Richard Dolan Blogsite

Old news seems to get recirculated a lot these days. Something interesting happens, we get excited about it. Then we forget about it. Then someone else repackages it as something new, and we get excited about it again, thinking it’s brand new. Like the baboon and the snake from Animals are Beautiful People.

In this case, the confusion is understandable, since the original event occurred more than six years ago. And, frankly, it remains interesting to this day. Above is the video clip that made the rounds again.

In that video, NASA official Wayne Hale said this to say:

‎”Over the years, we have chased many, many, many of these things, maybe not with the visibility that this one has gotten, and rarely, if ever, been able to pinpoint exactly where they came from and always finding out that they didn’t pose us any hazard.”

Well, this certainly is a fascinating statement. I would even call it an admission. But in fact, it’s an old admission. Fortunately, among my many brilliant friends is one who did the legwork and found the source. I’ll spare you her expert sleuthing methods, but the bottom line is that this was NASA mission was STS-115, from September 2006.
Here is a news piece from September 21, 2006, clearly referring to the same incident (using the same image that appears in the video). And a nice piece by George Filer, reporting the same incident and commenting on a Fox News video as well from September 20, 2006.

So a big thanks to Bridget Reynolds. Take a bow, Bridget.

Now, the real question is, what are those orbs in the video? Debris? Who knows. For my part, they look very strange, indeed. And I do think that Hale’s statement is quite telling. Essentially, NASA is saying that these things are unknown.

UFOs in Earth orbit. Yes, I would say that is an official admission.

Realistically, though, it would be nice to get the full context of Hale’s statement. Yes, the objects were unknown, yes NASA has a history of “chasing” these things. But are they considered ordinary debris by NASA that is unexplained? Or a real mystery?

Did Hale slip up by saying too much? Not sure what I think about it at this point. Still, given the context of a long history of weird things in Earth orbit noticed by many observers, I think it’s fair to say that something is going on up there.