NASA·Image
STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 1, 1996
A photograph taken from Space Shuttle Columbia during a 17-day mission captures an unidentified object floating near Earth's limb — the kind of image that's hard to explain away as debris or lens artifact precisely because it was shot by trained astronauts with mission-grade equipment. It's the first in a three-image sequence, which means there's continuity to examine, not just a single anomalous frame.
During STS-80, between November 19 and December 7, 1996, astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Columbia captured a series of three images of an unidentified object in low-Earth orbit. In the first photograph, the object is visible near the center of the frame, to the right of the limb of the Earth.