Posted on 09/19/2006 8:53:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – NASA mission controllers are tracking a mystery object hovering between the space shuttle Atlantis and Earth, and traveling at roughly the same speed as the orbiter, agency officials said Tuesday.
“Right now they’re just tying to figure out exactly what it is, how far away it is,” NASA spokesperson Kimberly Harle told SPACE.com. “It’s pretty much assessing the whole situation.”
arle said that at 2:45 a.m. EDT (0645 GMT), just after Atlantis completed a check of its reaction control thrusters, the instrumentation and communications officer at NASA’s shuttle Mission Control room at Johnson Space Center noted an object between the orbiter and Earth, and traveling at about the same speed of the spacecraft.
Flight controllers are now using video cameras mounted along Atlantis’ robotic arm and payload bay to survey visible areas of the orbiter, including its wing leading edges and other vital heat shield areas, Harle said.
“Everything is still under assessment,” Harle said.
For now, Atlantis’ STS-115 shuttle crew will not stow their Ku-band antenna – the primary video and data link to Earth – to allow flight controllers to continue to study the object.
NASA is broadcasting Atlantis’ STS-115 mission to the ISS live via NASA TV. You are invited to follow the shuttle's progress using SPACE.com's NASA TV feed, which is available by clicking here or using the button at the left.
"KHAAAAN!"
On the replay, it appeared to me to be 'tumbling'. But I can't even tell how far away it is, there's nothing to give it perspective, just the earth in the background.
"If the object I saw in the video came from the shuttle, then the shuttle is missing a huge chunk."
That's what I was thinking. Foxnews said it was bigger than a satellite
Just a little space cabbage.
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"Look after Mr. Bond. See that some harm comes to him."
MST3000 has returned! :O)
Spock..Analyze!
Lots of things fall off my Chevy all the time. Same for the Dodge. So far nothing vital, just trim. Is there chrome on the Shuttle?
They aren't circling mine.
Gabriel, I hope.
Tribles.....
It is about the size of the decimal point on the FOX news ticker when you watch the video on FOX (this will tell how tiny it is on the TV). It is pretty far away and that is why no one can make out what it is. Since it so far away and still showing up on the video then it is a fairly large object. It is traveling fast.
Take me to your leader.
It seemed to be a black object. The NASA spokesman said they had no way to figure out how large it is since there is nothing in space to compare it too. I thought I heard something about it being something off of a camera. The shuttle's camera was tracking it to see where it goes and to see if they can identify it. This is all from the NASA TV station which we get.
Calling Art Bell...
ABC radio reported a few minutes ago that internal sensor say the shuttle was hit by something.
If this is remotely true, this bird is in trouble.
Nancy has a full speaking spot on Nip and Tuck when she retires....
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