STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 3, 1996
A photograph taken from Space Shuttle Columbia during a 21-day mission captures an unidentified object hanging in the middle distance between the orbiter and Earth below. What makes this third image in the series notable is the implied motion — the object appears to have been tracked across multiple frames, following a trajectory that passed between Columbia and the planet's surface. That rules out a lot of easy explanations and puts this squarely in the category of something that was actually *there*, moving through low-Earth orbit alongside one of NASA's longest shuttle missions.
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 third photograph, the object is visible near the center of the frame, superimposed against the Earth. It appears to have continued along a trajectory passing between Columbia and the Earth.