NASA STS-48 "UFO" VIDEO
| |||||||||||
About this capture
Organization: Internet Archive
__wm.bt(575,27,25,2,"web","http://www.debunker.com/texts/sts48_ufo.html","2016-08-19",1996);
NASA STS-48 "UFO" VIDEO
By: James Oberg, Rt 2 Box 35O, Dickinson, Texas 77539
June 28, 1992
Subject: Actual explanation for the notorious STS-48 "UFOs" on
videotape
After the HardCopy interview with Don Ecker (June 5), and my
appearance with him on Larry King Live June 26, I've gotten an
appreciation of where this UFO connection has come from. When I
saw the original incoherent letters from [xxxxxxx], I dismissed
it as complete looney-tunes, but subsequently I've found out what
fundamental misunderstanding and ignorance has led to the fuss.
Lights on the shuttle TV cameras can be many things, and on these
scenes in question they are stars, cities, lens spots, and nearby
shuttle-generated debris (they are rarely if ever other
satellites). Especially with the low-light cameras used for the
nighttime mesoscale lightning surveys, the horizon is deceptive
because the glowing line is the airglow and the actual edge of
the earth is somewhat below it. With poor contrast; this means
that stars can cross the glowing "horizon" and still be visible a
bit further before actually setting.
There are more than 50 sources of ice on the shuttle, plus a
steady source of debris such as insulation flakes from inside the
payload bay. This includes 38 primary RCS jets and 6 vernier jets
(which burn the hypergolic [self-igniting] propellants of
nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine), an air dump line, a waste
water dump line, a supply water dump line, two fuel cell purge
lines (the hydrogen one is always leaking water), two flash
evaporators, a water spray boiler, and so forth. No surprise,
then, that floating debris near the shuttle is a common sight.
The particles usually (not always) spin, and depending on the
axis of spin they may or may not flash, and depending on the
speed of spin their flicker may or may not be picked up by the
camera CCD scanner.
The RCS jets usually fire in 80-millisecond pulses to keep the
shuttle pointed in a desired direction, under autopilot control
(usually once every few minutes). These jets may flash when they
ignite if the mixture ratio is not quite right. Propellant also
tends to seep out the feed lines into the nozzle, where it
accumulates, freezes through evaporative cooling, and flakes off
during the next firing. The ejected burn byproducts travel at
about 1000 ft/sec. One pulse usually emits about a quarter pound
of propellant in a fan-shaped plume.
When small, drifting debris particles are hit by this RCS plume
they are violently accelerated away from the jet. This is what is
seen in the infamous "Case 2" sequence, where a flash (the jet
firing) is immediately followed by all nearby particles being
pushed away from the jet, followed shortly later by a fast moving
object (evidently RCS fuel ice) departing from the direction of
the jet (the streak is caused by the slow camera speed). If one
plotted all the departure lines of the pushed debris and the
expelled ice, they would converge at the jet's location.
These ice particles, in particular, form slowly inside the jets
and elsewhere, as the fluid (water or propellant) seeps out and
spreads over the surface, They take on the shape of the structure
they form on. They can thus have just about any shape, usually
flat. They have been seen and photographed for thirty years,
about as long as UFOlogists have mistaken them for flying
saucers.
Go to
The UFO Skeptic's Page
