 IMCAT Case Directory Category 08, Photographic / Video Images Preliminary Rating: 5 |
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Skylab
III Photo Incident
September 20, 1973
In Orbit, Over SW Indian Ocean
September 20, 1973
In Orbit, Over SW Indian Ocean
| Fran Ridge: Sept. 20, 1973; In orbit over Indian Ocean
During revolution # 1863. Astronauts Alan Bean,
Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma spotted what they
described as a red "satellite", which they
photographed (4 color photos) and mentioned during a
subsequent debriefing. We have radio conversation
(transcript only) with Houston CapCom about 4.5 hours
after the sighting of this object. There was no
man-made satellite that could explain this sighting
and hence the object was truly anomalous. This case is
multiply-listed as a Cat 8 (photo), Cat 11 (sighting
from air/spacecraft), and flagged as a NASA incident.
10 mins. Distance from Skylab was 25-30 miles.
Estimated diameter was 800 feet.
Joel Carpenter:
One of the things that's so darn fascinating about
this case is something that Dr Maccabee and Brad
Sparks bring up in the article on Maccabee's site. One
interpretation of the sighting is that the object was
approaching on an orbit in a 51 or 52 degree
inclination and about to intersect with Skylab's 50
degree (but much higher) orbit. They mention that that
inclination was used by the Soviets. But actually,
they often used 65 degrees. 51 degrees was used for
certain very specific flights: the Salyut space
stations and the manned Soyuz ships that docked with
them. At the time of the sighting, Salyut-1 and
Salyut-2 had been flown, and both had failed. Salyut-2
was launched in April 1973 and was actually the top
secret Almaz military station, the counterpart of the
US MOL reconnaissance space station. Salyut-2 had
recon gear aboard, but failed before it was manned for
the first time, about 2 weeks after it was launched.
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