UFO NEAR SHUTTLE PUZZLES NASA SCIENTISTS

Neither a bird nor a plane nor even, apparently, Superman, the identity of the
mysterious object that floated beside the shuttle Atlantis earlier in its
mission continues to elude NASA officials. The object, about 5 feet long and
slightly resembling a car bumper, was videotaped by the astronauts Saturday as
it sailed along between the shuttle and Earth.

A NASA spokeswoman said Sunday that the object was no longer visible from the
shuttle. But the mystery remained. The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration believes the object was nothing more than debris lost during
the deployment of a communications satellite Friday, but acknowledges it
cannot be certain what was out there.

Nearly identical objects have been seen on previous shuttle flights from which
satellites were deployed, flight director Phil Engelauf said.

He said at a Sunday news briefing at Johnson Space Center in Houston that NASA
engineers are still scratching their heads over the object.

"We looked at the tape again and again last night and compared it to videotape
from another mission", Engelauf said. "Except to say it looks identical to the
debris we saw before, I can't give you anything new."

Whatever it is, he said, it has not interfered with previous missions or
threatened this one.