The International Space Station (ISS) has been occupied continuously since 1 November 2000, with the arrival of the Expedition 1 Crew. Much had changed by the time the Expedition 8 Crew came aboard. The Station had nearly doubled in size.

The Crew lifted off from Baykonur Cosmodrome on 18 October 2003 at 12:38 AM CDT (5:38 GMT). Soyuz TMA-3 rode to orbit in about nine minutes of powered flight atop a Soyuz Starsem booster. Inside were Soyuz Commander Alexander "Sasha" Kaleri, Mission Commander Michael Colin Foale. Occupying the third seat, and representing the ESA on the Cervantes Mission, was Astronaut Pedro Francisco Duque of Spain.

Docking to ISSy's PIRS module took place on 20 October at 2:16 AM CDT (7:16 GMT). The new crew were greeted warmly by their predecessors of the Expedition 7 Crew. After a week of joint operations and handover of command, the Expedition 7 Crew, with ESA Astronaut Duque, closed hatches between the Station and Soyuz TMA-2 for their return home on 27 October.

During their six month stay aboard, Foale and Kaleri conducted an extensive program of scientific experiments and research. These included 27 different experiments in five categories of investigation.

A single EVA (Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) was mounted from the PIRS docking and airlock module in Russian Orlan spacesuits on 26 February 2004. This was the first ever two man EVA executed from ISSy with no one left on board to monitor systems. This task fell to ground controllers (US - Russia) using remote telemetry. The spacewalk was cut short due to a malfunction in the cooling system of Kaleri's suit.

The arrival of the Expedition 9 Crew aboard Soyuz TMA-4 on 21 April 2004 signalled the final days of Expedition 8. After a week of joint activities, Expedition 8 (Along with visiting ESA Astronaut Andre Kuipers from the Netherlands) entered their Soyuz vehicle once again. Undocking occurred at 3:52 PM CDT (20:52 GMT) on 29 April. Despite a worrisome helium leak from a tank in the spacecraft, a safe landing near Arkalyk Kazakhstan was made at 7:11 PM CDT, 29 April 2004 (00:11 30 April GMT). Total flight duration: 194 days 18 hours 33 minutes.

On 26 February 2004, the crew of ISS Expedition 8 mounted the first two man EVA since Expedition crews were reduced from three to two persons following the loss of Shuttle Columbia. Dubbed EVA 8a, this was the first time the ISS was left unmanned whilst the crew were outside. (Here are three sources for more information on ISS EVA 8a: NASA, Spaceref, Space.com) The PIRS airlock module hatch was opened at 3:17 PM CST (21:17 GMT) and the EVA ended at 7:12 PM CST (01:12 GMT 27 February). The spacewalk lasted 3 hours 55 minutes, and was cut short because Cosmonaut Kaleri's Orlan space suit developed cooling problems, or at least that's the official story.

There is reason to suspect, however, that the spacewalk was truncated without completing all assigned tasks, for another reason.

Commander Michael Foale, and Flight Engineer Alexander "Sasha" Kaleri, may have had an unexpected encounter, suggested by some very odd words spoken by Cosmonaut Kaleri, whilst outside the station. In addition, there was a suspicious loss of communications following shorly after Kaleri's strange comments. Let's examine this event now, shall we? I have dubbed it...

There is a place on the far side of the world from the United States, which NASA refers to as the “Z.O.E.”, or Zone Of Exclusion. This is an area in which NASA claims there is no communication with spacecraft. This despite the presence of a US Space Command Base on the Island of Diego Garcia, and TDRS-3 (Tracking Data & Relay Satellite) in a Geosynchronous orbit high above. A more detailed overview of this Z.O.E., with numerous links, can be read at:

NASA Secrecy & The Z.O.E.

C = The NASA Commentator who remarks on events as they unfold

All Orange italics mine for emphasis. Hesitations and grammatical errors are left in as originally spoken. JC.

TRANSCRIPT OF NASA COMMENTS

C: "We've lost our television picture from the International Space Station, passing out of range, uh, of Ku-Band communications coverage through the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System. Everything going swimmingly on board, uh, the International Space Station's space walkers for today. One hour forty-nine minutes into the spacewalk by Mike Foale and Alexander Kaleri."

END TRANSCRIPT

Now, how about we look at the visual presentation that's been prepared for you. This evidence will show that the "Hawaiian ZOE" is a falsehood.

ISSy is within the yellow circle, and the red arrow shows her direction of travel. The "official" ZOE is outlined for you in orange, with a tiny blue oval denoting the letters "ZOE" inside.

The multicolored "bullseye" shows where the Hawaiian Islands are.

The TDRS Constellation of Satellites. Note three over the Atlantic, three over the Pacific, and one over the Indian Ocean smack dab in the center of NASA's officially pronounced ZOE. Out of range indeed!

Why did NASA pass this falsehood on to the viewing public? No mention was made of equipment failure, or antenna shadowing. The given reason for the loss of communication was that ISS had passed “Out Of Range” once again.

The three TDRS Satellites over the Pacific Ocean are shown by the red box. NASA claims that ISS was out of range from ALL THREE of THESE during the spacewalk of 26 February 2004.

Note the red cross showing ISSy's position at the time she was "out of range".

Lastly, we have taken the same frames used in the first animation, and overlain them with the TDRSS map from NASA itself.

This proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no way ISSy was "out of range" from ALL of the various parts of the communication system.

So there is no good reason for these claims that well covered parts of the globe are “OUT OF RANGE” of the NASA communications network. One is led to strongly suspect that the NASA management is counting on the general ignorance of such matters, amongst their tax paying constituency, in order to “get away” with such non-truths. Why are they doing this? The only reason this writer can think of is that something is being hidden. I cannot say what is being cloaked from public view, but there MUST be something, which, in the eyes of NASA, justifies lying to the American public. I just wish we knew what it was.

Just the week before, during a video replay of Foale and Kaleri preparing for the EVA 8a spacewalk, yet another odd "ZOE" was announced over Canada. That story is "A Canadian ZOE? THAT'S WHAT THE MAN SAID!"

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

© 2006 Jeff Challender