NASA cuts ISS livestream after a strange object appears on camera, sparking UFO questions online

NASA viewers say the ISS livestream briefly switched to its routine “signal loss” slate just after a small bright object crossed the frame, igniting fresh UFO chatter. NASA has not issued a specific statement on this clip yet. NASA historically explains that these cutaways are automatic when the station drops out of relay satellite coverage or controllers switch cameras, which happens many times a day. In past flare-ups, NASA spokespeople described the ISS video system as automated and prone to blue-screening during Tracking and Data Relay Satellite handoffs.

NASA also notes that bright “objects” often prove to be meteors, reentering debris, satellites or simple reflections from the station or Earth. The pattern is familiar. The High Definition Earth Viewing experiment that made these public feeds famous ended on August 22, 2019. Today’s public views come from other external cameras that behave the same way during link gaps. NASA’s current UAP policy is to study unusual sightings with better data rather than speculation.

What exactly happened on NASA's ISS stream? A minute-by-minute of the cutaway

Social posts claim a distant luminous speck drifted near the Earth's limb, then the ISS stream shifted sources and displayed the familiar “no signal” slate. One Reddit eyewitness pegs it to about 11:04 a.m. US Central Time, after which the camera view changed and then showed the slate. Treat third-party timestamps cautiously unless mirrored by official logs.

How the feed works is straightforward. NASA’s public ISS video rides the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites. When the ISS drops out of KU-band coverage or controllers switch sources, the public video automatically reverts to a blue screen or preset slate. That behaviour is expected and frequent. As per a CBS News report dated July 14, 2016, NASA spokesperson Daniel Huot said,

“The station regularly passes out of range of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) used to send and receive video, voice and telemetry from the station… For video, whenever we lose signal (video comes down on our higher bandwidth, called KU) the cameras will show a blue screen (indicating no signal) or a preset video slate.”

Why this fuels rumors is the timing. Sometimes the slate appears just as a bright point enters the frame, which viewers read as intent. Past NASA statements describe coincidence tied to link margins and automation, not manual censorship. Space.com’s summary of the same 2016 controversy adds that both “object in view” and “feed cut” happen regularly, and that NASA “did not turn off the camera intentionally.”

Context matters for today’s streams. The High Definition Earth Viewing payload stopped sending data on July 18, 2019 and was declared end of life on August 22, 2019, with later disposal on a Cygnus cargo ship. Current external cameras still provide public views and still show the same “no signal” behaviour during handoffs.

So what was the “strange object”? Likely IDs, from mundane to misread

Common candidates fit known categories. Meteors or reentering debris often skim Earth’s limb. Human-made satellites can briefly glint. Small flecks of ISS-adjacent debris can flash as they tumble. And optical artefacts from the station’s structure, window reflections, lens flare or even bad pixels are routine. As per Space.com report dated July 14, 2016, NASA representatives stated,

“Reflections from station windows, the spacecraft structure itself or lights from Earth commonly appear as artifacts in photos and videos from the orbiting laboratory.”

Past precedent shows this pattern repeating. Media breakdowns of 2015 to 2017 clips emphasized that both “object” and “feed cut” are normal and not evidence of a deliberate blackout. The 2016 CBS coverage included NASA’s technical explanation and pointed to meteors or reentering hardware as likely sources.

What is different today is the camera stack, not the behaviour. HDEV ended in 2019, yet today’s external cameras still cycle and still drop to slate during TDRS handoffs. That is how the pipeline works.

On odd audio or video moments, recent confusion came from a misrouted training drill that aired by mistake. As per The Guardian report dated June 13, 2024, NASA’s ISS account posted,

“There is no emergency situation going on aboard the International Space Station. Audio was inadvertently misrouted from an ongoing simulation where crew members and ground teams train for various scenarios in space.”

Stay tuned for more updates.