The mystery over the unidentified flying object (UFO) found near the international space station has been solved.
On Monday morning (19 August), NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy, aboard the international space station, noticed a mysterious object flying near the space station's Progress 52 cargo ship. He filmed the object and reported it to Mission Control Houston. Russian ground controllers were quick to identify the object as an antenna cover from the Zvezda service module, reported NASA.
A narrator on a clip from NASA TV said, "Earlier this morning (19 August), Chris Cassidy had noted an object that was floating past the station near the station's Progress 52 cargo ship. That object has been identified by Russian flight controllers as an antenna cover from the Zvezda service module."
This is not the first time that debris from the space station has created a UFO stir. In 1998, when space shuttle Endeavour was involved in a mission to hook the US-built Unity connecting node to the Zvezda module, astronauts spotted an object floating nearby. Although NASA claimed that the object was a discarded thermal cover, many connected the strange object to the mysterious "Black Knight" satellite, reported NBC News.
Zvezda Service Module
According to NASA, Zvezda service module was Russia's first major contribution to the space station, which is orbiting some 386 km (240 miles) above Earth. The Zvezda module, with a mass of about 19, 323 kg (42,600 pound), was launched atop a proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2000.
It was the third module launched to the space station and it provides the station's living quarters, life support systems, flight control systems, propulsion systems, data processing systems, electrical power distribution, communications system and docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft as well as for the European Automated Transfer Vehicle.
Check below the video of a strange object floating outside the space station. The video was posted by ReelNASA.
