Breaking News: NASA tracking object near shuttle!

NORAD is capable of tracking anything larger than 10cm , which is around 4 inches or so.

Anything that will reflect RADAR waves can potentially be tracked on RADAR , but metallic objects give much stronger returns than non-metallic objects like birds.

Wayne Hale was the NASA spokesman during this debriefing. Wayne stammered a lot and wasn't able to name either of the two (2) objects as something known. He suggested that the jellyfish object, Object #1 (seen photographed), was a plastic bag, although he admitted that he truly didn't know.

Wayne said that the second object, Object #2, which is hurtling through our atmosphere (see video), keeping pace with the shuttle, appeared to be rectangular in shape, but he could not determine more than that.

A previous poster said it had to be sizeable given that we can see it fairly clearly from the shuttle in the clouds, and I have to agree. Wayne is suggesting the object could be a small plastic "shim", but, he stated, that if they are not able to find a missing shim to account for the object, then they are back at square one.

Wayne said they are doing another check of the outside of the vehicle. They want to make sure it is fit to land, and that the astronauts are "well rested" for the critical phases of the landing procedure. Wayne did say that if they determined that the landing would need to be postponed (he didn't say why) that they would feel better allowing the astronauts another night's sleep to be rested and would then land on Friday.

A reporter asked if the Russians had been notified, and if they were notified of any contingency plan. Wayne stated that the Russians were aware, but that no contingency plan was mentioned, or in Wayne's words "needed". Wayne spoke in very calm...reassuring tones...everything's fine...we just want to do a "third" check to make sure the shuttle's fine, and the astronauts had their nappies...

He was very detailed in explaining why a shim is needed, and what happens when the outer surface of the shuttle gets hot and cold, that it expands and contracts, etc., and because of this a small plastic shim is needed to protect something-or-other...

The bottom line is these objects have not been identified. One of them is hurtling through our atmosphere and is good size. Other posters on this and the "NASA(s) Ufo Slip Up live on CNN" said there was more video that showed objects lighting up and manuevering in front of the cameras(!).

Hopefully more of this is coming to light. In the meantime, count on NASA to completely forget about, overlook or just explain away everything that happened (This is of course no interest to NASA or SETI or biologists or scientists; no one can give you a reason why, but it's not. Only to those excited, inspired and burning to know more about what's going on beyond our planet, and who are utterly bored by repeated space trips to repair satellites...).

All of this will be forgotten except to those dwindling numbers that will try to keep it alive. I feel, alas, that it will soon be subsumed by general conspiracy theory chit chat, be replaced by another in a string of hopeful "close calls" and fade into the recesses of our collective memory...it really sucks!

The least that Wayne could say is that we at NASA are a little excited that we might not know what these are...but it's status quo...calm reassurance...a "plastic bag" and a "plastic shim". So you contact CNN and halt a mission because you have a shim and a ziploc floating around...

[edit on 19-9-2006 by OnTheDeck]

NASA has just announced that they will not try to land until Friday.

ok, iv looked at the pictures and watched video. this thing to me truly looks like a living being of some kind. it could be native to our world the same way we find new species in the ocean all the time. or it could be an alien. It manuvers and moves about willing. I dont think nasa should deny anything but speak the truth.

In all reality, I would love this all to be something more than it really is. If this in any way, shape, or form could be something intelligently controlled, or even an alien itself, we would NOT be seeing this on the news. NASA and the Government would not allow this footage to be out there for public viewing.

You know what gets me is that NONE of the major news articles, or NASA have even hinted at, or in the least bit speculated that the "debris" could be anything alien. I use the term alien lightly - meaning *anything* foreign from earth. I mean, NASA is just assuming that its from the ship and thats it.

More then likely it probably is, but come on NASA/News Agencies, you ARE allowed to speculate from time to time

It's 10 hours later, and their still tracking it. I hate when this kind of thing happens. I think I'll stay off the boards for a while.

How do they mistake migrations of birds & stuff like that for potential aircraft? Doesn't stealth technology rely on mis representations like this? I'm just askin. Thanx-

Are you referring to a specific case? Because they don't track birds, modern radar systems filter out everything below a set criteria, ie. anything below a certain speed or size gets blocked out along with background "noise". This is done so that the radar screen does not display every single thing that reflects radar waves. If it didn't do that the screen would be too confusing and cluttered to be useful. And yes stealth aircraft take advantage of this fact to avoid detection and tracking.

This is what my question was about. I thought that any object could be tracked, even if it isn't metallic, and especially if it's very large.

As another member posted, any object (metallic or not) that reflects radar waves can be tracked but ranges vary due to the material and size. Metallic objects however are preferred because they give a much stronger return.

Originally posted by PittsburghMikeNASA and the Government would not allow this footage to be out there for public viewing.

that would be kind of hard to stop since 1000s of people stream (and record) NASA TV... i usually only watch the Media channel because it seems to be more in real time than the Public channel; and there seems to be more live coverage on the Media channel, as there are lots of NASA Video File and Gallery shows on the Public channel... but of course all the good stuff alwayz happens when i'm not tuned in, d'oh!

If it has been 10 hours now ....and if it were only a small piece of debris from the shuttle....doesn't logic dictate that it would be unviewable from the shuttle by now? Does anyone know if they can still see the object from the shuttle?

I'd really rather the news had been talking about THIS instead of that speech from Iran's leader at the UN.

Honestly.. I think this is 'bigger'. I can see newsclips of what Iran said .. and I could predict what Iran said ...

But this ...this could be eventful (or not). But I'd rather be hearing about this.

Originally posted by WestPoint23

How do they mistake migrations of birds & stuff like that for potential aircraft? Doesn't stealth technology rely on mis representations like this? I'm just askin. Thanx-

Are you referring to a specific case? Because they don't track birds, modern radar systems filter out everything below a set criteria, ie. anything below a certain speed or size gets blocked out along with background "noise". This is done so that the radar screen does not display every single thing that reflects radar waves. If it didn't do that the screen would be too confusing and cluttered to be useful. And yes stealth aircraft take advantage of this fact to avoid detection and tracking.

This is what my question was about. I thought that any object could be tracked, even if it isn't metallic, and especially if it's very large.

As another member posted, any object (metallic or not) that reflects radar waves can be tracked but ranges vary due to the material and size. Metallic objects however are preferred because they give a much stronger return.

No I can't quote a specific case. I was just throwing that statement out there to either be supported, or debunked. I just thought I had heard something like that in the past. Thanx for clearing that up. I think the actual context of what I remember was like " The F-117A resembles a flock of birds". Or something along those lines. . .

that would be kind of hard to stop since 1000s of people stream (and record) NASA TV.

Who airs NASA tv? They can easily delay the feed by a couple of seconds or more to filter out anything "inappropriate" if they wanted to, and you wouldn't even notice.

albeit that's true, but can they really work that fast? i'd figure they'd go to a secure channel or cut the feed altogether if they really wanted to omit something...

[edit on 19 9Sep 06 by m3rlz]

Originally posted by m3rlz
albeit that's true, but can they really work that fast? i'd figure they'd go to a secure channel or cut the feed altogether if they really wanted to omit something...

[edit on 19 9Sep 06 by m3rlz]

They probably have protocols along those lines too, but because the feed is supposed to be available to the world, ( and taxpayers! ), they can't constantly be cutting to some talking head advertising tours of KSC, or stating "We're experiencing technical difficulties".

They have to use what radio & tv use for censorship, which when properly executed, works pretty damn well.

Originally posted by WestPoint23

that would be kind of hard to stop since 1000s of people stream (and record) NASA TV.

Who airs NASA tv? They can easily delay the feed by a couple of seconds or more to filter out anything "inappropriate" if they wanted to, and you wouldn't even notice.

Actually it sounds like the interrupt was real-time and as quickly as would be expected. There was one mission where flight controllers on a shuttle mission saw "an object" move laterally into view (that's a big deal right there all by itself) and just as soon as it came into the cargo bay camera view and the flight controllers were seeing it and wondering what the heck it was - the camera cut off; completely went dead.

So while I believe feed can be quickly cut, it can't be cut any faster than that, and, no, I do not believe there is a delay.

[edit on 9-19-2006 by Valhall]

holy heck man....i dont even know what to say about this.

i dunno i try to be a skeptic about everything because so often stuff like this turns out to be nothing...but man this is truley something i can honestly step back and say i have no clue what it is.

yes it will undoubtedly be some kind of metal or something in the end..but for now i will have fun and go along with this one...

so having said that, maybe it's a space jellyfish? you guys we would be to lucky lets say if this was some kind of alien, for it to be intelligent. maybe it's just a space jellyfish going for a swim and it cant communicate or do anything, except float around and chill out.

aw man, i wish the news had some serious coverage of this. screw iran, screw all other news...i want one of these gov fools to at least look into this. this could quite possibly be a huge discovery, if not..at least it was interesting.

the thing that messed with my head, is that it seems to have a shape of it's own. not like some peice of broken off space station or whatever.....i dunno they should try and get closer to it maybe even capture it if possible.

well till all our dreams are crushed and it's officially classified as a rock or something, long live the great space jellyfish!

Valhall,

NASA actually admits to at least a one minute delay in the feed.

quest.nasa.gov...

Timing Delays

Due to network congestion, buffering, encoding and other delays the video signal may be delayed up to one minute from the actual event. We would like to hear from you if you feel you have experienced a delay longer than one minute.

lost shaman,

Please don't twist the words though. That says MAY BE delayed, and they gave the reasons why it could be. What I meant by what I said was NO, I do not believe there is an INTENTIONAL and/or CONSTANT delay on the feed.

A little more clarification. If you're working, but not on shift in MCC during a major event (launch, dock, entry, whatever), you watch the feed on NASA TV...you don't trapse over to MCC to watch it, because it's the exact same feed.

It's not delayed.