Curiosmos
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists
No Result
View All Result
Like us on Facebook
Curiosmos
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists
No Result
View All Result
Curiosmos
No Result
View All Result

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About NASA’s Tether UFO Incident

Vladislav TchakarovbyVladislav Tchakarov
May 14, 2021 - Updated on January 21, 2024
in Curious Lists
Footage from the live broadcast of the famous Tether UFO incident showing some of the strange bright objects believed to be UFOs by many. Credit: NASA

Footage from the live broadcast of the famous Tether UFO incident showing some of the strange bright objects believed to be UFOs by many. Credit: NASA

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Humanity has launched several hundred crewed missions into space over the past decades. In many cases, something strange and inexplicable happened at some point during the missions – from strange anomalies and sounds to alleged encounters with UFOs.

In most cases, credible explanations are invented later to reassure the public that there isn’t anything unusual or significant, but there are also those cases that remain mysterious to this day–So is the Tether UFO Incident of 1996.


10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Tether UFO Incident

1. In February 1996, NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia was launched into orbit with one of the weirdest experiments to date. The Tethered Satellite System (TSS-1R) experiment was supposed to test the electrodynamics of a tether in the ionosphere, with the ultimate long-term goal of using such technology for generating electricity to supply future space missions.

2. When the time came for the deployment of the tether, it seemed like the operation was going smoothly. Unfortunately, the tether snapped and went away from the shuttle. Of course, it is good that no other equipment was damaged and no astronauts got hurt. The results of the experiment are not of particular interest to us for this article but I have to say that it was somewhat of a success and astronauts did obtain some significant data.

Related Posts

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and it seems like a good time to dive into some curious facts about this ancient celebration. Credit: Jumpstory

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Valentine’s Day

February 13, 2021 - Updated on January 21, 2024
Ramesses the Great at Abu Simbel. Image Credit: Jumpstory.

10 of the Most Influential Figures in Ancient History Before Christ

April 29, 2021 - Updated on January 21, 2024

3. Since the satellite with the tether remained in a similar orbit, they regularly flew close to the shuttle, they could be observed, photographed, and filmed.

And so, when the distance between the shuttle and the cable was about one and a half hundred kilometers, astronauts Franklin Chang-Diaz and Claude Nicollier took a camera and began to shoot the cable during a communication session with the Mission Control Center on a live television broadcast.

That is, the MCC communicated with the astronauts in space and discussed the live footage. Here is the original unprocessed video of the Tether UFO Incident that was broadcasted live.

4. From about 2:50 in the video, you can see the mysterious bright objects, considered to be UFOs by many, appeared around the tether.

5. Strangely, the communication which we hear during the video does not contain any surprise or excitement from meeting the unknown. Both to the Mission Control Center and the astronauts in space, there was nothing unusual.

6. NASA was quick to give an explanation about the Tether UFO Incident. According to them, these were ice particles and space debris which has, of course, been rejected by believers and conspiracy theorists around the world.

7. There is obviously a lot of debris in space which is why I will not go in-depth with this part of the explanation but only about the ice particles. According to officials, they came to be from the shuttle’s toilet waste and additional water discharge.

8. First of all, the shuttle’s toilet is designed so that solid waste was stored and returned to the ground, while liquid waste was thrown overboard directly into space by a special system.

Secondly, it was in this mission that experiments with additional water discharge were carried out. Therefore, the shuttle, which did not change its orbit, was surrounded by a huge number of small pieces of ice that formed after the discharge.

9. Five years ago, a former NASA astronaut who flew during similar missions in the 90s openly stated that the mysterious objects in the Tether UFO incident were ice crystals flowing that had been floating alongside the shuttle for days.

10. Unlike other UFO incidents when explanations have not sounded convincing, in this case, it seems like there truly was nothing unusual in the footage. Of course, there have been numerous other theories from UFOlogists and netizens throughout the years. Some have suggested that the bright objects were large undiscovered life forms in space.


Join the discussion and participate in awesome giveaways in our mobile Telegram group. Join Curiosmos on Telegram Today. t.me/Curiosmos


Sources:

• Austin, J. (2016, May 09). Astronaut breaks 20-year silence over space shuttle ufo mystery with ‘conclusive proof’.
• Christian, C. (2014, September 18). UFO believers claim NASA footage OF ‘TETHER Incident’ proves aliens exist.
• Evans, B. (2016, March 07). ‘Broken at the Boom’: 20 years Since STS-75 (part 2).
• RationalWiki. (n.d.). STS-75 incident.
• Wikipedia. (2021, February 20). Sts-75.

Share157Tweet98Share27ShareSend
Vladislav Tchakarov

Vladislav Tchakarov

Hello, my name is Vladislav and I am glad to have you here on Curiosmos. As a history student, I have a strong passion for history and science, and the opportunity to research and write in this field on a daily basis is a dream come true.

Related Posts

Is it possible that a time machine, known as the Chronovisor, already exists in the Vatican? Credit: Pixabay
Curious Lists

10 Things You Need To Know About The Chronovisor, Vatican’s Alleged Time Machine

May 24, 2021 - Updated on January 21, 2024
The Patomskiy Crater is yet another of the countless mysterious locations in Siberia.
Curious Lists

10 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About The Siberia’s Living Crater

October 30, 2020 - Updated on January 21, 2024
An illustration of a supercomputer core
Curious Lists

10 Things You Should Know About Japan’s Fugaku Hybrid Quantum Supercomputer

February 11, 2025
The Kowloon Walled City was the most densely populated place in the world and a city with literally no laws. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Curious Lists

10 Facts About The Destroyed City of Darkness in China

April 18, 2021 - Updated on January 21, 2024
The famous photograph of Howard Carter when he opened the coffins of Tutankhamun.
Curious Lists

10 Most Significant Treasures Found in Tutankhamun’s Tomb in Pictures

September 27, 2020 - Updated on January 21, 2024
An artist’s rendering of Artificial Intelligence. Depositphotos.
Curious Lists

10 Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Completely Change the World by 2030

May 9, 2022 - Updated on January 21, 2024
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Fair Use Notice
  • DMCA / Removal
  • Impressum
  • Contact
  • Fact-Checking Policy
  • Ethics Policy
  • Ownership and Funding Information
  • Impressum
CURIOSMOS.COM

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Unsolved Mysteries
  • Ancient Civilizations
  • Cosmic Phenomena
  • Alien Theories
  • Curious Lists