This is not just some urban legend. You can go to NASA's own site and see the images. They classify it as space junk, and have an official explanation (which we will discuss later on). Basically, this is an UNKNOWN satellite that is obviously artificial. First, some images of the Black Knight satellite so you can see just what we are talking about here:
(Pic taken from Space Shuttle of object commonly alleged as the Black Knight)
(Note, some may claim this is other man-made debris and not the Black Knight, and it may well be, but if so, I've seen nothing else conclusively identifying the rather large object in this pic or the other STS088 pics)
eol.jsc.nasa.gov...
Links to the NASA pages: (for those who like to see the original images for themselves)
eol.jsc.nasa.gov...
eol.jsc.nasa.gov...
eol.jsc.nasa.gov...
eol.jsc.nasa.gov...
eol.jsc.nasa.gov...
This whole story begins in 1954, three years before Russia would launch the Earth's first satellite, Sputnik 1.
On Friday, May 14, 1954, numerous papers carry an interesting statement by retired Marine Corps Major Donald E. Keyhoe, who states the Earth is being circled by one or two artificial satellites. U.S. Government scientists at White Sands, NM, he added, were making an effort to locate and chart them, and determine origin.
(example of two such papers carrying the story, the St. Louis Dispatch and the San Francisco Examiner, showing the national coverage of the story).
(Donald E. Keyhoe)
The story broke out further on August 23, 1954, when Aviation Week magazine stated two satellites had been found at 400 and 600 miles out. They were termed natural satellites, even though this was later deemed a virtual impossibility (and later no such natural satellites were ever claimed).
(the short Aviation Week article)
Pentagon scare over the observance of two previously unobserved satellites orbiting the earth has dissipated with the identification of the objects as natural, not artificial satellites. Dr. Lincoln LaPaz, expert on extraterrestrial bodies from the University of New Mexico, headed the identification project. One satellite is orbiting about 400 miles out, while the other track is 600 miles from the earth. Pentagon thought momentarily the Russians had beaten the U.S. to space explorations.
Clyde Tombaugh (discoverer of Pluto) was tasked by the Defense Department to search for the mystery object.
Dr. Lincoln LaPaz and Clyde Tombaugh
(Tombaugh/LaPaz)
(Thor-Agena A rocket)
(Corona Satellite)
Even if the pic from the Shuttle turns out not to be the Black Knight, we're still left with the capsule not being large enough to fit the Defense Department reports.
Time magazine then runs with the official explanation in their March 7, 1960 edition:
Monday, Mar. 07, 1960
Time Magazine
Three weeks ago, headlines announced that the U.S. had detected a mysterious "dark" satellite wheeling overhead on a regular orbit. There was nervous speculation that it might be a surveillance satellite launched by the Russians, and it brought the uneasy sensation that the U.S. did not know what was going on over its own head. But last week the Department of Defense proudly announced that the satellite had been identified. It was a space derelict, the remains of an Air Force Discoverer satellite that had gone astray. The dark satellite was the first object to demonstrate the effectiveness of the U.S.'s new watch on space. And the three-week time lag in identification was proof that the system still lacks full coordination and that some bugs still have to be ironed out.
First Sighting. The most important component of the space watch went into operation about six months ago with the construction of "Dark Fence," a kind of radar trip wire stretching across the width of the U.S. Designed by the Naval Research Laboratory to keep track of satellites whose radios are silent, it is a notable improvement on other radars, which have difficulty finding a small satellite unless they know where to look. Big, 50-kw. transmitters were established at Gila River, near Phoenix, Ariz, and Jordan Lake, Ala., spraying radio waves upward in the shape of open fans. Some 250 miles on either side, receiving stations pick up signals that bounce off any object passing through the fans. By a kind of triangulation, the operators can make rough estimates of the object's speed, distance and course.
ALSO SEE THIS LINK:
BLACKKNIGHT SATELLITE A COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN ALIEN DEVICE HIDING IN PLAIN SITE?
//////
