sts88 - and Black Knight
sts88 - and Black Knight
sts88 - and Black Knight
What IS it?
What ISN’T it?
WHY the confusion?
-- Several still images on NASA website
-- Entitled “STS-88 debris”
-- BLACK shape with bright highlights
-- Weird changing shape excites some folks
-- Somehow absorbed into pre-existing myth
of a pre-Space-Age phantom moonlet
-- Wild imaginations regarding vehicle’s
origin, purpose, and proper treatment
-- Prosaic explanation disappoints many
www.jamesoberg.com
Hundreds of YOUTUBE videos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxYqHF_-5jo
December 3-15, 1998, The STS-88
‘Discovery’, crew of Bob mission
Cabana, Rick Sturckow, Nancy
Currie, Jim Newman, Jerry
Ross, and Sergey Krikalyov
• First shuttle mission in support of
assembly of International Space Station
• Mission: Grab Russian ‘FGB’ module already in low
orbit, attach it to US ‘Node 1’ in payload bay,
perform spacewalks to install equipment
• Crew also briefly enters Node 1 and FGB
To James Oberg
for leading joint
design team for
STS-88 / ISS 2A
rendezvous
Space Station orbital path
• One of the EVA tasks was installing thermal covers over the
four trunnion pins on the Node. These are the stubby poles
extending from its sides that had locked into sockets along
the wall and keel of the Space Shuttle Orbiter’s payload bay
during launch to docking. Attached to round ‘skid plate’.
• Once the node was deployed, the trunnion pins were
useless. But as bare metal, they were 'heat leaks' into
space. Strapping a blanket over each one would save a lot
of power, since now it would not be needed for heating.
What shape for the cover?
• The insulation blanket would need a ‘sleeve’ to
slip over the long trunnion pin itself
• It would also need a reflective flat circular
covering for the round metallic skid plate
• It would need flaps at points along the plate’s
circumference to easily attach to existing frames
on the module, using bulky gloves
• It would have to contain handling loops and
tiedowns for transport by the spacewalker
• It would need to fold up for stowage inside the
shuttle cabin and to pass through hatches
Thermal cover fabrication
Space-
walk
task
Three covers shown. Flat white top, silver underneath, pin 'sleeve' centered.
Spacewalk
video shows
crewmen
and blanket
Where were the thermal covers installed?
Ross –
“I dropped it”
Q: [Shuttle commander] Cabana called out the escape of this cover, right?
What were your first thoughts?
A: What are you talking about? Where is it? And where did it come from?
• Q: Do you recall which trunnion pin didn't get covered? Did this blanket
have a specific code name/number?
A: I don’t remember which trunnion pin didn’t get covered. Jim Newman
was supposed to put them all on from the foot restraint he was in on the
end of the arm.
• But I was ahead of the timeline and they asked me to do one as a free
floating task. I said OK and he handed it to me and I tethered to it (at least I
thought so) and he untethered from it. We were both looking directly at it
while this was being done.
• There were two different trunnion pin cover designs, one “left-handed” (-
001) and one “right-handed” (-002) for the two sides and two ends.
Jerry Ross interview part 2
• Q: What kind of latch was on the tether and why do you suspect it failed?
A: We used the same type of tethers for all of our tasks and they had a lock-lock
design so that they could not accidently be opened. The tether points on the specific
items were different and I do not remember exactly what the tether point on the
cover was.
Q:. Were you ready to go try to retrieve it, before it drifted off too fast?
A: It was already too far away by the time it was noticed to be reached.
Q: As it moved away did you have time to gaze at it and think about how it looked?
A:I was too pissed at myself to wonder what it looked like!
• Q: What advice would you give people who have been misled into misinterpreting it?
http://postimg.org/image/r5dvhs04/
NASA stills of blanket
http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/_sseop/photo.pl?mission=STS088&roll=724&frame=66
Identification
Mission: STS088 Roll: 724 Frame: 66
Mission ID on the Film or image: STS88
Country or Geographic Name: OCEAN
Features: PAN-SNGLNT [sun glint], SPACE DEBRIS
Note: the first image was taken at 20:16:41. The last image was
taken at 20:18:44. A span of two minutes.
NASA’s “dropped blanket” videos
The two videos show the spacewalkers installing
several thermal covers [blankets] over trunnion
pins on the US Node. The thermal covers are
silver reflective on one side, and flat white on
the other, and are shaped somewhat like a
flattened flower blossom with square-cut petals.
In the videos you can see one of them drifting
off, after it came loose from its tether to the
wrist of one of the astronauts. It shows different
profiles, as it slowly tumbles, to the TV cameras
inside the crew cabin and to various cameras
located in corners of the payload bay.
TAPE NUMBER: 616430 TITLE: STS-88 / 2A Orbit 090, 091
(Downlink Reel # 030)
EVENT GROUND RECORDING
GMT MET GMT MET CAMERA
344 005 344 005
Spacewalking
astronauts here
Tumbling thermal
cover drifts here,
video shows its
shadow crossing
robot arm
YOUTUBE: “The accidental release of the trunnion pin thermal cover”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6omlycVMOcw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXqw6NpCwIg
“Artist concept” of alleged alien encounter, but falsely makes mystery object about five meters long.
Also, no explanation of who was taking the photograph [one site: “A secret Soyuz mission””
Over-interpreted to match Mayan
tomb statue of “spaceship pilot”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgfFXgTsSbc
By adam horton,
http://article.wn.com/view/2014/05/22/NASA_lets_enthusiasts_reboot_zombie_1970s_spacecraft/#
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread882558/pg1
Imaginative captions attached to ‘space junk’ are so much
junk themselves, snares for naïve, imprudent viewers
Open-minded internet surfers wanted!!
True-believers’ skeptical comments
• “Right off the bat the color is white, not black; and it possesses no
details similar to the known NASA photos.”
• “This s##t , what ever it is has nothing to do with the original picture ,
this is just sad and a really pathetic attempt to cover this up.”
• BC · South Groveland, Massachusetts “A friend and I downloaded this
set of six photos from STS 88 over a year ago;. We've shown them to
anyone interested, and I've studied them extensively. In my opinion
this set is undeniable proof of NASA's knowledge of advanced space
technology, but whether it's ours or ‘theirs’ is up for debate.”
• MB “An insulation blanket? Really?,… further lies about the basics of
e.t. existences here are just silly.”
• PT West Hills, California - “It can’t be a blanket due to there not being
any wind in space... why would it contort in a vacuum? it's
rearranging it's shape because it feels like it?”
Matching
exact features
of video of
thermal
blanket with
famous still of
“unidentified”
object.
Courtesy
Ectoplasm8
Ectoplasm8’s editorial
I find some of these responses quite funny. The intense passion to
want to believe so badly that this is something alien, clouds any type
of logical thinking. You're faced with an answer through statements,
videos, and photos, yet you still refuse to accept it. Even with the
relatively low quality of the video and the stills I've taken from that
video, the similarities between the two are far too close to just write
off. If you are on the fantasy side believing this is some sort of craft,
alien satellite, etc., being defensive and refusing to accept anything
outside of what you want to believe, is typical and expected.
Understanding that viewing any photo or video of a supposed UFO, or
anything alien, is to be approached with an Earthly, boring, mundane
explanation first. Not the other way around. And as we found out in
this particular situation, the answer was an Earthly one. Unfortunately,
some people are stubborn and form their initial opinions either just by
what something looks like, or from UFO folklore and refuse to let go of
that opinion even if the evidence shows otherwise.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread963626/pg2
NOT THE END
• These kinds of reality-independent stories
survive decades despite collapse of evidence
• Youtube “STS-88 UFO” gives 4,000 hits
• Google of “STS-88 UFO” gives 2.3 million hits
• Google of “Black Knight” sat gives 2,000,000.