Astronauts talk about UFOs

[SolarPlexus]

Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin Apollo 11 July 1969

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.

During the broadcast of this historic event on the Canadian network coverage, they were discussing at some point a light which kept appearing while the astronauts were actually on the surface. Then it just seemed to be dropped.

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.

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.

Timothy Good uses "SAGA UFO SPECIAL #3" as a source for this quote.

From the book "Celestial Raise" by Richard Watson, ASSK, 1987, page 147-148;

"During the transmission of the Moon landing of Armstrong and Aldrin, who journeyed to the Moon in an American spaceship, two minutes of silence occurred in which the image and sound were interrupted. NASA insisted that this problem was the result of one of the television cameras which had overheated, thus interfering with the reception.

This unexpected problem surprised even the most qualified of viewers who were unable to explain how in such a costly project, one of the most essential elements could break down... Some time after the historic Moon landing, Christopher Craft, director of the base in Houston, made some surprising comments when he left NASA.

Author Sam Pepper (otherwise unidentified and he has since vanished) gave this version of "the top secret tape transcript" from "a leak close to the top", as follows:

Moon: Those are giant things. No, no, no - this is not an optical illusion. No one is going to believe this !

Houston: What ... what ... what ? What the h--- is happening ? What's wrong with you ?

Moon: They're here under the surface.

Houston: What's there ?*muffled noise* Emission interrupted; interference control calling 'Apollo 11'

Moon: We saw some visitors. They were here for a while, observing the instruments

Houston: Repeat your last information !

Moon: I say that there were other spaceships. They're lined up in the other side of the crater !

Houston: Repeat, repeat !

Moon: Let us sound this orbita ... in 625 to 5 ... Automatic relay connected ... My hands are shaking so badly I can't do anything. Film it ? G--, if these d--ned cameras have picked up anything - what then ?

Houston: Have you picked up anything ?

Moon: I didn't have any film at hand. Three shots of the saucers or whatever they were that were ruining the film

Houston: Control, control here. Are you on your way ? What is the uproar with the UFOs over ?

Moon: They've landed here. There they are and they're watching us

Houston: The mirrors, the mirrors - have you set them up ?

Moon: Yes, they're in the right place. But whoever made those spaceships surely can come tomorrow and remove them. Over and out.

When the "Pepper Transcripts" first became public, UFO buffs wrote to their congressmen demanding that NASA officially confess to the coverup. NASA replied that "the incidents ... did not take place. Conversations between the Apollo 11 crew and Mission Control were released live during the entire Apollo 11 mission. There were between 1000 and 1500 representatives of the news media and T.V. present at the Houston News Center listening and observing, and not one has suggested that NASA withheld any news or conversations of this nature." (Letter from Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs to several congressmen, January 1970.)

In 1976, chief of the astronaut office Deke Slayton claimed that "I don't recall any of our astronauts ever reporting UFOs."

NASA claims that all photos, all voice transcripts, all debriefings are in the public domain and are available to the news media. ...

...Who has taken the trouble to check out this material ? Well, James Oberg has, for example. Alan Sandler did. Dr Hynek visited the Houston space center in July 1976 and was shown the material in question. NASA's original story, surprising, has been

...From internal evidence alone, it looks more and more like a crude hoax. This can be deduced from the vocabulary itself.

"Mission Control, this is Mission Control..." this was NEVER a phrase used by NASA, which instead always referred to "Houston".

Technical-sounding gibberish such a "field-distortion", "orbit scanned", "625 to the fifth", "auto-relays", etc. were never found in real transcripts.

"Repeat, repeat..." is never used on the radio; instead astronauts and Mission Control use the phrase "Say Again".

In addition, interviews with the handful of amateur radio listeners who are known to have tuned in to the S-Band (2270 megahertz) moon signals produced testimony that they heard the same conversations which were released by NASA. Since listening to the m

...The unavoidable conclusion is that the "Pepper Transcript" was either fabricated or that Pepper used very poor judgement in allowing himself to be victimized by somebody else's fake.

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;

....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 occasionaly 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 couldnt 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.

[SolarPlexus]

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, gray 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."

Major 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 thrity 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!"

NASA Pilot Joseph A. 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."

To date none of those films has been released to the public for viewing.

Commander Eugene Cernan

It is reported that the capsule of Gemini IX June 3, 1966 (Stafford, Cernan) was accompanied from takeoff by UFO's seen from the ground as well as the capsule. During the flight of 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.

Eugene Cernan was commander of Apollo 17 ( Cernan, Evans, Schmitt, Reported to have been accompanied by UFO's near earth, on route and around the moon..) In a Los Angeles Times article in 1973 Cernand said, about UFOs:

"...I've been asked (about UFOs) and I've said publicly I thought they (UFOs) were somebody else, some other civilization."

NASA's Scott Carpenter

"At no time, when the astronauts were in space were they alone: there was a constant surveillance by UFOs."

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.

Dr. Garry Henderson

"All our astronauts have seen these objects but have been ordered not to discuss their findings with anyone."

Edited October 7, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[SolarPlexus]

Five Apollo astronauts on the Oprah Winfrey Show

To commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969, The "Oprah Winfrey" show invited five Apollo astronauts into an open-studio forum to talk about their moon experiences, both during the mission and afterwards. What they had to say about their missions, UFOs and extraterrestrials in general is worth repeating, particularly in light of the many "stories" attributed to the Apollo astronauts.

The astronauts taking part were:

Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin - Apollo 11 mission. Touchdown: Sea of Tranquility, July 20, 1969. The second man on the moon.

Alan "Al" Bean - Apollo 12. Touchdown: Ocean of Storms, November 19, 1969.

Edgar "Ed" Mitchell - Apollo 14. Touchdown: Fra Mauro, February 5, 1971.

James "Jim" Irwin - Apollo 15. Touchdown: Hadley Rille, July 30, 1971.

Charles Duke - Apollo 16. Touchdown: Descartes Highlands, April 21, 1972.

Oprah: Ed, did going to the moon increase your feelings about psychic phenomena ?

Mitchell: Mmmm, no, not really.

Oprah: No, you always believed it...

Mitchell: Put it into different terms. Those are old, old words, by the way. Let's use the word "intuition..."

Oprah: Okay.

Mitchell: ...And how does information flow. And yeah, I became very interested in that at that point.

Oprah: Yeah. I'm an intuitive-based person. I do everything based on intuition. Do you too ?

Mitchell: No. I'm a more linear thinker, I've had to develop the intuition...

Oprah: Not me, I don't go for the linear too much...

Mitchell: (laughs) ...It's to learn how to get the balance, to get both of them; but the point of the investigations of the things I've been interested in; we know how our five senses work, but you're an intuitive person, most everybody's intuitive to a greater or lesser extent. Where does that information come from ? Where does intuitive information come from ?

Oprah: Uh-huh. Where do you think it comes from ?

Mitchell: Well, we're starting to understand some "models" for it. Jung called it the "collective unconscious", there's information out here. It's kind of like a field and we just kind of tune into it and there it is. At least that is what the modern thinking is.

Oprah: When you were "out there", did you sense that there were other "beings" -- not necessarily human -- also "out there" ? James... ?

Irwin: I never sensed anything out at the moon or even beyond the moon. I don't know (why) I get that question a lot, because they think now we're experts on extra-terrestrial life, but I say I don't think there's extra-terrestrial life anywhere. I think the Earth is the only place where there's life.

Oprah: You still think that ?

Irwin: I still believe that.

Oprah: You all think that ?

Mitchell: No, I disagree completely.

Oprah: You don't think that, Ed.

Mitchell: No, I think the universe is so magnificent and so huge, and, uh, there is an intelligence base in the universe. And I can't conceive of this being the only planet in the universe with intelligent life...

Oprah: Intelligent life...

Mitchell: ...I think that there's intelligent life throughout the universe, we just haven't discovered it yet.

Oprah: My intuition tells me that, too, Ed. Buzz, what do you say ?

Aldrin: Ed may feel a little bit more certain about that. I'm not sure what's going to happen. It certainly looks as though the odds are that there are a lot more opportunites out there than we thought before, and I'd be very surprised -- and it may even happen in our life time -- that we may find out some evidence of intelligence and it will come because of a furthering of the space program.

Oprah: All right. Alan.

Bean: Well I think there's probably life out there. But someone said, or computed, that the number of bodies in the universe are about as dense as two chipmunks in all of North America. And so for us to go and find -- let's say we're one of the chipmunks and we're trying to find one of the others in all of North America -- it's going to be hard to do.

Aldrin: Tough job...

Bean: So, I believe they're out there too, but we're not going to find them any time soon, and we may never find them, because of just the fact that they're so far, far apart. If we look at all the stars out there, there's probably planets around them, but which one do we go to ? And if we go to that one, even the nearest one takes four and a half years, come back in nine...

Aldrin: At the speed of light...

Bean: That's right. Then go to the next one, takes another fifty years, out and back...

Oprah: Yeah, I'm not THAT interested...

Bean: So it's going to be a tough job...

Oprah: ...I've got things to do here.

Bean: ...It'd be better if they came here.

Aldrin: Yeah, it'd be better if they came here.

Oprah: That's how I feel about it. Charles ?

Duke: I didn't sense any life out in space, personally.

Oprah: Never saw anybody..?

Duke: Never saw anybody, no UFOs, nothing like that. But I agree with Jim. I think that we are -- human life -- is unique in the universe, and I think that's here on Earth. I believe in spiritual life. The scripture does talk about Heaven and Hell and spiritual life, life after death, but it doesn't refer to anything out in space. So I agree with Jim.

Audience: Um yes. Do you feel that the Government hides anything from us ? For example, you see all these stories about people that say they've been abducted and raped -- women that've been raped -- and they say that it's a real factual story and that tons of people have seen it...

Oprah: By ETs ? What paper was this is in ?

Audience: Did you see that show (where) they said the lights were coming down and the police were out watching...? Do you think that the Government hides any of that ?

Duke: No, I don't. Not in NASA. We were completely open. We couldn't even have a private conversation without it being blasted out to the world. I remember John (Young) and I were talking and we had a problem with, uh, our microphone stuck open and he was cussing and it went out to everybody. No bleeps !

Oprah: Ed, what do you say, you're shaking your head ?

Mitchell: Well, I agree with what Charlie is saying about the NASA program -- there was nothing at all hidden in that -- but I do believe that there's a lot more known about, uh, extra-terrestrial investigation than is available to the public right now; has been for a long time.

Oprah: And why do you think it's kept from the public ?

Mitchell: Oh well, that's a long, long story. It goes back to World War 2 when all of that happened, and highly classified stuff.

Aldrin: It makes for great book-selling...

Mitchell: Yeah...

Irwin: And newspapers, too.

Edited October 7, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[SolarPlexus]

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' ?)

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.

From an interview with the National Enquirer on 14 Jan. 1997, with Gordon Cooper;

"I know other astronauts share my feelings," declared Cooper, 69, who went into space aboard a Mercury craft in 1963 and on a Gemini craft two years later. "And we know the government is sitting on hard evidence of UFOs !" Cooper said he first encountered UFOs as a military pilot in Germany in the early 1950s, when unidentified craft were spotted over an air base.

"We thought they could have been Russian we regularly had MiG-15s overflying our base. We scrambled our Sabre jets to intercept and got to our ceiling of 45,000 feet . . . and they were still way above us traveling faster than we were. These vehicles were in formation like a fighter group, but they were metallic silver and saucer-shaped. Believe me, they weren't like any MiGs I'd seen before ! They had to be UFOs."

In 1957, Cooper was one of an elite band of test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base in California, in charge of several advanced projects, including the installation of a precision landing system.

"I had a camera crew filming the installation when they spotted a saucer. They filmed it as it flew overhead, then hovered, extended three legs as landing gear, and slowly came down to land on a dry lake bed ! These guys were all pro cameramen, so the picture quality was very good. The camera crew managed to get within 20 or 30 yards of it, filming all the time. It was a classic saucer, shiny silver and smooth, about 30 feet across. It was pretty clear it was an alien craft. As they approached closer it took off."

When his camera crew handed over the film, Cooper followed standard procedure and contacted Washington to report the UFO and "all heck broke loose," he said. "After a while a high-ranking officer said when the film was developed I was to put it in a pouch and send it to Washington. He didn't say anything about me not looking at the film. That's what I did when it came back from the lab and it was all there just like the camera crew reported."

When the Air Force later started Operation Blue Book to collate UFO evidence and reports, Cooper says he mentioned the film evidence. "But the film was never found supposedly. Blue Book was strictly a cover-up anyway." Cooper revealed he's convinced an alien craft crashed at Roswell, N. Mex., in 1947 and aliens were discovered in the wreckage. "I had a good friend at Roswell, a fellow officer. He had to be careful about what he said. But it sure wasn't a weather balloon, like the Air Force cover story. He made it clear to me what crashed was a craft of alien origin, and members of the crew were recovered."

Why has the government kept its UFO secrets for so many years ? "It started in World War 2, when the government didn't want people to know about UFO reports in case they panicked," said Cooper. "They would have been fearful it was superior enemy technology that we had no defense against. Then it got worse in the Cold War for the same reason. So they told one untruth, they had to tell another to cover that one, then another, then another . . . it just snowballed. And right now I'm convinced a lot of very embarrassed government officials are sitting there in Washington trying to figure a way to bring the truth out. They know it's got to come out one day, and I'm sure it will.

James Lovell and Frank Borman

In December 1965, Gemini VII 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: Roger....

(at this point the live broadcast of the conversation is interrupted by Capcom)

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...

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.

Lovell also witnessed an incident during flight Gemini XII (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.

During the flight of Apollo 8 on Dec. 1968 (Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, William A. Anders) 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.

Maurice Chatelain

Critical Note:

"when James Oberg contacted Chatelain's employers he learned that Chatelain was no longer employed by them when Apollo 11 landed on the moon. If he was no longer an employee of a NASA sub-contractor then he could not have been present in any so-called "secret room" where he could overhear the confidential communications of the astronauts on the lunar surface. He was a low-level engineer who worked for a NASA sub-contractor who built the Apollo communications systems. His status as the "head of communications" (as some UFOlogists have claimed), is entirely false."

In 1979 Maurice Chatelain, 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 ?

Edited October 7, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[SolarPlexus]

Ed White & James McDivitt

In June 1965, Gemini IV 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. Only one of those pictures have been released.

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 McDivitt: . . . Hawaii . . .

29 52 09 CC: Gemini 4, Guaymas CAP COM

29 52 12 McDivitt: Go ahead. Guaymas. Gemini 4.

29 52 14 CC: Roger. We've got you green, how are you doing up there ?

29 52 17 McDivitt: 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 McDivitt: Yes. Stand by and let me see if I can find this thing again.

29 52 45 McDivitt: . . . 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 McDivitt: 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 McDivitt: 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.

Conrad, Gordon, Bean

Apollo 12 November 14, 1969

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 explaination 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.

During the flight of 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;

Edited October 7, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[SolarPlexus]

Buzz Aldrin talks about the 'UFO' which the Apollo 11 crew saw on their way to the moon.

Astronaut Gordon Cooper Talks About UFOs

Edited October 7, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[Belial]

Just a quick question really, is anyone else allowed to post into this topic?

[SolarPlexus]

Apollo 14 astronaut Dr Edgar Mitchell talk about ETs X-Conference Washington

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2Q5LwT437I

Apollo Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell calls for ending the "UFO truth embargo"

[zenfahr]

Very interesting read. Thanks for posting. So what is your personal take on it?

[Dancingtiger]

It is interesting, I was always intrigued with Astronauts and their accounts. If they all had the same message and stood together firm on their accounts it would be hard for the world to ignore. Some have differing views, as you point out in the Oprah interviews. They actually seem to encompass all the different stances on the UFO and ET phenomena and societies differing reactions.

It is nice every differing view point has a spokesperson to enforce their views on, makes it very interesting at reunion parties after the booze has been flowing for awhile I would think.

I bet NASA is breathing a sigh of relief of a sort now the manned space program is canceled. Some think this is a new marker for disclosure, I think it is a way to ensure that no future astronaut finds himself seeing something they might remember fondly and tell others. Especially now that the world is slowly changing with younger generations entering the playing fields. Some of them might enter the astronaut field with an agenda to prove or disprove the ETH once and for all.

Now they can install protocols to erase or hide anomalies automatically, now there will be no commentary to watch over, now also there will be no food and waste that really will make the program go farther and longer not having to support human life on board. So there is benefits, human error is replace with technical difficulties and breakdowns. There also will be a huge hole from the missing ingenuity of the people in action when faced with a problem and the computers will not have the imagination to replace it. Even with the people on earth controlling it all, I do not think it will be the same.

Edited October 7, 2010 by Dancingtiger

[Zamor]

Don't want to copy the entire post so here is a part from post #4

"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 ?)"

and a little further down in the same post

"I know other astronauts share my feelings," declared Cooper, 69, who went into space aboard a Mercury craft in 1963 and on a Gemini craft two years later. "And we know the government is sitting on hard evidence of UFOs !" Cooper said he first encountered UFOs as a military pilot in Germany in the early 1950s, when unidentified craft were spotted over an air base.

"We thought they could have been Russian we regularly had MiG-15s overflying our base. We scrambled our Sabre jets to intercept and got to our ceiling of 45,000 feet . . . and they were still way above us traveling faster than we were. These vehicles were in formation like a fighter group, but they were metallic silver and saucer-shaped. Believe me, they weren't like any MiGs I'd seen before ! They had to be UFOs."

In 1957, Cooper was one of an elite band of test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base in California, in charge of several advanced projects, including the installation of a precision landing system.

"I had a camera crew filming the installation when they spotted a saucer. They filmed it as it flew overhead, then hovered, extended three legs as landing gear, and slowly came down to land on a dry lake bed ! These guys were all pro cameramen, so the picture quality was very good. The camera crew managed to get within 20 or 30 yards of it, filming all the time. It was a classic saucer, shiny silver and smooth, about 30 feet across. It was pretty clear it was an alien craft. As they approached closer it took off."

When his camera crew handed over the film, Cooper followed standard procedure and contacted Washington to report the UFO and "all heck broke loose," he said. "After a while a high-ranking officer said when the film was developed I was to put it in a pouch and send it to Washington. He didn't say anything about me not looking at the film. That's what I did when it came back from the lab and it was all there just like the camera crew reported."

So if the story in the second quote is correct the statement in the 60's interwiev with Yvonne S. Durfield is a lie since he "knew" UFOs existed in the 50's.

If the statement in the 60's interwiev is correct the the story in the second quote is a lie.

Either way, one of them is a lie. You just have to decide wich one you belive in

Zam

[Drunkenparrot]

I bet NASA is breathing a sigh of relief of a sort now the manned space program is canceled. Some think this is a new marker for disclosure, I think it is a way to ensure that no future astronaut finds himself seeing something they might remember fondly and tell others. Especially now that the world is slowly changing with younger generations entering the playing fields. Some of them might enter the astronaut field with an agenda to prove or disprove the ETH once and for all.

If you dig around a bit in the history of the U.S. space program from the very beginning there was strong disagreement between the engineers and administrators over whether manned space flight versus robotic probes was the correct direction to develop the tools of space exploration.

If you haven't seen it already and are interested, I recommend you watch the movie The Right Stuff. Although it suffers a bit from the hollywood treatment of the historical facts it gives a good presentation some parts of the decision making process.

The Right Stuff is a 1983 American film adapted from Tom Wolfe's 1979 book The Right Stuff about the test pilots who were involved in high-speed aeronautical research at Edwards Air Force Base as well as those selected to be astronauts for Project Mercury, the United States' first attempt at manned spaceflight. The story contrasts the "Mercury Seven" and their families with pilots like Chuck Yeager, who was considered by many test pilots to be the best of them all, but was never selected as an astronaut. The Mercury Seven were Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. In some aspects of the film its makers undertook great efforts to make it historically accurate. In others, they took some artistic license, downplaying and sometimes even ridiculing the collective scientific and technical effort of the Mercury program, emphasizing instead the individual adventure and heroism of the test pilots and astronauts.

The Right Stuff

[TheWhispererInDarkness]

Don't want to copy the entire post so here is a part from post #4

"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 ?)"

and a little further down in the same post

"I know other astronauts share my feelings," declared Cooper, 69, who went into space aboard a Mercury craft in 1963 and on a Gemini craft two years later. "And we know the government is sitting on hard evidence of UFOs !" Cooper said he first encountered UFOs as a military pilot in Germany in the early 1950s, when unidentified craft were spotted over an air base.

"We thought they could have been Russian we regularly had MiG-15s overflying our base. We scrambled our Sabre jets to intercept and got to our ceiling of 45,000 feet . . . and they were still way above us traveling faster than we were. These vehicles were in formation like a fighter group, but they were metallic silver and saucer-shaped. Believe me, they weren't like any MiGs I'd seen before ! They had to be UFOs."

In 1957, Cooper was one of an elite band of test pilots at Edwards Air Force Base in California, in charge of several advanced projects, including the installation of a precision landing system.

"I had a camera crew filming the installation when they spotted a saucer. They filmed it as it flew overhead, then hovered, extended three legs as landing gear, and slowly came down to land on a dry lake bed ! These guys were all pro cameramen, so the picture quality was very good. The camera crew managed to get within 20 or 30 yards of it, filming all the time. It was a classic saucer, shiny silver and smooth, about 30 feet across. It was pretty clear it was an alien craft. As they approached closer it took off."

When his camera crew handed over the film, Cooper followed standard procedure and contacted Washington to report the UFO and "all heck broke loose," he said. "After a while a high-ranking officer said when the film was developed I was to put it in a pouch and send it to Washington. He didn't say anything about me not looking at the film. That's what I did when it came back from the lab and it was all there just like the camera crew reported."

So if the story in the second quote is correct the statement in the 60's interwiev with Yvonne S. Durfield is a lie since he "knew" UFOs existed in the 50's.

If the statement in the 60's interwiev is correct the the story in the second quote is a lie.

Either way, one of them is a lie. You just have to decide wich one you belive in

Zam

You're absolutely right, it is extraordinarily difficult to reconcile those statements. I wonder if anybody has called him on this, especially considering how outspoken he's been on the subject of UFOs.

[booNyzarC]

If you dig around a bit in the history of the U.S. space program from the very beginning there was strong disagreement between the engineers and administrators over whether manned space flight versus robotic probes was the correct direction to develop the tools of space exploration.

If you haven't seen it already and are interested, I recommend you watch the movie The Right Stuff. Although it suffers a bit from the hollywood treatment of the historical facts it gives a good presentation some parts of the decision making process.

The Right Stuff

I absolutely love this movie. One of the greatest movies of all time, if you ask me. Of course that opinion comes with a bias... It was the first movie that I went to with just myself and my father. But it had a huge impact on both of us. Wow, the nostalgia is pretty deep for me right now. Damn, why don't I own this movie? I'm going to go buy it tomorrow. Thanks for the reminder Drunkenparrot, very much appreciated!

[SolarPlexus]

double post

Edited October 9, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[SolarPlexus]

Very interesting thread. Thanks for posting.

So what is your personal take on it?

They've been here long before us and we never leave their sight

[Dancingtiger]

They've been here long before us and we never leave their sight

The thing that makes me scratch my head is if they were here before us, why are we the predominate species on the planet? Why would any species spend several thousand years always watching, never doing much (that we can tell at least)why waste the time, money (if they have a monetary system) and just the resources it would take to do what you describe. How many generations of extraterrestrials would spend their whole lives watching the blue planet and their inhabitants for what I can see is no real reason. What would they get, yes I myself consider a possible nature type study of the planet and us. That would not make much sense if they were here first and then watched us for ever, it would make more sense if they stumbled on us and are studying just because we are here to study.

Maybe recurring visits over time to mark progress and this time they seem to be making themselves more known.

[SolarPlexus]

The thing that makes me scratch my head is if they were here before us, why are we the predominate species on the planet?

Who cares about this planet? Its just a testing ground anyway.

Why would any species spend several thousand years always watching, never doing much (that we can tell at least)why waste the time, money (if they have a monetary system) and just the resources it would take to do what you describe.

How many generations of extraterrestrials would spend their whole lives watching the blue planet and their inhabitants for what I can see is no real reason.

Our civilization is in its teenage years. We never left this planet, how can we even imagine the criteria, merits and goals of an inter-dimensional civilization? Who knows? What would you do if you have conquered entire worlds already? Thousand years probably means nothing to them

[booNyzarC]

The thing that makes me scratch my head is if they were here before us, why are we the predominate species on the planet? Why would any species spend several thousand years always watching, never doing much (that we can tell at least)why waste the time, money (if they have a monetary system) and just the resources it would take to do what you describe. How many generations of extraterrestrials would spend their whole lives watching the blue planet and their inhabitants for what I can see is no real reason. What would they get, yes I myself consider a possible nature type study of the planet and us. That would not make much sense if they were here first and then watched us for ever, it would make more sense if they stumbled on us and are studying just because we are here to study.

Maybe recurring visits over time to mark progress and this time they seem to be making themselves more known.

Excellent point.

Who cares about this planet? Its just a testing ground anyway.

Our civilization is in its teenage years. We never left this planet, how can we even imagine the criteria, merits and goals of an inter-dimensional civilization? Who knows? What would you do if you have conquered entire worlds already? Thousand years probably means nothing to them

Not so excellent explanation.

[Dancingtiger]

Who cares about this planet? Its just a testing ground anyway.

Our civilization is in its teenage years. We never left this planet, how can we even imagine the criteria, merits and goals of an inter-dimensional civilization? Who knows? What would you do if you have conquered entire worlds already? Thousand years probably means nothing to them

A testing ground for what exactly? I care about this planet...I agree we have little true knowledge of what interplanetary space travel would entail. You might also agree you have no true grasp on what any extraterrestrials motives and history is either. None of us do, the channelers think they have the communication worked out. Unfortunately most of the communication they claim to be receiving is useless and gives us nothing to work with but more blind faith people just seem to want to throw around.

I personally would not conquer any world including our own. I would love to explore and learn about everything and anything I could find on other planets and in space itself, including all about other species. I would be more inclined to want to learn all about them, not make it my property in any way.

[SolarPlexus]

Who cares about this planet? Its just a testing ground anyway.

A testing ground for what exactly?

I dont know, life? Intelligence? Creativity? Spirit?

If something doesnt flow with them, they'll just press the 'reset' button and make another flood like in the past

"The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." (Genesis 6:6-7)

I personally would not conquer any world including our own.

I would love to explore and learn about everything and anything I could find on other planets and in space itself, including all about other species.

I would be more inclined to want to learn all about them, not make it my property in any way.

Isnt that what theyre doing? But perhaps with a nazi twist to it? It often crosses my mind that they are a kind of inter-galactic nazis...

Edited October 9, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[Paxus]

Sorry to break the flow of where this is going but I want to ask the people here who have more knowledge about NASA than me:

What does NASA say when confronted with the testimony (RE ET CRAFT) of Joseph Walker and Scott Carpenter mentioned in the OP?

[SolarPlexus]

Sorry to break the flow of where this is going but I want to ask the people here who have more knowledge about NASA than me:

What does NASA say when confronted with the testimony (RE ET CRAFT) of Joseph Walker and Scott Carpenter mentioned in the OP?

Do you know what "NASA" stands for?

Never

A

Straight

Answer

Edited October 9, 2010 by SolarPlexus

[booNyzarC]

Sorry to break the flow of where this is going but I want to ask the people here who have more knowledge about NASA than me:

What does NASA say when confronted with the testimony (RE ET CRAFT) of Joseph Walker and Scott Carpenter mentioned in the OP?

Excellent question Pax. And the answer to this question is in the OP itself.

When the "Pepper Transcripts" first became public, UFO buffs wrote to their congressmen demanding that NASA officially confess to the coverup. NASA replied that "the incidents ... did not take place. Conversations between the Apollo 11 crew and Mission Control were released live during the entire Apollo 11 mission. There were between 1000 and 1500 representatives of the news media and T.V. present at the Houston News Center listening and observing, and not one has suggested that NASA withheld any news or conversations of this nature." (Letter from Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs to several congressmen, January 1970.)

If this isn't plausible, I don't know what is. Between 1000 and 1500 representatives of the news media and T.V. were present... are they all in on the hoax?

Or maybe we should believe this guy:

Author Sam Pepper (otherwise unidentified and he has since vanished) gave this version of "the top secret tape transcript" from "a leak close to the top", as follows:

Hmmm... who is perpetrating the hoax again?

Do you know what "NASA" stands for?

Never

A

Straight

Answer

I don't know... That looked like a pretty straight answer to me. Call me crazy... Call me gullible... Alright then.

[SolarPlexus]

When the "Pepper Transcripts" first became public, UFO buffs wrote to their congressmen demanding that NASA officially confess to the coverup. NASA replied that "the incidents ... did not take place. Conversations between the Apollo 11 crew and Mission Control were released live during the entire Apollo 11 mission. There were between 1000 and 1500 representatives of the news media and T.V. present at the Houston News Center listening and observing, and not one has suggested that NASA withheld any news or conversations of this nature." (Letter from Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs to several congressmen, January 1970.)

If this isn't plausible, I don't know what is. Between 1000 and 1500 representatives of the news media and T.V. were present... are they all in on the hoax?

Or maybe we should believe this guy:

Author Sam Pepper (otherwise unidentified and he has since vanished) gave this version of "the top secret tape transcript" from "a leak close to the top", as follows:

Hmmm... who is perpetrating the hoax again?

Indeed. Its all in the same article, I edit nada, and gave you both sides of the coin... so anyone could judge for themselves.

Edited October 9, 2010 by SolarPlexus