ensuing days, three intense spacewalks were mounted from ISSy's Quest Joint Airlock for the purpose of installing the new P3/P4 Solar Arrays. This was the first station assembly mission since STS-113 in 2002. The spacewalkers on STS-115 included veteran Joe Tanner, first timer Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, Canadian Steve MacLean, and Dan Burbank. Each team "camped out" in the Quest airlock over night before their EVA. They were breathing pure oxygen to flush nitrogen from their bloodstreams before suiting up and going outside.

Following undocking from ISSy on 17 September 2006, Atlantis flew solo for the next four days. On this date, ISS Expedition 14 launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome aboard Soyuz TMA-9. The new crew consisted of Commander Michael Lopez-Alegria, and Flight Engineer/Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin. The third member, Sunita Williams will swap places with Thomas Reiter at a later date. Along for the ride was the first woman space tourist, Anousheh Ansari.

Unexpected objects were sighted whilst Atlantis was flying alone. Engineers announced that these were all Shuttle based debris. Landing was delayed for an extra day to determine if the Shuttle's delicate heat shield had somehow sustained damage. None was found, and Atlantis landed safely at the KSC Shuttle Landing Facility on 21 September 2006, at 5:21 AM CDT (10:21 GMT). It had been a successful and productive mission.

This incident happened on 18 September 2006 . The local time of day was afternoon. Atlantis had undocked from ISSy the day before. Soyuz TMA-9 was due to arrive at the station the next day.

At the time, Atlantis was orbiting alone, some 100 miles (160 km) behind ISSy. She was just west of Australia ("Oz" is a nickname often used by Australians for thier island continent) over the Indian Ocean. The event began with downlink TV from inside ISSy, showing an Expedition 14 crew member at work. The INCO changed to an outside view from one of the Shuttle payload bay cameras.

This is when we got our first glimpse of the anomaly. It was very bright, and pulsating. The view only lasted for a few short seconds, and the feed was cut altogether. We were then given a static computer image of the Shuttle with it's robotic arm extended for heat shield inspection, and finally taken to the now familiar animated tracker at Mission Control Center, in Houston Texas.

The first impression of this object is its uncanny resemblance to others seen in the past. The Flyby of STS-96, and The Louisiana Sequence of STS-101 came strongly to my mind. Their characteristics are very close to the appearance and behavior of the object seen near Oz.

Over the years, Australia has been the scene of many anomalous sightings from Shuttle payload bay cameras. Is there perhaps some reason for this that isn't clear? I can't answer that, for lack of hard data. But the pattern is there.

So, let's take a look at the visuals I've prepared for your study now, OK?

This animated GIF illustrates where Atlantis was orbiting when the anomaly was seen.

Australia and the Indian Ocean are labeled in yellow for you. Atlantis is circled in red.

This animated GIF shows the full view of the incident. It is speeded up just a bit, but is essentially the event as it happened.

Note how it appears that the INCO didn't let the live outside feed continue very long. He whisked us away without delay once the anomaly was seen.

Here we have a 200% zoom of the anomaly in original colors. Seems the black and white camera was in use during the event.

See how the pulasting characteristic of the object is quite pronounced? It's very much like the objects from STS-96 and STS-101 in 1999/2000.

In conclusion, let's take a look at the facts. This object was not an out of focus piece of ice or debris, as it's outline and shape are sharply defined. Ice, and debris, are by NASA's own admission very rare after the first few days on orbit. They are not impossible, but highly unusual. That's one of the reasons they couldn't identify the many bits seen outside Atlantis in the last two or three days of this mission. There was no known source for them.

This object is also unidentified, with no known source. As one can see for oneself, it's flight pattern doesn't suggest a Shuttle-based origin. It appears to be crossing Atlantis' path, rather than coming FROM it.

The pulsing of the object could be observed to get brighter toward the end of its time in the field of view. This actually suggests that it may have been coming closer to the Shuttle. Is this why the INCO cut the "live" feed so abruptly?

The factors present in this case, along with the very close appearance to previous events recorded from spaceflight, strongly suggest that this object was NOT conventional. Therefore, I must classify it as an unknown.

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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. 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.

© 2006 Jeff Challender