Country dossier

UFO sightings in Earth orbit: documented cases, reports, and evidence

Earth orbit has 5 documented UFO/UAP cases in this archive, spanning 1965 to 1998. This page groups the national record so readers can compare case dates, evidence types, official context, and representative reports before opening the full dossiers.

Archive profile

Earth orbit

Case count: 5
Time span: 1965-1998
Main evidence types: Official records / Images and video / Military context / Witness reports

Representative cases

19981998 STS-88 Black Knight Satellite PhotographsThe famous Black Knight images are real STS-88 photographs, but they do not establish an ancient alien satellite. NASA catalogs frames STS088-724-66, 67 and 70 as space debris, photographed on December 11, 1998. Its mission summary records lost equipment, while Brian Dunning's later account identifies the photographed object as a thermal blanket. The checked primary records do not individually connect that identification to every frame. The defensible distinction is between a documented orbital photograph, a plausible lost-hardware explanation and unsupported claims about the object's age or origin.19961996 STS-75 Tether UFO VideoSTS-75's tether broke on February 26, 1996 GMT, after almost 20 kilometres had deployed from Columbia. Later video of the free-flying satellite and tether shows bright patches that have been interpreted as giant UFOs. The NASA mission record establishes the hardware failure and later observations, not giant craft. James Oberg proposed defocus and bright-image effects; that interpretation does not independently identify every point. The official Flight Day 9 programme provides a better reference than anonymous edits, while target distance and the exact imaging chain remain essential limits on size claims.19911991 STS-48 UFO VideoThe STS-48 UFO debate concerns lights, a flash and apparent direction changes in shuttle video attributed to September 15, 1991. Jack Kasher argued against a nearby-ice model; James Oberg proposed debris accelerated by a shuttle thruster plume. Neither screen motion nor disagreement supplies the missing target distance. NASA's mission report documents Discovery's operations, but the passages examined do not identify those points or match a particular firing to the disputed flash. The recording is not a measured demonstration of extraordinary spacecraft performance.19731973 Skylab 3 Red Object ObservationSkylab 3 astronauts reported a bright reddish object through the wardroom window in September 1973. NASA recorded changing brightness and disappearance shortly after the station entered darkness, but no confirmed identity. Four photographic frame numbers exist, with inconsistent descriptions in the NASA index. A later analysis dates the sighting September 20 and proposes a large object; that size depends on unverified exposure timing, optics and distance assumptions. The record supports an unusual observation, not a measured giant spacecraft or established extraterrestrial origin.

Complete case list

Earth orbit

19981998 STS-88 Black Knight Satellite PhotographsThe famous Black Knight images are real STS-88 photographs, but they do not establish an ancient alien satellite. NASA catalogs frames STS088-724-66, 67 and 70 as space debris, photographed on December 11, 1998. Its mission summary records lost equipment, while Brian Dunning's later account identifies the photographed object as a thermal blanket. The checked primary records do not individually connect that identification to every frame. The defensible distinction is between a documented orbital photograph, a plausible lost-hardware explanation and unsupported claims about the object's age or origin.Earth orbitGrade B / DISPUTED 19961996 STS-75 Tether UFO VideoSTS-75's tether broke on February 26, 1996 GMT, after almost 20 kilometres had deployed from Columbia. Later video of the free-flying satellite and tether shows bright patches that have been interpreted as giant UFOs. The NASA mission record establishes the hardware failure and later observations, not giant craft. James Oberg proposed defocus and bright-image effects; that interpretation does not independently identify every point. The official Flight Day 9 programme provides a better reference than anonymous edits, while target distance and the exact imaging chain remain essential limits on size claims.Earth orbitGrade B / DISPUTED 19911991 STS-48 UFO VideoThe STS-48 UFO debate concerns lights, a flash and apparent direction changes in shuttle video attributed to September 15, 1991. Jack Kasher argued against a nearby-ice model; James Oberg proposed debris accelerated by a shuttle thruster plume. Neither screen motion nor disagreement supplies the missing target distance. NASA's mission report documents Discovery's operations, but the passages examined do not identify those points or match a particular firing to the disputed flash. The recording is not a measured demonstration of extraordinary spacecraft performance.Earth orbitGrade B / DISPUTED 19731973 Skylab 3 Red Object ObservationSkylab 3 astronauts reported a bright reddish object through the wardroom window in September 1973. NASA recorded changing brightness and disappearance shortly after the station entered darkness, but no confirmed identity. Four photographic frame numbers exist, with inconsistent descriptions in the NASA index. A later analysis dates the sighting September 20 and proposes a large object; that size depends on unverified exposure timing, optics and distance assumptions. The record supports an unusual observation, not a measured giant spacecraft or established extraterrestrial origin.Earth orbitGrade B / DISPUTED 19651965 Gemini IV UFO SightingJames McDivitt reported a white cylindrical object with a projection during Gemini IV, dated June 4, 1965 in Franklin Roach's investigation. McDivitt could not establish its distance or size. He rejected the familiar published pictures as images of his object and later favored spacecraft debris. His earlier account of a hazy photograph differs from his 1999 statement that nothing appeared in the pictures. The case is a documented astronaut report, not an authenticated photograph or identification of an alien spacecraft.Earth orbitGrade B / DISPUTED