Many people have reported seeing UFOs. But then there are many phenomena that the man or woman on the street are probably not familiar with that could be mistaken for what popular entertainment may suggest is an alien vehicle of some sort. By this time in the course of history, the data pool is far too contaminated with pervasive stories to sort the reality from the copycats.
Few people have had better opportunity to witness firsthand if Earth is being visited by alien craft than those who have left the atmosphere for the nearer reaches of space. But then in the early years we really had no idea what to expect once we got there either, and so there certainly existed the potential of misidentifications under those circumstances as well. There has also been a significant passage of time and people have nitpicked many of those reports with a fine tooth agenda comb, while others have simply manufactured what they believe should have been there. In other cases legitimate questions still arise.
Gordon Cooper
One of the original Mercury Astronauts and the last American to fly in space alone. On May 15, 1963 he shot into space in a Mercury capsule for a 22 orbit journey around the world. During the final orbit, Major Gordon Cooper told the tracking station at Muchea (near Perth Australia) that he could see a glowing, greenish object ahead of him quickly approaching his capsule. The UFO was real and solid, because it was picked up by Muchea’s tracking radar. Cooper’s sighting was reported by the National Broadcast Company, which was covering the flight step by step; but when Cooper landed, reporters were told that they would not be allowed to question him about the UFO sighting.
Major Cooper was a firm believer in UFOs. Ten years earlier, in 1951 he had sighted a UFO while piloting an F-86 Sabrejet over Western Germany. They were metallic, saucer-shaped discs at considerable altitude and could out-maneuver all American fighter planes. Major Cooper also testified before the United Nations: “I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets… Most astronauts were reluctant to discuss UFOs.” “I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe.”
And according to a taped interview by J. L. Ferrando, Major Cooper said: “For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public. Why? Because authority is afraid that people may think of God knows what kind of horrible invaders. So the password still is: We have to avoid panic by all means.”
“I was furthermore a witness to an extraordinary phenomenon, here on this planet Earth. It happened a few months ago in Florida. There I saw with my own eyes a defined area of ground being consumed by flames, with four indentions left by a flying object which had descended in the middle of a field. Beings had left the craft (there were other traces to prove this). They seemed to have studied topography, they had collected soil samples and, eventually, they returned to where they had come from, disappearing at enormous speed… I happen to know that authority did just about everything to keep this incident from the press and TV, in fear of a panicky reaction from the public.”
From the website Debunker.Com
May 16, 1963 — Mercury 9: Gordon Cooper reported a greenish UFO with a red tail during his fifteenth orbit. He also reported other mysterious sightings over South America and Australia. The object he sighted over Perth, Australia, was caught on screens by ground tracking stations. Cooper has recently denounced all stories of UFOs on his space flights as fabrications. The multicolor UFO is based on a deliberate misquotation by an author of Cooper’s postflight report on a sighting of the Aurora Australis. Verdict: Fraud.
Donald Slayton
Donald Slayton, a Mercury astronaut, revealed in an interview he had seen UFOs in 1951: “I was testing a P-51 fighter in Minneapolis when I spotted this object. I was at about 10,000 feet on a nice, bright, sunny afternoon. I thought the object was a kite, then I realized that no kite is gonna fly that high.” As I got closer it looked like a weather balloon, grey and about three feet in diameter. But as soon as I got behind the darn thing it didn’t look like a balloon anymore. It looked like a saucer, a disk. About the same time, I realized that it was suddenly going away from me – and there I was, running at about 300 miles per hour. I tracked it for a little way, and then all of a sudden the damn thing just took off. It pulled about a 45 degree climbing turn and accelerated and just flat disappeared.”
To me this report does not especially stand out against any of the multitude similar reports from civilian and military pilots going back to WWII and Foo Fighters.
Robert White
On July 17, 1962 Major Robert White reported a UFO during his fifty-eight-mile high flight of an X-15. Major White reported: “I have no idea what it could be. It was grayish in color and about thirty to forty feet away.” Then according to a Time Magazine article, Major White exclaimed over the radio: “There ARE things out there! There absolutely is!”
July 17, 1962-X1S Pilot Robert White photographed objects about 30 feet away from his craft while about 58 miles up. Right — and as he reported, the objects were small, “about the size of a piece of paper,” and were probably flakes of ice off the super-cold fuel tanks. Verdict: Important information withheld by authors.
Joseph Walker
On May 11, 1962 NASA pilot Joseph Walker said that one of his tasks was to detect UFOs during his X-15 flights. He had filmed five or six UFOs during his record breaking fifty-mile-high flight in April, 1962. It was the second time he had filmed UFOs in flight. During a lecture at the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space Research in Seattle, Washington he said: “I don’t feel like speculating about them. All I know is what appeared on the film which was developed after the flight.” – Joseph Walker To date none of those films has been released to the public for viewing.
Edgar White
In June 1965, astronauts Ed White (first American to walk in space) and James McDivitt were passing over Hawaii in a Gemini spacecraft when they saw a weird-looking metallic object. The UFO had long arms sticking out of it. McDivitt took pictures with a cine-camera. Those pictures have never been released.
James McDivitt
In June 1965, astronauts Ed White (first American to walk in space) and James McDivitt were passing over Hawaii in a Gemini spacecraft when they saw a weird-looking metallic object. The UFO had long arms sticking out of it. McDivitt took pictures with a cine-camera. Those pictures have never been released.
From Patrick Gross’ UFOlogie.Org
McDivitt did not see any special importance in what he saw. He did not file any UFO report, he also always insisted that it was not the Titan II booster. He also never gave an opinion about the nature of what he saw. Some researchers rightfully noted that the astronauts eyesight was affected by the long exposition to the oxygen saturated atmosphere in the Gemini capsule. Some ufo-promoters did exaggerate the story. But debunkers did understimate it also on occasion. Almost everyone agrees that it could not have been a human satellite, such as a secret US satellite or a Russian craft.
In conclusion, there is no certainty. The publicized picture is not the correct one, and the correct one will probably never be seen. There are many pros and cons and do not have an opinion one way or another.
James Lovell and Frank Borman
In December 1965, Gemini astronauts James Lovell and Frank Borman also saw a UFO during their second orbit of their record-breaking 14 day flight. Borman reported that he saw an unidentified spacecraft some distance from their capsule. Gemini Control, at Cape Kennedy told him that he was seeing the final stage of their own Titan booster rocket. Borman confirmed that he could see the booster rocket all right, but that he could also see something completely different.
During James Lovell’s flight on Gemini 7:Lovell: BOGEY AT 10 O’CLOCK HIGH.
Capcom: This is Houston. Say again 7.
Lovell: SAID WE HAVE A BOGEY AT 10 O’CLOCK HIGH.Capcom: Gemini 7, is that the booster or is that an actual sighting?
Lovell: WE HAVE SEVERAL…ACTUAL SIGHTING.Capcom: …Estimated distance or size?
Lovell: WE ALSO HAVE THE BOOSTER IN SIGHT…
According to the NASA Astronaut Neil Armstrong, the Aliens have a base on the Moon and told us in no uncertain terms to get off and stay off the Moon. According to un-confirmed reports, both Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin saw UFOs shortly after that historic landing on the Moon in Apollo 11 on 21 July 1969. I remember hearing one of the astronauts refer to a “light” in or on a crater during the television transmission, followed by a request from mission control for further information. Nothing more was heard. According to a former NASA employee Otto Binder, unnamed radio hams with their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA’s broadcasting outlets picked up the following exchange:NASA: Whats there?
Mission Control calling Apollo 11…Apollo11: These “Babies” are huge, Sir! Enormous!
OH MY GOD! You wouldn’t believe it!
I’m telling you there are other spacecraft out there,
Lined up on the far side of the crater edge!
They’re on the Moon watching us!
December 4, 1965-Gemini 7: Frank Borman and Jim Lovell photographed twin oval-shaped UFOs with glowing undersides. This famous photograph is a blatent forgery, in which light reflections off the nose of the spacecraft are made to look like UFOs by airbrushing away the vehicle structure around them. Verdict: Fraud
Neil Armstrong
A certain professor, who wished to remain anonymous, was engaged in a discussion with Neil Armstrong during a NASA symposium.
Professor: What REALLY happened out there with Apollo 11?
Armstrong: It was incredible, of course we had always known
there was a possibility, the fact is, we were
warned off! (by the Aliens). There was never any
question then of a space station or a moon city.
Professor: How do you mean “warned off”?
Armstrong: I can’t go into details, except to say that their
ships were far superior to ours both in size and
technology – Boy, were they big! and menacing!
No, there is no question of a space station.
Professor: But NASA had other missions after Apollo 11?
Armstrong: Naturally – NASA was committed at that time, and
couldn’t risk panic on Earth. But it really was a
quick scoop and back again.
According to a Dr. Vladimir Azhazha: “Neil Armstrong relayed the message to Mission Control that two large, mysterious objects were watching them after having landed near the moon module. But this message was never heard by the public – because NASA censored it.”
According to a Dr. Aleksandr Kasantsev, Buzz Aldrin took color movie film of the UFOs from inside the module, and continued filming them after he and Armstrong went outside. Armstrong confirmed that the story was true but refused to go into further detail, beyond admitting that the CIA was behind the cover-up.
In 1979 Maurice Chatelain, former chief of NASA Communications Systems confirmed that Armstrong had indeed reported seeing two UFOs on the rim of a crater. Chatelain believes that some UFOs may come from our own solar system, specifically Titan. “The encounter was common knowledge in NASA, but nobody has talked about it until now.” “…all Apollo and Gemini flights were followed, both at a distance and sometimes also quite closely, by space vehicles of extraterrestrial origin – flying saucers, or UFOs, if you want to call them by that name. Every time it occurred, the astronauts informed Mission Control, who then ordered absolute silence.” “I think that Walter Schirra aboard Mercury 8 was the first of the astronauts to use the code name ‘Santa Claus’ to indicate the presence of flying saucers next to space capsules. However, his announcements were barely noticed by the general public. It was a little different when James Lovell on board the Apollo 8 command module came out from behind the moon and said for everybody to hear: ‘PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS.’ Even though this happened on Christmas Day 1968, many people sensed a hidden meaning in those words.” The rumors persist. NASA may well be a civilian agency, but many of its programs are funded by the defence budget and most of the astronauts are subject to military security regulations. Apart from the fact that the National Security Agency screens all films and probably radio communications as well. We have the statements by Otto Binder, Dr. Garry Henderson and Maurice Chatelain that the astronauts were under strict orders not to discuss their sightings. And Gordon Cooper has testified to a United Nations committee that one of the astronauts actually witnessed a UFO on the ground. If there is no secrecy, why has this sighting not been made public?
Scott Carpenter
“At no time, when the astronauts were in space were they alone: there was a constant surveillance by UFOs.”
May 24, 1962-Mercury 7: Scott C:arpenter reported photographing firefly-like objects with a hand camera and that he had what looked like a good shot of a saucer. Carpenter did see “fireflies, ” as well as a balloon ejected from his capsule. The claim that he reported photographing a “saucer” is counterfeit. His photo, taking into account the glare of sunlight, smeared window, and gross enlargement of the small image, has been widely published as a “saucer” but was in fact the tracking balloon.
Carpenter has also been quoted as saying:
“UFOs absolutely do exist, but flying saucers do not,” said Mr. Carpenter, who believes there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. “Fifty percent of UFOs are deliberate hoaxes, another 45 percent are (phenomena) from this planet not understood by the viewing public, and that leaves just 5 percent. We have no hard evidence of visitation” from other planets.
As for his reports of “fireflies,” the are entirely inline with the report later in this article from John Glenn.
Edgar Mitchell
In an interview with James Clash carried on Bloomberg News
Clash: You’re also known for your views on UFOs. What’s your experience regarding the Roswell, New Mexico, incident of 1947?
Mitchell: After my space flight, I was contacted by descendants of the original Roswell observers, including the person who delivered the child-sized coffins to the Air Force to contain alien bodies. Another was one of the children of the deputy sheriff who was patrolling traffic around the site.
Alien Bodies
There was also a military officer who was a friend of the families not involved in that particular operation, but who did share office space there. They all seemed credible with their stories that the bodies found were alien.
Clash: If that’s the case, why has it been hushed up?
Mitchell: Initially I think there was justification in that leadership officials thought people weren’t ready to handle it. But we are well past that now. Frankly, and this is just personal opinion, remember what (President) Eisenhower said in his final speech: “Beware the military industrial complex.” I suspect that’s what we’re talking about.
But it’s not just military. It’s a cabal of organizations primarily for a profit motive. We invented aircraft at the beginning of the 20th century.
Money Involvement
Twenty years later, we had an airline industry. Think of what that could mean in terms of space travel with control of UFO machinery, technology. There’s a lot of money involved.
Clash: Have you ever seen a UFO yourself?
Mitchell: I consider myself fairly well informed, although I have not seen one personally. I’m not out there looking — I’m pretty busy.
John Glenn
“February 20, 1962: John Glenn, piloting his Mercury capsule, saw three objects follow him and then overtake him at varying speeds.”
February 20, 1962-John Glenn, piloting his Mercury capsule, saw three objects follow him and then overtake him at varying speeds. Glenn also said that these “snowflakes” were small, and seemed to be coming from the rear end of his capsule. Later flights also observed them and were able to create “snowstorms” by having astronauts bang on the walls of their capsules. Verdict: Significant data was withheld, totally altering the nature of the incident.
And from UFOlogie:
Actually, the above account is authentic but misleading when, as in its publication in it is not followed by the remainder of Glenn’s account of Glenn. He continues by stating that the objects become very numerous, moved very slowly, resembled fireflies, had the apparent size of stars and are particularly illuminated by the setting sun. NASA suspected later than they are particles coming from the capsule itself. This was later clearly established during following spaceflights, and particularly when Carpenter on board Mercury 7: accidentally hitting the capsule’s wall, he inadvertently started the take-off of the same fireflies. Thereafter other astronauts would do this for fun.
Just as with any UFO reports, some of these are fairly easily explained as fakes perpetrated after the fact by over enthusiastic believers, some by people seeing something in extremely unfamiliar context and, as always, some just defy current understanding.
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