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 9 Crew came aboard. The Station had nearly doubled in size, with a large increase in capability.

Expedition 9 initiated with the launch of Soyuz TMA-4 atop a Starsem booster from Baykonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on 18 April 2004 at 10:19 PM CDT (03:19 19 April GMT). Aboard were Station and Soyuz Commander Gennady Padalka, and Flight Engineer Mike Fincke. In the third seat was ESA Astronaut Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, on the Delta Mission. They spent the next two days chasing ISSy for rendezvous and docking, which took place at 12:01 AM (05:01 GMT) on 21 April. The three men were warmly greeted by the outgoing crew of Expedition 8. These were Commander Mike Foale and Flight Engineer Alexander "Sasha" Kaleri. A week of joint operations ensued, with the station being finally handed over to the Expedition 9 crew. Andre Kuipers, and the Expedition 8 crew entered their Soyuz TMA-3 vehicle to return to Earth on 29 April 2004.

During their six month stay aboard, the Expedition 9 crew carried out Four EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activity or spacewalk) and an extensive but flexible program of science. These included some 21 different experiments in five categories. These were Bioastronautics, the Physical Sciences, Space Product Development, Space Flight, and Space Biology. More can be learned about the Expedition 9 Science program Here, and Here.

With the arrival of the Expedition 10 Crew, and Cosmonaut Yuri Shargin of the Russian Space Forces, on 15 October 2004, the final week of Expedition 9 was at hand. As is usual practice, the two crews worked together for a week to familiarize the new men with their home in orbit. On 23 October at 4:08 PM CDT (21:08 GMT), the Soyuz TMA-4 undocked from ISSy for the return home. Cosmonaut Shargin was aboard with the Expedition 9 crew for the ride. A safe landing was achieved near Arkalyk Kazakhstan on 23 October at 7:36 PM CDT (00:36 24 October GMT). Expedition 9 was a productive and successful mission to ISS, and all ended very well. Total flight duration: 187 days 21 hours 17 minutes.

ISS (International Space Station) needs a constant stream of supplies in order to run smoothly. There must be food, water, clothing, and other essentials for the human crew, as well as variety of eqipment and consumables for other station needs.

This is where the Russian Progress vehicles come in. Especially since the Space Shuttle fleet was grounded for over two years following the loss of Columbia in February 2003.

This venerable and reliable craft (marked Red at left ) has been in production, and use, since 1978. It served to supply the Salyut space stations, and Space Station Mir for 23 years. It has been serving the ISS program since its inception. The Progress vehicles are completely expendable, and are usually filled with rubbish before undocking from the host station, to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere upon re-entry.

WITHOUT supplies, ISS would have to be abandoned before very much time elapsed. A severe shortage of food almost brought about this contingency in December 2004. Sloppy inventory by the Expedition 9 crew had allowed food supplies to fall dangerously short. The arrival of Progress-16, with a sizeable allotment of foodstuffs and 2.5 tons of other logistics, on Christmas Day 2004 permitted the crew to remain on board. Had Progress-16 failed to dock for any reason, the Expedition 10 crew would have been forced to enter their Soyuz TMA-5 craft to return home long before their scheduled departure. ISS would have become an un-manned satellite very early in 2005.

Cargo vessel Progress-15 was launched from Baykonur Cosmodrome, atop a Soyuz rocket, to begin its journey to rendezvous and docking with ISSy, at the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module. It brought about three tons of supplies and consumables to the Expedition 9 Crew, arriving on 14 August 2004. The operation went exactly according to plan.

Before final docking took place, we were given less than TWO MINUTES of television from the camera aboard Progress-15. In this view was a very bright light, in the night, moving slowly, and INDEPENDENTLY, in the void, sharing the same field of view as the space station.

This object appeared to approach, and sidle up along side ISS. When it came closer, the view was swiftly discontinued. (There's a reason it's called NASA SELECT TV) Now this was at night. There was no sunshine to reflect from any sort of debris. Dawn was approaching, but the Sun was still well below the horizon. This indicates to us that the object was self-luminous.

The segment with the anomaly has been captured from the original video tape recorded "live" as the event was broadcast on NASA Select TV. Sixteen frames have been made into a series of animated GIFs so that you can see the object, and its motion, in a much speedier format. We have also captured frames to show where Progress was at the time it was transmitting these images.

We'll also look at a frame from just after the Progress transmission was cut off. This frame was sent down from a camera aboard ISSy itself. That camera was pointed in the direction of the cargo vessel. Progress was silhouetted against the coming dawn, and we can pick it out by its shiny bright head lamp.

There is another object in this view which does not coincide with anything which SHOULD be there. This is a second unknown object from this event, but as we have ONLY one frame of this scene, there is nothing further to pursue. We can see the twilit atmosphere of Earth in the background. Curiously, this was the one and ONLY view of the entire operation broadcast from ISSy itself.

Let's take a few moments to examine the pictures from this event, OK?

This is the computer generated world map NASA uses to show where ISSy and Progress are. Between these two frames was the one minute increment of television from the black & white Progress camera showing the anomaly.

Please take note that during the entire sequence, the Sun remains below the eastern horizon.

Here we have the one and only camera view from ISSy itself. The Sun is below the horizon. The second anomaly is shown to the left of Progress-15. The white arc is the atmosphere of Earth lighted up by the approaching sunrise.

Since this is all we have of the second anomaly, there is nothing more which can be done. All we can assume about it is that it's not astronomical, since we see it agains the face of the darkened Earth.

This is an example of what MOST of the 1 minute 4 second TV signal from Progress-15 looked like. It was breaking up constantly. I was able to capture the useable frames, with the anomaly, during the various moments when the picture "cleared up".

The "cross-hairs" and text you see are the engineering display, and contol axes used by ground personnel at TsUP in Korolev Russia to remotely operate the robotic Progress.

This is a whole sky chart borrowed from the Heavens-Above site to show what planets would have been visible in the sky that morning, and where the Moon was. It is for Lagos Nigeria at the local time for this event. As can be seen, Venus, Saturn, and the Moon were near the eastern horizon at the time. The camera aboard Progress-15 was pointed 180° in the other direction. The anomaly is NOT a celestial object.

The second anomaly, captured by the camera aboard ISSy, was seen AGAINST the face of Earth. This proves that it also was NOT astronomical.

Once again, we are confronted with anomalous objects seen by cameras in outer space. And also, once again, it remains ignored and unacknowledged by the space agencies involved. It sure appears to this writer that they are hiding something important from their constituencies.

We've examined this event as carefully, and as scientifically as possible with the resources available. We can safely come to several conclusions about its nature. Since the object in question is not part of ISSY (It moves independently of the station), is demonstrably not astronomical, and is self-luminous, I must classify this one as an unknown.

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At all times during this incident, the camera and audio feed were under the control of the CATO in Houston Mission Control.

(INCO - INstrument & Communication Officer - The man in Houston Mission Control Center who is responsible for operating the Shuttle payload bay, and robotic arm, cameras. He also remotely operates the helmet cameras in space suits. In the case of ISS, this officer is referred to as the CATO - Communications And Tracking Officer. In both cases, these persons CONTROL everything which is PERMITTED to go out on broadcast to the public. It is a commonly believed falacy that the cameras are operated by Astronauts & Cosmonauts on the Shuttles, and Space Station. Very little camera work is done by the crews. They're way too busy for that.)

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

© 2006 Jeff Challender