(Image credit: Future/Adrian Mann) Historical evidence that also isn't evidenceĬonspiracists absorbed the STS-88 images into a growing body of 'evidence,' claiming they were proof that the Black Knight alien satellite really is out there. The 'Black Knight' is actually debris left over from a spacewalk during the first space shuttle mission to the International Space Station in 1998. All normal journalistic practices - determining the timeline, asking witnesses, searching for the wider context - were skipped.'

“And apparently a NASA website update made the original links inoperative, sparking concerns over a cover-up. 'They are probably some of the weirdest-looking 70-mm photos to ever come out of the space shuttle program,' Oberg said. Since the images were shared far and wide, conspiracy theories have lingered. Given Oberg's thorough debunking, you'd think the matter would have been put to bed long ago. 'The difference is, for the general public all these features are unearthly to folks who are only familiar with Earthside principles of heating, working, motion and dozens of other never-before-encountered-in-history aspects of outer space.' 'Every step of the way, there is consistency with what I learned as a lifelong spaceflight operations specialist: why the blankets were needed, why one of them came loose, why it floated off the way it did,' he added. 'Before leaving NASA, I led the trajectory design team that produced the mission profile,' Oberg told All About Space. The International Space Station (ISS) was in the process of being constructed when astronauts spotted the 'Black Knight.' (Image credit: NASA) Related: The most extreme human spaceflight records Former NASA engineer James Oberg, who personally knows Ross and the person who took the photos, cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, has demonstrated that these supposed images of the Black Knight actually depict a very mundane object. Much of this information been placed on the record. A few days later, the item fell from orbit and burned up. Subsequently captured on camera, this runaway black object was given the catalog number 025570 by NASA. 'Jerry, one of the thermal covers got away from you,' STS-88 commander Robert Cabana (who now serves as associate administrator of NASA) told Ross during the spacewalk, and it soon became apparent that the cover was lost for good. Unfortunately, during one of the spacewalks associated with this work, things went a little bit wrong: One of the covers came loose from its tether, causing it to float away along with some other items. A photo snapped by an astronaut during the space shuttle mission STS-88 in 1998 that conspiracists claim shows the 'Black Knight.' (Image credit: NASA)

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