NASA-UAP-D031, STS-80 Unidentified Object Image 2, 1996

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.