NASA
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NASA.txt - This document is a compilation of material relating to NASA and sightings by astronauts of UFO's. The material contained herein is not of an original nature but can be found in the sources listed at the end of the text. There has been much discussion on astronaut sightings in the echos. To help stimulate this and get us all up to speed on the topic I thought it would be informative to collect all the available material into one file. I have attempted to collect the facts and present the opinions both pro and con concerning each incident. I have only listed sources for which I have actual copies in my possession. If you know of other sources not listed here which specifically relate to NASA encounters, please let me know. You assistance is appreciated.
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If you have further information not included here let me know. Grudge 13 & the DULCE PAPERS are of great interest to me. If you have any information to share on these topics I would be most interested in corresponding with you. I can be reached via the UFONET BBS network.
Harvey S. Stewart (12/05/89)
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If you were on a mission to study the inhabitants of the planet we call earth would you not be interested in the primitive attempts at early space travel. It seems that UFO's have been especially interested in following our space program. Just what do our astronauts know that they aren't talking about? What did we find when we went to the moon? The astronauts that returned from the moon seemed to be profoundly changed by the experience. Why did we seemingly abandon our space program following the lunar landings? Why did the Russians not even attempt to go to the moon? Was being second so bad or were they warned away from that goal. These are all profound questions which I cannot attempt to answer. But let's examine the evidence that has been collected and then each come to our own conclusions.
MERCURY 7 May 24 1962 (Scott Carpenter)
A ufo was rumored to have been seen and photographed during this flight He did in fact take a picture of a tracking ballon which was ejected from the capsule. This picture which was enlarged and photographed through a smeared window in the glare of sunlight has been misrepresented as a UFO.
MERCURY 8 October 3, 1963 (Wally Schirra)
Rumored to have seen a UFO and coined the term "Santa Claus" as a code word for UFO. He reported seeing glowing masses over the Indian ocean which were in fact night time lightning clouds. These lights have been taken out of context as being a UFO sighting.
MERCURY 9 May 16, 1963 (Gordon Cooper)
On his final orbit Cooper radioed Muchea tracking station near Perth Australia that he was being approached by a greenish object moving east to west. This is unusual in that it is the opposite direction from most manmade orbits. More than 100 persons saw the object on tracking gear. Following the mission newsmen were informed that they would not be allowed to question Cooper on this aspect of the flight.
It is also reported that a voice transmission was picked up on a special frequency which could not be correlated with any known language.
It should be noted that Cooper has publically denied having seen any UFO in connection with this flight. He did confirm that he saw the Aurora Australis which was multi-colored and may have been taken by some as a UFO sighting.
GEMINI I April 1964 (unmanned)
During the first orbit of this unmanned spacecraft it was joined by four apparently controlled objects. The tracking station observed two objects take up station above Gemini I, with one behind and one below. These relative positions were maintained for one orbit after which they sped off into space.
GEMINI IV June 4, 1965 (James A. McDivitt, Edward White)
With White asleep McDivitt reports an unidentified object. He manages to take some footage of the object on a movie camera that was mounted inside the capsule. The object was first spotted over the Hawaiian Islands. Later over the Caribbean both astronauts report seeing two more objects. One of the movie frames was released to the press and has been reprinted in many books including Frank Edward's book "Flying Saucers Serious Business". The photo shows an egg shaped object with a comet like trail or glow coming out of it. The movie camera was using 16mm Eastman color film shooting at 6 frames per second. The object was yellow - white in color. In the transcript that follows McDivitt is reporting to the Capsule Communicator.
29 40 45 C . . . Hawaii . . .
29 52 09 CC Gemini 4, Guaymas CAP COM
29 52 12 C Go ahead. Guaymas. Gemini 4.
29 52 14 CC Roger. We've got you green, how are you doing up there?
29 52 17 C Fine. I just saw something else up here with me, but
just as I was getting close enough to take a good
picture the sun got in the way and l lost it.
29 52 26 CC Roger. We got some flight plan changes for you.
Want to stand by to copy?
29 52 29 C Yes. Stand by and let me see if I can find this thing again.
29 52 45 C . . . and there are a great number of thunderstorms
around at the present time. Lightning is actually
lighting up the interior of the spacecraft... activity ...
thunderstorms . . .
29 53 35 C Okay. ,Go ahead. It doesn't look like I'm going to see him
again.
29 57 09 CC That's affirm --- you still looking at the thing up there?
29 57 12 C No I've lost it. It had big arms sticking out of it, it
looked like. I only had it for just a minute. I got a
couple of pictures with a movie camera and one with the
Hasselblad; but I was in free drift, before I could get
the control back I drifted and lost it.
29 57 29 CC Good show.McDivitt has publicly denied having seen a aliencraft and states that the released picture was not the object that he saw. The released picture was a light reflection off the copilot's window. McDivitt believes that what he saw was a manmade satellite which was probably not acknowledged for defence security reasons. Unlike many of the astronauts McDivitt has been willing to speak about his incident with the public and press.
GEMINI V August 21 - 29 1965 (Leroy Gordon Cooper, Charles Conrad)
03 04 57 21 CC Gemini 5, Gemini 5, this is Houston. Over.
03 04 57 26 C . . . Houston, Gemini 5.
03 04 57 29 CC Roger, Gemini 5, this is Houston. Be advised that we
tracked another object with you on your pass across
the States. Range was 2 to 10,000 yards from the
spacecraft. You might look around and see if you can
see anything. Unfortunately, I can't tell you which
direction to look.
03 04 57 53 C What time is this?
03 04 57 57 CC Did you say what size or what time?
03 04 58 00 C Time.
03 04 58 02 CC Well, it seems to be going right along with you. So
we're tracking it right with you.
03 04 58 13 C Roger.
03 04 58 21 CC We're going to lose you here shortly but if you see
anything, why don't you let us know at the next station.
03 04 58 27 C Okay.
03 04 58 31 CC The radar return was approximately the same as yours
as far as magnitude.
03 04 58 38 C Roger.GEMINI VII December 4, 1965 (Frank Borman, James Lovell)
During this flight Borman describes what he calls a "bogey at ten o'clock high" The object was slowly tumbling and was at first thought to be their booster rocket. But this was ruled out when the astronauts also saw the booster simultaneously with the bogey.
C Bogey at 10 o'clock high.
CC This is Houston. Say again 7.
C Said we have a bogey at 10 o'clock high.
CC Is that the booster or is that an actual sighting?
C We have several, looks like debris up here. Actual
sighting.
CC .... Estimate distance or size?
C We also have the booster in sight. . .Lovell is reported to have taken some magnificent photographs of two mushroom shaped UFO's on December 4. The pictures seem to show the glow of a propulsion system on the underside. The pictures were taken at a range of several hundred yards. Some believe this picture to be a blatant forgery accomplished by airbrushing a picture of light reflecting off the nose of the spacecraft.
GEMINI IX June 3, 1966 (Stafford, Cernan)
It is reported that the capsule was accompanied from takeoff by UFO's seen from the ground as well as the capsule.
GEMINI X July 19, 1965 (Michael Collins, John Young)
During the flight the crew reported seeing five objects travelling together in orbit.
GEMINI XI September 12, 1966 (Richard Gordon, Charles Conrad)
A long object was reportedly observed over Madagascar. NORAD indicated that it was Soviet PROTON 3 but it turns out that that satellite would have been over 350 miles away at the time of observation.(Bruce Maccabee) Three pictures of the object were taken which enlarged have been widely publicized. The pictures are fuzzy and don't look at all like what the astronaughts described having seen with their eyesight.
GEMINI XII November 1966 (James Lovell, Edwin Aldrin)
On November 12 both astronauts are reported to have spotted 2 UFO's approximately 1/2 mile from the spacecraft. They were observed for some period of time and photographs were taken.
Apollo 8 Dec. 1968 (Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, William A. Anders)
During this flight as the command module emerged from behind the moon Lovell transmits "We have been informed that Santa Claus does exist!". As this occurred on christmas day 1968 it is deemed by many to have been Lovell's sense of humor for the kiddies watching the broadcast. Some speculate that it is the use of the code word originally employed by Walter Schirra on the Mercury 8 flight. On Christmas eve Borman and Lovell are reported to have seen a UFO.
It is reported that an unidentified language was picked up on one of the NASA frequencies used during the mission.
Apollo 10 May 1969 (Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, Eugene E. Cernan)
UFO's were reportedly spotted during orbit around the moon and on the homeward bound flight.
Apollo 11 July 1969 (Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin)
Supposedly two ufo's hovered overhead as Armstrong prepared to step down the ladder of the LEM at the Sea of Tranquility. Aldrin is reported to have taken several pictures of them. Modern People magazine published what they claim to be some of these photographs in their June 1975 issue. They claim to have gotten the pictures from a Japanese source.
Thats interesting because I recall watching the broadcast of this historic event on the Canadian network coverage. You know I seem to recall them discussing at some point a light which kept appearing while the astronauts were actually on the surface. I recall thinking that it was really interesting and then it just seemed to be dropped. I dont think that I am that senile yet . Do any of you reading this have similar recollections. If so please let me know.
One explanation for the halo's seen around or near some of the Appollo astronauts was that it was gases being vented from their backpacks. I have one picture which was reported to be something unusual in close proximity to one of the astronauts. It would clearly appear to be coming from the backpack when observed closely.
Timothy Good writes that HAM radio operators receiving the VHF signals directly picked up the following message which was screened by NASA from the public.
Mission Control: What's there? Mission Control calling Apollo 11.Apollo 11: These babies are huge, sir ... enormous....Oh, God, you wouldn't believe it! I'm telling you there are other space craft out there... lined up on the far side of the crater edge... they're on the moon watching us.
Good uses "SAGA UFO SPECIAL #3" as a source for this quote. The following is an excerpt from the transcript of the Apollo 11 technical debriefing.
Aldrin: The first unusual thing that we saw I guess was one day out or something pretty close to the moon. It had a sizeable dimension to it, so we put the monocular on it.Collins: How'd we see this thing? Did we just look out the window and there it was.
Aldrin: Yes, and we weren't sure but what it might be the S-IVB. We called the ground and were told the S-IVB was 6,000 miles away. We had a problem with the high gain about this time, didn't we?
Collins: There was something. We felt a bump or maybe I just imagined it.
Armstrong: He was wondering whether the MESA had come off.
Collins: I don't guess we felt anything.
Aldrin: Of course, we were seeing all sorts of little objects going by at the various dumps and then we happened to see this one brighter object going by. We couldn't think of anything else it could be other than the S-IVB. We looked at it through the monocular and it seemed to have a bit of an L shape to it.
Armstrong: Like an open suitcase.
Aldrin: We were in PTC at the time so each of us had a chance to take a look at this and it certainly seemed to be within our vicinity and of a very sizeable dimension.
Armstrong: We should say it was right at the limit of the resolution of the eye. It was very difficult to tell what shape it was. And there was no way to tell the size without knowing the range or the range without knowing the size.
Aldrin: So then I got down in the LEB and started looking for it in the optics. We were grossly misled because with the sextant off focus what we saw appeared to be a cylinder.
Armstrong: Or really two rings.
Aldrin: Yes.
Armstrong: Two rings. Two connected rings.
Aldrin: Yes.
Collins: No, it looked like a hollow cylinder to me. It didn't look like two connected rings. You could see this thing tumbling and, when it came around end-on, you could look right down in it's guts. It was a hollow cylinder. But then you could change the focus on the sextant and it would be replaced by this open book shape. It was really weird.
Aldrin: I guess there's not too much more to say about it other than it wasn't a cylinder.
Collins: It was during the period when we thought it was a cylinder that we inquired about the S-IVB and we'd almost convinced ourselves that's what it had to be. But we don't have any more conclusions than that really. The fact that we didn't see it much past this one period --- we really don't have a conclusion as to what it might have been, how big it was, or how far away it was. It was something that wasn't part of the urine dump, we're pretty sure of that.
In his book "RETURN TO EARTH" Colonel Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. writes the following on pages 223-224. I quote directly.
In the middle of one evening, Houston time, I found myself idly staring out the window of the Columbia and saw something that looked a bit unusual. It appeared brighter than any star and not quite the pinpoints of light that stars are. I pointed this out to Mike and Neil, and the three of us were beset with curiosity. With the help of the monocular we guessed that whatever it was, it was only a hundred or so miles away. Looking at it through our sextant we found it occasionally formed a cylinder, but when the sextant's focus was adjusted it had a sort of illuminated "L" look to it. It had a shape of some sort -- we all agreed on that -- but exactly what it was we couldn't pin down. We asked Houston some casual questions: "How far away is the Saturn third stage?" The response was in the vicinity of six thousand miles. That wasn't it.
It could possibly have been one of the panels of the Saturn third stage which fly off to expose the LM and cannot be traced from earth. We could see it for about forty-five seconds at a time as the ship rotated, and we watched it on and off for about an hour. We debated whether or not to tell the ground we had spotted something, and decided against it. Our reason was simple: The UFO people would descend on the message in hordes, setting off another rash of UFO spottings back on earth. We concluded it was most likely on of the panels. Its course appeared in no way to conflict with ours, and it presented no danger. We dropped the matter there.
In his book "Carrying The Fire" astronaut Michael Collins the command module pilot makes no mention of this incident.
Apollo 12 November 14, 1969 (Conrad, Gordon, Bean)
On day out on the earth moon leg of the trip the astronauts radioed Mission Control that two flashing lights had appeared off the bow . of their capsule. After rejecting the possibility that the objects could be spinning pieces of the Apollo booster rocket the capcom suggested that they could be the jettisoned protective panels. One of the astronauts replied " Gee that could be, but one of those lights just shot out of here at tremendous speed ".
James Oberg writes concerning this the following explanation which certainly sounds reasonable.
Take the Apollo 12 case. In this famous incident the initial reports are indeed true, as the astronauts jokingly asked the earth about some flashing lights. When told that they were probably tumbling pieces of space debris (which do in fact accompany the Apollo in the vacuum of space on the way to the moon), the crew accepted this and began discussing how far away they would be. When asked how fast the pieces had broken off the rocket the previous day, the astronauts replied that when they had turned their Apollo around some pieces were flying off at a very fast velocity. That had been the day before! The flashing lights out the window didn't go anywhere but gradually faded out as the day went by. What happened was that UFO researchers ( I use the term loosely) had simply misunderstood the space jargon and had completely missed the gist of the conversation from Apollo, and had then (probably quite honestly, with good intentions and closed minds) reworded the phrases to make them "clearer" to the general public. In fact they had totally altered the meaning.
In this incident it should be trivial to get to the root of the matter. All we need is the tape of the actual conversation or the true unaltered transcript. We could then see if Olberg is right on the money or not.
Apollo 13 May 1969 (Thomas P. Stafford, John W. Young, Eugene E. Cernan)
There has been a lot of speculation that the ill fated Apollo 13 Mission was carrying a small nuclear explosive device for the purpose of seismic testing of the moon. The story goes that the aliens fearing damage to their lunar bases caused the accident that ultimately caused the aborting of the mission.
Apollo 17 December 7-19, 1972 (Cernan, Evans, Schmitt)
Reported to have seen UFO's near earth, on route and around the moon.
SPACE SHUTTLE DISCOVERY March 1989
03/14/89 6:42 EST
"Uh Houston, this is Discovery. We still have the alien spacecraft under (observance)????" (note last word difficult to make out on tape)
The previous statement was recorded by Baltimore resident Donald Ratsch (MUFON member) from a HAM radio rebroadcast between the space shuttle Discovery and Houston ground control. The HAM broadcast was direct from the shuttle without going through the delayed filter used on the officail NASA public feed. The NASA select audio channel did not contain this one way broadcast from the shuttle to ground control. The HAM station making the rebroadcast was WA3NAN Goddard Amatuer Radio Club in Greenbelt, MD transmitting on 147.450 MHZ. Preliminary analysis shows that the voice could be either Michael Coats (Commander) or John E. Blaha (pilot). The recording was sent for further expert voice analysis the results of which are unknown at this time to the author.
Gordon Cooper
Gordon Cooper was one of the best trained US astronauts having flown on Mercury 9 and Gemini 5. Yet he was not selected to fly an Apollo mission. It is speculated that Cooper did not play the game correctly when it comes to the UFO situation. It is interesting that Cooper has developed an interest in ancient civilizations and in fact participated in an expedition to South American that discovered the remnants of a very old and advanced civilization dating back over 5000 years. One is tempted to ask why the sudden interest on the part of a former astronaut in "ancient astronaut" type endevours.
A fellow officer once said of Cooper. "We all knew where Gordon was going to end up in ten years. He was going to be Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff. (what happened that he didn't?)
In July 1960 Cooper was interviewed by Yvonne S. Durfield and had this to say about UFO's. "I don't take UFO's seriously. I would be very skeptical." In March 1978 Cooper stated to the National Enquirer "UFO's are definately real" It is interesting that his two flights into space occurred between the dates of the two interviews. Cooper went on to make a written statement to the United Nations supporting Grenada's Prime Minister Eric Gairy proposal that the UN establish a UFO agency.(1979?)
In his book MJ12 & THE RIDDLE OF HANGER 18 Beckley quotes Cooper as saying "UFO's are, I believe, very likely travellers from some other planet; visitors from some other world that is hundreds of thousands of years more advanced than we are, and they certainly have a far more efficient sytem of propulsion than we have."
During an interview on the Merv Griffin Show, Merv asked the following of Gordon Cooper. "There is a story going around, Gordon, that a spaceship did land in middle America and there were occupants, and members of our government were able to keep one of the occupants alive for some period of time. They've seen the metal of the aircraft and know what the people look like -- is that a credible story? To everyones surprise Cooper answers with a straight face "I think it's fairly credible. I would like to see the time when all qualified people could really work together to properly investigate these stories and either refute or prove them." Later the next morning Lee Spiegel a UFO researcher and aquaintance of Cooper talked to Cooper on the phone. During this conversation Cooper admitted that he could have revealed further information on the Merv Griffin Show but did not because he did not want to raise too many official eyebrows.
Why Did it End So Quicky ?
The solar system held no limits, we were bound for the stars. The plaque read "HERE MEN FROM THE PLANET EARTH SET FOOT UPON THE MOON ...... WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND" We said that this was "One small step for a man....one giant leap for mankind" Then shortly thereafter it all came to a screeching halt. What had been a burning ambition was now just a smoldering ember. Had we shot the whole wad on one quick try. Why did not only the US but also the Soviet Union cancel its ambitious moon plans. Why did both nations suddenly limit themselves to relatively low orbit missions. Did Apollo find something totally unexpected out there that made us change our grand plans ?
SOURCES
Aldrin, Edwin - RETURN TO EARTH, Random House, 1973
Beckley, Timothy - MJ-12 AND THE RIDDLE OF HAMGER 18,Inner Light, 1989
Chatelaine, Maurice - OUR ANCESTORS CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, Dell, 1979
Collins, Michael - CARRYING THE FIRE, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974
Edward's, Frank - FLYING SAUCERS SERIOUS BUSINESS, Bantam Books, 1966
Emenegger, Robert - UFO'S PAST PRESENT & FUTURE, Ballantine Books, 1974
Leonard, George - SOMEBODY ELSE IS ON THE MOON, Pocket Books, 1977
Steckling, Fred - WE DISCOVERED ALIEN BASES ON THE MOON,G.A.F, 1989
Good,Timothy - ABOVE TOP SECRET, Sidgwick & Jackson Limited, 1987
Moore, William - THE ROSWELL INCIDENT, Berkley Books, 1980
Story, Ronald D. - THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UFO'S, Doubleday, 1979
MUFON UFO JOURNAL #252 April 1989
MUFON UFO JOURNAL #256 August 1989
SAGA UFO SPECIAL #3
TRUE FS & UFO QUARTERLY #6 Summer 1977
IDEALS UFO MAGAZINE #4 December 1978
IDEALS UFO MAGAZINE #6 June 1979
