Declassified UAP

NASA-UAP-D031

STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 2, 1996

Agency
NASA
Format
Photograph
Incident date
1996
Released
Release 04, July 10, 2026
Source
war.gov
Topics
Photos & film, Spaceflight

Description from war.gov

During STS-80, between November 19 and December 7, 1996, astronauts aboard Space Shuttle Columbia captured a series of three images of an unidentified object in low-Earth orbit. In the second photograph, the object is visible near the center of the frame, to the right of the limb of the Earth. It appears to have rotated or tumbled about its major axis, which is consistent with the behavior of a free-floating object.
NASA-UAP-D031, STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 2, 1996, as released by war.gov
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File metadata (EXIF)

Read from the file as published on war.gov. Nothing added, nothing interpreted.

Dimensions
3568 × 2245 px
X Resolution
960000/10000
Y Resolution
960000/10000
Software
Adobe Photoshop 27.7 (Windows)
Date Time
2026:07:02 09:16:20
Color Space
65535
Download the photograph Open on war.gov

Machine summary

Written by Claude Sonnet 4.6 (Anthropic) on July 13, 2026, from the record's text and war.gov's description. It is not part of the record and can contain errors; check it against the document.

NASA-UAP-D031 is a photographic image captured during Space Shuttle Columbia mission STS-80, which flew between November 19 and December 7, 1996. It is the second in a series of three images documenting an unidentified object observed in low-Earth orbit. The object appears near the center of the frame, positioned to the right of Earth's limb. Between frames, the object appears to have rotated or tumbled about its major axis, behavior described as consistent with a free-floating object.

The image is notable as part of a multi-frame sequence, which allows for limited analysis of the object's motion and orientation over time. The apparent axial rotation is the primary observational detail of record. No OCR text is available, meaning any accompanying data, captions, or technical annotations embedded in the original document are not recoverable from this release. The record contains no identification of the object and no agency assessment of its nature. It sits within a broader set of NASA orbital imagery flagged under the PURSUE release program.

Most frequent words

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object earth between november december astronauts aboard space shuttle columbia captured series images unidentified orbit second photograph visible near center frame right limb appears rotated tumbled major axis consistent behavior

Records war.gov itself pairs with this one.

  1. NASA-UAP-D030 STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 1, 1996 NASA Photograph 1996
  2. NASA-UAP-D032 STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 3, 1996 NASA Photograph 1996

Closest matches by the text of the documents.

  1. NASA-UAP-VM002 Apollo 12, 1969 NASA Photograph 1969
  2. NASA-UAP-VM004 Apollo 12, 1969 NASA Photograph 1969
  3. NASA-UAP-VM003 Apollo 12, 1969 NASA Photograph 1969
  4. NASA-UAP-VM001 Apollo 12, 1969 NASA Photograph 1969