MADRID .- "What is that?" The three words that came out of the mouth of Wayne Hale, director of NASA's space shuttle program, were the same ones that a good part of the Agency's engineers were saying at that time. The answer remains a mystery, but until it is clear that the "strange object" detected flying under 'Atlantis' does not pose any risk to the ship or its crew, NASA will not approve the return to Earth.

"We have decided that 'Atlantis' will remain in orbit for 24 more hours," NASA announced yesterday, just 12 hours before the shuttle began the final stage of the return trip to Earth. In principle, the Agency has planned for the 'Atlantis' to land on Thursday at Cape Canaveral, although if it considers that it is dangerous to do so, it could postpone it for another 24 hours, and even make the decision to return the ship to the International Space Station. , although this would be a possible measure only in case of extreme necessity.

There are currently six people on the ISS and one ship, the Russian 'Soyuz', anchored to one of its ports, which could cause interference with the 'Atlantis' systems, in addition to the fact that coexistence would be difficult for 12 people in one space. so reduced.

"The question we all ask ourselves is 'what is that?' We don't know if it's something unimportant or something more critical that we should pay serious attention to," Wayne Hale said at a press conference. "We want to verify that it is safe to undertake this critical phase of the journey," Hale said.

The "unidentified object" was detected by engineers from Earth thanks to a television camera installed outside the shuttle, and although at the moment they have not been able to determine its size or its origin, the main concern is to determine if it is some type of 'space junk' or something that could have broken off from the cargo area of ​​the ship. In the latter case, the problem would be truly serious, any break, no matter how small, in the ship's thermal cover could lead to a very serious accident during re-entry into the atmosphere, as happened with the 'Columbia' in 2003, which was disintegrated with its seven crew members on board.

Tonight, while the crew slept, mission controllers on the ground did a check on the insulating layer on top of the ship, and when the crew wakes up they will decide if it is necessary to deploy the robotic arm again to inspect the 'belly.' 'from 'Atlantis'.

At the moment, analysts have not been able to determine where the object comes from, "and it is likely that they will never know," said the Agency experts consulted by Space.com, although there are several who maintain that it could be a simple plastic bag that would have been 'neglected' from the ship. "Sometimes we see things coming out of space vehicles, and usually they don't have any major consequences other than we don't like debris hanging around the spacecraft when it's flying," Hale said.

The crew of the 'Atlantis' has already carried out two exhaustive inspections of the ship, but in the next few hours they will do a third. The first data reveal that there are eight potential small impacts on one of the wings of the ship, although experts consider that they are not of importance. "We still have to move forward with the thorough inspection to determine that the shuttle can safely re-enter the atmosphere. That is our main objective and we will not be able to complete it until the crew completes the re-inspection," Hale said.

Source: https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/09/20/ciencia/1158745215.html

Musgrave:

“I don't know what it is. Whether it's a washer, debris, ice particles, I don't know. But it's characteristic of the thousands of things which I've seen. What is not so characteristic is it appears to come from no where. You would think that if it's facing the dark side or facing a side towards you which is not reflecting the sun, you would think that you would see something there. It's really impressive.”

“In terms of personally seeing any kind of evidence, I have seen glorious things out there, but I have never seen anything which I consider having the signature of life or an intelligent being. I see little pieces of ice, sparklets, that dance out there and go away from you as they rotate in the sunlight in linear fashion. They turn on and off like little fireflies in space.”

“Let's just say I express a desire that whatever is out there would come down and get me. And if they came for me, unconditionally, I'd go. If they're that advanced, they probably know my requirements in terms of oxygen, pressure, and other things. If dimensions exist that are  beyond our conceptual ability, they define reality also. I do not impose my limitations on the system. I recognize that this room is not this room, but only the way I perceive it. The signature a bat has of this room, seeing it in ultrasound, or a fly with that great big eye it has--neither looks upon my reality as I do. It's frightening to realize I'm in an environment that is nothing like the reality I perceive. My perceptions are there for one reason: I survive in this environment. There is no reality anywhere of anything. So in this situation, how do we transcend space? The speed of light appears to be a block so that, based on what we know now, we'll never go anywhere. We might be able to use  electromagnetic energy, which does go at the speed of light. If you encode this energy you send out, maybe it's possible.” 

Constats

• Le phénomène fait son apparition de façon extrêmement bizarre pour un débris ou une particule de glace. 

• Le phénomène n’est pas en orbite avec la navette (normalement, des débris devraient rester avec elle). Ce ne sont pas des débris ni des particules de glace.

• Le phénomène reste centré sur l’orage. Bizarre pour une vulgaire particule de glace 

• L’astronaute est intrigué par le comportement qu’il observe et fait un zoom pour mieux observer la scène. 

• La caméra ayant son focus à l’infini (on voit très bien la Terre ainsi que les orages au loin), il est impossible que des objets aussi petits que des particules de glace soient perçus avec autant de netteté tout en étant très proches de la caméra.

• Le phénomène que S.Musgrave trouve très impressionnant constitue l'une des pointes du triangle que l'opérateur (S.Musgrave ?) essayait de suivre et de cadrer et sur lequel il fait à plusieurs reprises un zoom, ensemble triangulaire qui se comporte de façon renversante.

Points intéressants

• • Origine de la vidéo: non publique

• Observations d'un ensemble de six objets puis d'un trio

• Focus sur une observation du trio

• Analyse détaillée de la séquence: focale à l'infini, apparition de nulle part, position géostationnaire, éloignement

• Dynamique du trio:

  • début: mouvement initial puis freinage

  • milieu: mouvement géostationnaire

  • fin: trio en mouvement puis stabilisation

• zoom maximum et mouvement en sacade de la caméra

• explications possibles: particules de glace, phénomènes atmosphériques, PAN

• Pourquoi ce n'est pas de la glace

  • focale de la caméra à l'infini

  • dynamique de la caméra: les à-coups du moteur et le zoom au maximum

  • dynamique des objets 

  • l'attention de l'opérateur

  • les déclarations  initiales de Musgrave

• Position des sceptiques

  • J.Oberg: peu de crédibilité

  • Courriel à Story Musgrave

  • Rétropédalage

  • opposition de non-sceptiques

• Déclarations à chaud de S.Musgrave

  • sur la séquence

  • ebanis de l'espace

  • autres déclarations

  • changement de ton

• Est-ce la première fois ? Non STS-61 et STS-44

• Reconnaissance de la NASA de l'existence de ces phénomènes

• origines possibles du phénomène

• Rien à voir avec STS-75

A lucky viewer of NASA TV got the surprise of his/her life yesterday. While watching live footage of the STS-119 Space Shuttle mission he/she noticed an extra-ordinarily clear UFO pass by the craft. The stunned viewer managed to record it and upload it onto YouTube.

Internet UFO forums are going into frenzy mode over the find. Due to its clarity it seems to defy past explanations for such objects by NASA. The object clearly passes the craft and is unlikely to be explained away as a mere reflection. The classic disc shaped UFO is surprisingly similar in shape to so many recent sightings on earth. Many now believe that these alien craft appear differently on film depending on whether they are recorded out at space or within the atmosphere.

The STS-119 is the current space shuttle mission to the International Space Station being flown by Space Shuttle Discovery for the purpose of delivering essential equipment. Its launch occurred on March 15, 2009, at 7:43 pm. 

Here is what Major James McDivitt repeated many times: 

"I was flying with Ed White. He was sleeping at the time so I don't have anybody to verify my story. We were drifting in space with the control engines shut down and all the instrumentation off (when) suddenly (an object) appeared in the window. It had a very definite shape - a cylindrical object - it was white - it had a long arm that stuck out on the side. I don't know whether it was a very small object up close or a very large object a long ways away. There was nothing to judge by. I really don't know how big it was. We had two cameras that were just floating in the spacecraft at the time, so I grabbed one and took a picture of (the object) and grabbed the other and took a picture. Then I turned on the rocket control systems because I was afraid we might hit it. At the time we were drifting - without checking I have no idea which way we were going - but as we drifted up a little farther the sun shone on the window of the spacecraft. The windshield was dirty - just like in an automobile, you can't see through it. So I had the rocket control engines going again and moved the spacecraft so that the window was in darkness again - the object was gone. I called down later and told them what had happened and they went back and checked their records of other space debris that was flying around but we were never able to identify what it could have been. The film was sent back to NASA and reviewed by some NASA film technicians. One of them selected what he thought was what we talked about, at least before I had a chance to review it. It was not the picture - it was a picture of a sun reflection on the window."

The "Condon Report" is considered by almost all ufologists and by several scientists who participated to it as a deliberate attempt to debunk the UFO phenomenon, did validate the McDivitt UFO sighting and several other astronaut sightings: 

"There are three visual sightings made by the astronauts while in orbit which, in the judgment of the writer, have not been adequately explained. These are: 1. Gemini 4, astronaut McDivitt. Observation of a cylindrical object with a protuberance. 2. Gemini 4, astronaut McDivitt. Observation of a moving bright light at a higher level than the Gemini spacecraft. 3. Gemini 7, astronaut Borman saw what he described as a ‘bogey’ flying in formation with the spacecraft." 

And later: 

"visual sightings made by the astronauts while in orbit which, in the judgment of the writer, have not been adequately explained.... Unexplained sightings which have been gleaned from a great mass of reports are a challenge to the analyst. Especially puzzling is Especially puzzling is the first one [The one presented here] of an object showing details such as arms protruding from a body having a noticeable angular extension. If the NORAD listing of objects near the GT-4 spacecraft at the time of the sighting is complete as it presumably is, we shall have to find a rational explanation or, alternatively, keep it on our list of unidentifieds." 

In 1975, McDivitt adds: 

"I never made a big deal out of it. It was something I definitely couldn't identify. I reported it to the ground ... Ed was asleep and we were rotating at a pretty high rate in drifting flight. The windows were dirty, I recall ... All of a sudden there was this white object out there. It looked like a beer can with a pencil sticking out of it at an angle. It had a definite cylinder shape, about three times as long as its diameter." 

Maloney adds that the astronaut estimated that he got a 30-second look at the object. Furthermore, McDivitt said, the space agency made no attempt to prevent his telling his UFO story. A NORAD officer later handed to the well known debunker Klass a print of the Titan-II second stage. This, he told Klass, was what McDivitt had seen but was unable to identify: the Titan booster. Klass obtained a copy of the photo from NORAD and sent it to McDivitt, asking if it did not closely correspond to his verbal description of the UFO he had seen. McDivitt replied: 

"Thank you for sending me the slide of the Gemini-IV photograph. I very quickly identified the object in the photograph as the second stage of the Titan rocket which launched us ... I am sure that this is not a photograph of the object which I described many times and which many people refer to as the Gemini IV UFO...." 

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.

Apollo 10's amazing encounter with a VERY bizarre anomaly while behind the far side of the Moon. This segment will give you an up-close look at an astounding audio transcript from the Apollo 10 mission that has never before been publicly analyzed - and that NASA and the Apollo 10 astronauts to this day still refuse to talk about.

You will follow Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young as they become only the second crew in history to journey behind the lunar far side. During this period of "LOS" (Loss Of Signal), the astronauts encounter something truly incredible - they discover MUSIC behind the Moon!

Also I would like to mention that the reason why I received her nice letter today, January 28, 2008 was due to the recent article I posted which was entitled Lt. Col. Roy Jack Edwards Tells His Son Of His UFO Encounter As A Test Pilot and the story on this can be found at: *Lt. Col. Roy Jack Edwards Tells His Son Of His UFO Encounter As A Test Pilot*

John Barron McKay American Test Pilot. Born 8 December 1922. Died 15 April 1975.

Personal: Male, Married, Eight children. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, USA. Liver failure stemming from X-15 crash injuries.

Astronaut Career

Astronaut Group: Man-In-Space-Soonest - 1958, Test Pilot (NASA). Deceased Entered space service: 1960. Left space service: 1962. Number of Flights: 1.00. Total Time: 0.0083 days.

Born in Portsmouth, Virginia; married with eight children. US Navy pilot in World War II. Received a BS from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 1950. He joined NACA in 1951 as a D-558 and X-1 test pilot. Project pilot on F-100, F-102, F-104, F-107 NACA test programs before being assigned as third NASA X-15 pilot on October 25, 1961. Made 29 X-15 flights, reaching an altitude of 90 km and obtaining astronaut wings, before being seriously injured in the 1962 X-15 crash near Lancaster, California. Died of liver damage stemming from his crash injuries at the age of 52.

NASA Official Biography

John B. McKay was one of the first pilots assigned to the X-15 flight research program at NASA's Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. As a civilian research pilot and aeronautical engineer, he made 30 flights in X-15s from October 28, 1960, until September 8, 1966. His peak altitude was 295,600 feet, and his highest speed was 3863 mph (Mach 5.64).

McKay was with the NACA and NASA from February 8,1951 until October 5, 1971 and specialized in high-speed flight research programs. He began as an NACA intern, but assumed pilot status on July 11, 1952. In addition to the X-l5, he flew such experimental aircraft as the D-558-1, D-558-2, X-lB, and the X-lE. He has also served as a research pilot on flight programs involving the F-100, F-102, F-104, and the F-107.

Born on December 8, 1922, in Portsmouth, Va., McKay graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in 195O with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. During World War II he served as a Navy pilot in the Pacific Theater, earning the Air Medal and Two Clusters, and a Presidential Unit Citation

McKay wrote several technical papers, and was a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.

He died on April 27, 1975. (Credit: NASA)http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/Biographies/Pilots/bd-dfrc-p010.html

Sheri's Email To Me

Dear Brian,

I just received the UFO article from my cousin.. I am writing to say that my father, John B. McKay, who had a twenty year career as a test-pilot at Edwards Air Force Base starting in 1951, told me that he had also seen, while flying, objects that appeared to be UFO's. My father did not work for the military, he worked for NASA, and has an astronaut rating for going into space in the X-15 rocket plane. These are the details of his conversation with me, nothing more or less to it:

What Sheri McKay was told by her Father

One night while I was home for a visit, in the early 1970's, after my father was retired from NASA, he and I were having a conversation in the evening hours after dinner. I don't recall how the subject came up, but he told me that during his flying career, and on more than one occasion, he had seen objects in the sky, while flying, that appeared to be UFO's, that some other pilot's had also seen what appeared to be UFO's, and that they were not allowed to talk about it. He did not go into any further detail, and I don't remember asking any questions, but I did get the feeling that he wanted to tell someone, and I think the fact that he was already retired, and had just had a couple of gin martinis that evening made it easier to do so. And after reading about the experience of Mr. Edwards, and how he was treated in such an unkind manner by the military, I don't mind telling someone myself. As for my personal views, I am neither for or against the idea of UFO's. But I do think that the subject should be stripped of all sensationalism and cover-ups, and be approached on the highest level of scientific inquiry.

Sincerely,

Sheri McKay Lowe.

I would like to extend my many thanks to Sheri McKay Lowe for writing to me, and as I mentioned to her in a letter. I have always been a fan of her Father and sure respect his bravery and courage for all he done.

Credit: The Brian Vike Archives & Sightings.com

A follow-on program used the aircraft as testbeds to carry various scientific experiments beyond the Earth's atmosphere on a repeated basis. Information gained from the highly successful X-15 program contributed to the development of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo manned spaceflight programs, and also the space shuttle program. The X-15s made a total of 199 flights and the first aircraft X-15-1, serial number 56-6670, is now located at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

According to an article by Al Hallonquist, White's achievements as an X-15 pilot "allowed him to become the fifth American to attain astronaut wings and only the second Air Force pilot to do this."

A quote from Major Bob White, the first man to earn his astronaut wings flying the X-15 rocket plane. This is from a LIFE Magazine article from August of 1962. As Major White hit the apogee of his flight (over 280,000 feet), he saw some things outside the window. The title of the article is one of his quotes he made over the radio during his flight - "There are things out there - absolutely!" After the flight, here is how he described the sighting that he had at the top of his climb.

"I have no idea what the objects were that I saw up there. I noticed a couple of particles first. They were very small, flaky objects. I thought they might be residue from the peroxide fuel that the engine burns. Then, I looked out the left window and saw what looked like a piece of paper about the size of my hand. It was about 30 or 40 feet away. It was grayish white, and I looked at it for a full five seconds before it moved away and I left it. I still dont know what it was."

Source : http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/robert-white.html

Gordon Cooper - a NASA astronaut and one of the original seven astronauts on Project Mercury

First Encounter - UFO sighting in the early 1950s, before his days as an astronaut
According to a Space.com article:
"On one occasion, I saw some strange vehicles that we assumed were UFOs," he told Bell.
In the encounter, which took place over Germany in the early 1950s, Cooper saw "flights of fighters flying by in the same sort of formation we flew, moving east to west." The U.S. Air Force base scrambled its own pilots, including Cooper, who remembers the objects as looking "just like saucers -- they were metallic looking, but we couldn't really get close enough to see more than that. You couldn't see any wings on them."

Second Encounter - UFO sighting in 1957, also before his days as an astronaut
From the same Space.com article:
He also stood by his belief that he saw a UFO land at Edwards Air Force Base in California in 1957. Although Cooper had been filming the base with a camera crew at the time, the film, which he handed over to a high-ranking officer from Washington, has never emerged.

Donald "Deke" Slayton - a NASA astronaut and one of the Mercury Seven

Sole Encounter - UFO sighting in 1951, before his days as an astronaut

According to his autobiography Deke!:

It was when I was doing a maintenance test flight like this that I had my one and only encounter with an unidentified flying object. I was up about the middle of one afternoon--a nice sunny day--wringing out this particular 51. I had just come out of a spin at around ten thousand feet over the Mississippi River, near Prescott, where the Mississippi and the St. Croix meet, about twenty-five miles from the Twin Cities. I was heading back to Holman Field when all of a sudden I saw this white object about my altitude, at one o'clock. 

I didn't think anything about it. My first thought was that it looked like a kite. But logic said nobody's flying a kite at this altitude. So I started kind of watching to see what it was. I was closing on it, but I still didn't think too much about it. The closer I got, the more it looked like a weather balloon, and I'm thinking, that's what it's gotta be. Then I flew past it a little high, about a thousand feet off. It still looked like a three-foot-diameter weather balloon to me. My guess on the dimensions couldn't have been too far off. I had plenty of gas, so I figured I'd make a pass on it. Burn some gas and have a little fun. 

I pulled into a turn. But when I came out of that turn and headed straight at it, all of a sudden it didn't look like a balloon anymore. It looked like a disk on edge! I thought, that's strange. Then I realized I wasn't closing on that son of a bitch. A P-51 at that time would cruise at 280 miles an hour. But this thing just kept going and climbing at the same time at about a forty-five degree climb. I kept trying to follow it, but he just left me behind and flat disappeared. I wondered what that was, but I never saw it again. I turned around, headed back, and landed, and didn't tell anybody about it for two days. I was afraid they'd think I'd lost my mind. A couple of evenings later I was over in the O-club with my boss, a full colonel, and after I [sic] couple of beers I thought I'd better tell him, and I did. 

He said, "Get your ass over to Intelligence in the morning and give them a briefing." So I did. They sat there and nodded and took notes. Then they told me: Just for your information, the day you saw this object a local company was flying high-altitude research balloons. They had a light airplane tracking it, and a station wagon on the ground. Both observers were watching this balloon and had seen this object come up beside the balloon. The object appeared to hover, then it took off like hell. The guys on the ground tracked it with a theodolite, and they'd computed the speed at four thousand miles an hour.

L’ancien astronaute de La Nasa Leroy Chiao relate une observation d’ovnis dans l’espace en 2005 lorsqu’il était le commandant de la Station Spatiale Internationale (ISS) durant six mois et demi. Ce jour-là, Leroy Choi était de sortie en mission dans l'espace avec le cosmonaute Salizhan Sharipov, afin d’entreprendre l'installation des antennes de navigation.

Ils se trouvaient à environ 230 miles au-dessus de la Terre, et se déplaçaient à plus de 17.000 miles par heure, lorsque quelque chose d'inhabituel attira l'attention de Leroy Chiao.

"J'ai observé des lumières disposées en ligne et volant de manière terriblement étrange" dit Chiao au Huffington Post. Par contre, Sharipov n'avait pas vu les lumières étant donné qu'il était opposé à Chio. Cette expérience a été reconstituée dans la vidéo  (ainsi que sur l'image) extraite d’une des émissions de la « Science Channel » intitulée, " Sommes-nous seuls ? " et dont le thème était cette fois-ci consacré aux « fichiers inexpliqués de La Nasa », débutée le 2 mars 2014.

Une explication terre-à-terre est proposée pour l'observation de Chiao. Il s’agirait de lumières en provenance d'un bateau de pêche situé à des centaines de miles en dessous de l’astronaute. Chiao déclare : « Je suis sceptique par rapport à l’idée que nous ayons pu être visités par des Aliens venant d'une autre planète ou dimension, mais je n’exclus pas ces hypothèses à 100%. J'ai l’esprit ouvert et je crois que la vie existe dans l'univers. »

 L’émission consacrée aux " Fichiers inexpliqués de La Nasa " met en lumière l’éventualité que des astronautes aient pu observer des ovnis durant leurs missions spatiales. Il existe une pièce photographique de présumées preuves des ovnis capturés lors de la mission Apollo 16 de 1972 sur la lune au moment où les astronautes revenaient sur Terre et dont l’un des films montrait un objet fascinant situé au-dessus de la surface lunaire, quelque chose qui ressemblait beaucoup à une soucoupe volante "classique".

Ce dont on est certain c’est que l'astronaute Leroy Chiao est convaincu que ce qu’il a observé depuis l’ISS n’était pas des lumières provenant d’un bateau de pêche.

Source: http://www.forum-ovni-ufologie.com/t18835-temoignage-de-l-astronaute-leroy-chiao-commandant-de-l-iss-en-2005

STS-61 & STS-44 

Story Musgrave on UFOs in Space 

OMNI: What inexplicable things have you seen out there?  

Musgrave: You see satellites. I've seen Mir go by within 28 miles; other satellites and you don't know what they are, but maybe just space debris. All kinds of debris come off space ships, especially at the back end after the main engines shut down and you open the doors: ice chips, oxygen or hydrogen, stuff dumped from the engines. On two flights I've seen and photographed what I call "the snake," like a seven-foot eel swimming out there. It may be an uncritical rubber seal from the main engines. In zero g it's totally free to maneuver, and it has its own internal waves like it's swimming. All this debris is white, reflecting sunlight, or you don't see it. Cruising along with you at your velocity, it's still got its own rotation. At zero g, things have an incredible freedom. It's an extraordinary ballet.  

OMNI: Could there be a space ship in our galaxy?  

Musgrave:  Sure. I think there's spaceflight going on in our 100 billion stars. And if they were in our solar system they'd be contacting us.  

OMNI: There are those who believe beings have already made contact, and that the government doesn't want to tell us. And we'll never know the answer to that.  

Musgrave: Yeah, we will. But I believe the government has told me all there is to know about classified things, and I do not believe there is any information relating to UFOs that they're keeping from us.  

OMNI: Who do you think is out there?  

Musgrave: Living creatures far more developed as civilizations. They've been around for 100 million years, and we can't even conceive how advanced they are and the kinds of things they're doing. That's why I make an effort to communicate, and might be considered eccentric because I do, because I know the probabilities are close to zero. But I do tell them to come down and get me.  

OMNI: How would you signal them?  

Musgrave: Let's just say I express a desire that whatever is out there would come down and get me. And if they came for me, unconditionally, I'd go. If they're that advanced, they probably know my requirements in terms of oxygen, pressure, and other things. If dimensions exist that are beyond our conceptual ability, they define reality also. I do not impose my limitations on the system. I recognize that this room is not this room, but only the way I perceive it. The signature a  bat has of this room, seeing it in ultrasound, or a fly with that great big eye it has--neither looks upon my reality as I do. It's frightening to realize I'm in an environment that is nothing like the reality I perceive. My perceptions are there for one reason: I survive in this environment. There is no reality anywhere of anything. So in this situation, how do we transcend space? The speed of light appears to be a block so that, based on what we know now, we'll never go anywhere. We might be able to use electromagnetic energy, which does go at the speed of light. If you encode this energy you send out, maybe it's possible.  

Source: http://www.omnimag.com/archives/interviews/musgrave.html 

Dr. Musgrave:

     "On two of my missions, and I still don't have an answer, um, I have seen a, a snake out there, six seven eight feet long.  It is rubbery because it has internal waves in it and it follows you for a rather long period of time. The more you fly in space the more you see an incredible amount of things out there and THAT sorta brings to you, really a certainty, that other living creatures are out there. Some incredibly primitive, more primitive, some just ah just proteins coming together, amino acids and some just single cell organisms and other civilizations that have been around for a million years that are doing unimaginable kinds of things." 

Source: Direct quote from Dr. Story Musgrave, Senior NASA Astronaut, taken from "Sightings," Sunday, April 9, 1995. 

Losing the Signal - Proof That Time Stamps on the STS-48 Video Released by NASA Are Phony

By Lan Fleming

This article was originally posted in June, 2003. Since that time, new information has been collected and is discussed in a new section at the end. -- 10/18/03

 During the STS-48 mission of the Space Shuttle Discovery in September 1991, a sequence of video broadcast on television showed what some interpreted to be large vehicles at a great distance from the shuttle. The objects responded to a flash of light and a stream of "projectiles" that followed by performing seemingly radical maneuvers. However, 8 years later, the NASA FOIA office began releasing a version of the video with time stamps on every frame. The time stamps indicate that the flash of light coincides closely with the time listed in telemetry records of the firing of an attitude control rocket in the space shuttle's aft end. This would suggest that the thruster was the cause of the flash, and both the "projectiles" and the "UFOs" were merely small particles within a few feet of the space shuttle.

Analysis of image sequences and timestamps

• Figure 1. Last frame prior to loss of signal (LOS); image is breaking up. City lights can be seen in the lower center.

• Figure 2. Last frame in a 6-second long series after LOS and prior to reacquisition of signal. that show nothing but noise.The time stamp is updated on each frame of noise. (How could the time be downlinked to Earth by the master timing unit aboard the shuttle six seconds after loss of signal?) 

• Figure 3. Last frame in a 1/2-second long series following reacquisition of the shuttle's telemetry signal and prior to resumption of video images that show a test pattern . 

• Figure 4. Last frame in a 1/3-second long series after the test pattern series and prior to stabilization of the video that show unstable images with time stamps from the period during which there was no signal, 1.5 minutes before reacquisition. 

• Figure 5. Frame immediately following the frame shown in Figure 4. The two frames are nearly identical, including the noise line where image top and bottom were switched before the signal stabilized. The city lights visible above the noise line are in identical postions, which would be impossible if the two frames had been taken 1.5 minutes apart as indicated by their respective time stamps. The two frames were obviously taken a few hundredths of a second apart, not 1.5 minutes. 

• Figure 6. First frame after signal has stabilized, prior to the "precise" coincidence of the thruster firing and the light flash. 

In the paper I wrote for Mark Carlotto's online journal, New Frontiers in Science, I argued that the time stamps on the frames of the STS-48 video are off by several seconds. The argument was based upon a comparison of the predicted time at which the North Star Polaris transited the "airglow" shell of the Earth's upper atmosphere to the time stamp on the frames at around the moment the transit can be seen to occur on the video. The predicted transit time was found to be 7.7 seconds later than the time displayed on the video, based on the officially released NORAD orbital elements for the Space Shuttle Discovery. If the time stamps were in error, then the light flash occurred far too long after the thrusters stopped firing for the two events to have been causally linked. There was nothing aboard the shuttle other than the rockets that could have caused the light flash and the objects' abrupt change of course in response to the flash. That in turn would be compelling evidence that the objects were in fact large objects a great distance from the shuttle rather than small debris particles close to it. But according to James Oberg, the most well known popularizer of the rocket exhaust theory, there can be no error in the time stamps because:

 "A digital time, sourced from the shuttle's Master Timing Unit, along with camera parameters such as power, az/el angles, etc., is digitally encoded on the downlink video, and can be read and displayed in various formats which are not of significance. What is important is that the automated source of the time signal is a high-precision timer, not fumble-fingered home-VCRsetter."

Below are 6 frames taken from the STS-48 video around the time of a "loss of signal" (LOS) event mentioned several years ago by Oberg.Collectively, these frames prove that the time stamps shown in the video were not encoded on the video by the space shuttleís "master timing unit" as claimed by Oberg. In 1999 Oberg wrote to an AOL message forum on UFOs describing the LOS event: 

"According to the 100-page post-flight report 'STS-48 Scene List' which catalogued ALL video transmissions from the Orbiter to the ground, ... At GMT 20:17:28, the Orbiter passed out of range of the eastern TDRS satellite and entered the brief ëZone of Exclusioní (ZOE) directly opposite in longitude from the TDRS ground station at White Sands, New Mexico. Communication was established with the western TDRS satellite a minute and a half later."

The video does in fact go to static at exactly the time Oberg said it did: 20:17:28 (according to the upper time stamp, but not the lower). The last frame prior to LOS is shown in Figure 1.  But what Oberg missed is that all throughout a 6-second time period after the loss-of-signal, both of the video time displays continue to update the time on video frames containing nothing else but noise. The last of the noise frames is shown in Figure 2. If the signal was lost, then how could the time from the shuttle's master timing unit possibly have been "encoded" on static? The obvious answer is that it could not. This alone proves that the time stamps were added to the video at a later date. But there is more. The 6 seconds of noise is followed by the display of a test pattern, apparently indicating the point where the signal was reacquired but before resumption of the video transmission, which occurred 1/2 second later. The last frame showing this test pattern is displayed in Figure 3. As might be expected in a video sequence interrupted by a 1.5-minute long loss of signal, there is, in fact, a jump in time of 1.5 minutes between frames. But the jump occurs at a point between two frames that were taken a few hundredths of a second apart, and most definitely were not taken 1.5 minutes apart. They were probably consecutive as indicated by the fact that the two frames are nearly identical. (Figure 4 and Figure 5).With absolute certainty, this, too, proves that the time stamps were added to the video after it was downlinked. Probably 8 years after, because despite the alleged "analysis" that Oberg claims was conducted back in 1991 a few months after the STS-48 mission, no public mention was made of any video time stamps until 1999. Why would it take 8 years for "space experts" touting a rocket exhaust theory to remember that detailed records were kept of thruster firings and that the time was digitally encoded on the video?

The signal was apparently reacquired when the test pattern was first displayed. If (big if) the time stamps were generated from authentic time records from STS-48 telemetry, they were still imposed on the video separately. If so, then the first test pattern frame, which has an incorrect time stamp, should instead have the time stamp of the first frame showing the Earth taken after the signal was reacquired. That frame, shown in Figure 5 has a time stamp of 20h19m00+15/30s GMT (the fractional part is 15/30 second, not 0.15 seconds). The actual time for the Figure 5 frame would then be 20:19:01+10/30s. If that is the case, then whoever did the video editing misaligned the video frames with the time stamps so that all subsequent frames leading up to the light flash event are shown to occur about 0.833 seconds too early. Based on the official NORAD orbital elements for the space shuttle and the predicted time of the airglow transit by Polaris, I concluded in the NFS article that video times displayed were 6 seconds too early. But based on a set of orbital elements computed by a NASA trajectory officer Dan Adamo in 1999, the airglow transit occurred about 1.6 seconds after the time displayed on the video. Although I argued that the official orbital elements were more likely correct, an LOS time discrepancy of 0.83 seconds might be viewed as some weak evidence that that Adamo's calculations were correct after all. A time difference of 0.83 seconds still puts the light flash event about 1/2 second after the point in time where the two aft rockets stopped firing, according to what are purported to be the thruster telemetry records. But that is only speculation based on data that has been adulterated. The demonstrable facts are that the flash of light in the STS-48 video was lens flare unrelated to any rocket firing (as shown in the NFS paper) and that the time stamps are, in nontechnical terms, phony.

Let's Do the Time Warp Again (Update 10/18/03)

The reason why there are two time displays showing different times has been identified by an "anonymous" source at NASA according to a person writing to the UFO Updates email list. The upper time display, or "time window," as it is called, is supposed to be generated by the recording device on Earth from the telemetry signal received by a ground station. The time increments by 30ths of a second because the recorder uses the Society of Motion Pictures Time (SMPT) format, making it essentially a frame counter, with frames displayed at a rate of 30 frames per second (actually 29.97 according to the video format used in the United Staes). The lower time window is supposed to be the time stamp generated aboard the shuttleby the Master Timing Unit and is encoded on the video frame prior to transmission of the telemetry signal to a TDRS communications satellite in geosychronous orbit that then retransmits the signal to a ground station.

The upper time window, then, represents a "time received" stamp and the lower window represents the "time sent" stamp. Due to a delay of from 2 to 3 seconds between the time a video frame is transmitted by the shuttle and the time the ground-based recorder receives it, the frame should show a time-received stamp that is 2 to 3 seconds later than the time-sent stamp. That much is consistent with the time displays -- the time-received stamp on the STS-48 video is about 2.3 seconds later than the time-sent stamp on every frame subsequent to re-acquisition of the signal. The time encoded in the telemetry should be only a small fraction of a second later (a few milliseconds, most likely) than the true time of events seen in the video frame on which the time display appears.

Obviously, it would be expected that updates to the "time-received" stamp would continue uninterrupted through the LOS event, since they are added to the video at the receiving end of the communications chain and the ground video recorder's clock is unaffected by the LOS. But it should not contain the 1.5-minute "time warp" shown in the two consecutive frames previously shown in Figures 4 and 5.  And the lower time window (the "time-sent" stamp) should  not continue to increment after LOS since there is no signal to transmit it -- nothing was reaching the ground station from the shuttle during the LOS period.

The anonymous NASA source had a very odd explanation for why the telemetry stamp continues to increment throughout the LOS sequence on the video: the video recorder on the ground has a "backup" capability to add telemetry stamps when the telemetry encoding on the shuttle fails to do it! It's one thing to spend money on redundant hardware to back up vital communications systems on the shuttle and on the ground, but it seems utterly absurd to do it for telemetry time stamps on a video recorder. If a scientist using the video needs to estimate the time a video frame was sent after a malfunction of the shuttle's Master Timing Unit, this can easily be done by simply subtracting the difference between the time received and time sent for the last frame transmitted before the malfunction. Seamlessly continuing to update the display of a telemetry time code that is no longer a real telemetry code could only serve to mislead the scientists using the data into thinking the displayed time is a true measurement rather than an estimate of uncertain accuracy.

Even if it is assumed that there is some arcane technical reason for the alleged "simulation" of telemetry time codes, there is still the problem of a second "time warp" in the telemetry time display (or simulation thereof). The second time warp is shown in Figure 7 below. Note that the "time-received" stamp (the upper one) has advanced by only 1/30 second, (from 19:01.23 to 19:01.24) while the purported telemetry stamp below it has advanced time by almost 1.5 minutes.

Space Serpents

Source: Nasa cameras

"You hear that? That whistling sound?" Apollo 10 astronaut Eugene Cernan asked his crewmates, according to a transcript of the mission. "Boy, that sure is weird music."

It’s not surprising that Cernan and his fellow crewmembers Thomas Stafford and John Young were freaked out when they suddenly heard eerie noises coming from their instruments, James Griffiths reports for CNN.

At the time, the Apollo 10 spacecraft was on the far side of the moon, out of contact with Mission Control and the farthest that any human has ever been from Earth. And the odd, high-pitched whine sounds like a stereotypical alien sound effect from a 1950s science fiction flick.

"You know that was funny,” Cernan said in the transcript. “That's just like something from outer space, really. Who's going to believe it?"

"Nobody,” Young answered. “Shall we tell them about it?"

"I don't know,” Cernan replied. “We ought to think about it some."

For decades, the freaky moment and audio clips went unnoticed until recently, when it made its way into a Science Channel program called NASA’s Unexplained Files, which dramatizes stories and small details from NASA mission files. While the transcripts and audio have been publicly available at the National Archives since the early 1970s, NASA only recently scanned and digitized the materials to publish on the internet, according to a recent statement.

Hearing weird, unexplained noises in orbit around the moon seems like something that would have been quite newsworthy at the time. But as Sean O’Kane writes for The Verge, it makes sense that the three astronauts would have downplayed the phenomenon. One of NASA’s highest priorities is keeping its astronauts safe, and this includes their mental health. At the time, astronauts and test pilots typically took a “lie to fly” policy towards any crack in their resolve, as any hint of psychological trouble could scrap a mission and ground an astronaut forever.

Decades later, it’s still unclear what caused the strange sounds. One possible explanation is that charged particles interfered with the radio communications between the separated modules, as scientists observed when the Cassini spacecraft passed by Saturn. However, unlike the ringed planet, the moon doesn’t have an atmosphere, ruling it out as a source for these particles. Of course, as Cernan says in a recent statement, it could have been something as simple as radio interference.

“I don’t remember that incident exciting me enough to take it seriously,” Cernan says in a statement. “Had we thought it was something other than that we would have briefed everyone after the flight. We never gave it another thought.”

Apollo 10's amazing encounter with a VERY bizarre anomaly while behind the far side of the Moon. This segment will give you an up-close look at an astounding audio transcript from the Apollo 10 mission that has never before been publicly analyzed - and that NASA and the Apollo 10 astronauts to this day still refuse to talk about.

You will follow Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young as they become only the second crew in history to journey behind the lunar far side. During this period of "LOS" (Loss Of Signal), the astronauts encounter something truly incredible - they discover MUSIC behind the Moon!

*THE DSE and DSEA*

Throughout the Apollo program, the CSM and LM spacecraft carried what were known as DSE and DSEA "black box" flight data recorders. These instruments recorded the internal LM and CSM crew conversations while the astronauts were around the lunar far side and out of radio contact with Earth. Although NASA has never made the actual DSE/DSEA audio recordings public, transcripts of these far side conversations are available in the NASA archives, and as you will see, they offer up some truly AMAZING surprises!

Here is a link to the Apollo 10 DSEA voice transcript (in PDF format) for those who are interested.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/missi...

Stay tuned for Jose Escamilla's new motion picture documentary "MOON RISING", where we will go into much further depth about what is, without exaggeration, the most monumental coverup in human history. http://MoonRising-TheMovie.com.

Frank Borman - a NASA astronaut and commander of Gemini 7 and Apollo 8 missions

Sole Encounter - UFO sighting in December 1965, in orbit during Gemini 7 mission

From the Gemini 7 mission transcript (C and CC replaced with Borman and Capcom, respectively):

Borman: Gemini VII here. Houston, how do you read?
Capcom: Loud and clear, VII. Go ahead.
Borman: I have a bogey at 10:00 o'clock high.
Capcom: This is Houston. Say again, VII.
Borman: Said we have a bogey at 10:00 o'clock high.
Capcom: Roger.
Capcom: Gemini VII, is that the booster or is that an actual sighting?
Borman: ...
Capcom: Say again, VII.
Borman: Said ... we have several - looks like ... actual sighting.
Capcom: Do you have any more information, estimated distance, or size?
Borman: We also have the booster in sight.
Capcom: Understand you also have the booster in sight. Roger.
Borman: ... there are very many - looks like hundred of little particles going by from the left out about 3 or 4 miles.
Capcom: Understand you have many small particles going by on the left. At what distance?
Borman: ... looks like ...
Capcom: Roger. Understand they're about 3 or 4 miles away?
Borman: They're past now; they're in a polar orbit.
Capcom: Roger. And understand they were about 3 to 4 miles away?
Borman: That's what it appeared like, or further.
Capcom: Roger.
Capcom: Gemini VII, Houston. Were these particles in addition to the booster and the bogey at 10:00 o'clock high?
Borman: ...
Capcom: Roger.
Borman: Houston, this is VII.
Capcom: Go ahead.
Borman: I have the booster on my side and the brilliant body of the sun against a black background with billions of particles around it.
Capcom: Roger. What direction is it from you?
Borman: It's about 2:00 o'clock position.
Capcom: Does that mean it's ahead of you?
Borman: It's - ahead of us at 2:00 o'clock and it's slowly tumbling.
Capcom: Roger.

Many cosmonauts have seen phenomena which are far beyond the experiences of earthmen. For ten years I never spoke on such things. The encounter you asked me about happened on May 5, 1981, at about 6 PM, during the Saljut Mission. At that time we were over the area of South Africa, moving towards the area of the Indian ocean. I just made some gymnastic exercises, when I saw in front of me, through a porthole, an object which I could not explain. 

---------------------

“On May 5, 1981, we were in orbit [in the Salyut-6]. I saw an object that didn’t resemble any cosmic objects I’m familiar with. It was a round object which resembled a melon, round and a little bit elongated. In front of this object was something that resembled a gyrating depressed cone, I can draw it, it’s difficult to describe. The object resembles a barbell. I saw it becoming transparent and like with a ‘body’ inside. At the other end I saw something like gas discharging, like a reactive object. Then something happened that is very difficult for me to describe from the point of view of physics… I have to recognize that it did not have an artificial origin. It was not artificial because an artificial object couldn’t attain this form. I don’t know of anything that can make this movement… tightening, then expanding, pulsating. Then as I was observing something happened, two explosions. One explosion, and then 0.5 seconds later, the second part exploded. I called my colleague Viktor [Savinykh], but he didn’t arrive in time to see anything. “What are the particulars? First conclusion: the object moved in a suborbital path, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to see it. There were two clouds, like smoke, that formed a barbell. It came near me and I watched it. Then we entered into the shade for two or three minutes after this happened. When we came out of the shade we didn’t see anything. But during a certain time, we and the craft were moving together.”

Source: http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case396.htm

Those photos and his voice transmissions from space have never been released. It is only now, with the collapse of the Soviet Union that Afanasyev feels that he can safely tell his story. "It is still classified as a UFO because we have yet to identify the object." 

The Out of the Blue narrator explains:

[He was] flying home from Washington, D.C. with a delegation of scientists.
Pilots contacted ground control. Ground control did not detect anything on radar, even though the object could be seen by all occupants of the plane.

Popovich continues (English subtitles):

It travelled a parallel course. And its speed -- if we were travelling approximately 950 to 1,000 kph, it was travelling at about 1,500 kph, because it passed us rather quickly. In about 30 or 40 seconds it passed by, and overtook us. And that's all. And no academic, or anybody, could say what that object was.

"It followed us during half of our orbit. We observed it on the light side, and when we entered the shadow side, it disappeared completely.

It was an engineered structure, made from some type of metal, approximately 40 meters long with inner hulls.

The object was narrow here and wider here, and inside there were openings. Some places had projections like small wings. The object stayed very close to us.

We photographed it, and our photos showed it to be 25 to 29 meters away." - Cosmonaut Victor Afanasyev commenting on a UFO sighting that occurred while en route to the Solyut 6 space station in April of 1979.

Cosmonaut Adanasyev made a drawing of the space ship he witnessed from aboard the Soviet orbital vessel. (shown above)

Victor states, "I think we are not alone, something of extraterrestrial origin has visited Earth."

The alien craft turned toward ours, followed us and flew formation 25 to 29 meters away.

We photographed the metallic engineering structure that was around 40 meters long. The film was later confiscated.

(Source: Rense.com & Filer's Files)

Phobos, one of the two moons of Mars, has itself always been considered a rather mysterious object, as has its smaller twin, Deimos. Joseph Shklovskii noted member of the Soviet Academy of science and co-writer with Dr Carl Sagan of 'Intelligent life in the universe', once calculated from the estimated density of the Martian atmosphere and the peculiar "acceleration" of Phobos, that the satellite must be hollow.

Could Phobos be a hollowed-out space station of huge proportions? In July 1988, the Russians launched two unmanned satellite probes - Phobos 1 and Phobos 2 - in the direction of Mars, and with the primary intention of investigating the planet's mysterious moon, Phobos. Phobos 1 was unfortunately lost en route two months later, reportedly because of a radio command error.

Phobos 2 was also ultimately lost in the most intriguing circumstances, but not before it had beamed back certain images and information from the planet Mars itself. Phobos 2 arrived safely at Mars in January 1989 and entered into an orbit around Mars as the first step at its destination towards its ultimate goal: to transfer to an orbit that the would make it fly almost in tandem with the Martian moonlet called Phobos (hence the spacecrafts name) and explore the moonlet with highly sophisticated equipment that included two packages of instruments to be placed on the moonlet's surface.

All went well until Phobos 2 aligned itself with Phobos, the Martian moonlet. Then, on 28th March, the Soviet mission control center acknowledged sudden communication "problems" with the spacecraft; and Tass, the official Soviet news agency, reported that, "Phobos 2 had failed to communicate with Earth as scheduled after completing an operation yesterday around the Martian moon Phobos. Scientists at mission control have been unable to establish stable radio contact." 

What had caused the Phobos 2 spacecraft to be lost?

According to Boris Bolitsky, science correspondent for Radio Moscow, just before radio contact was lost with Phobos 2, several unusual images were radioed back to Earth, described by the Russian as "Quite remarkable features".

A report taken from New Scientist of 8 April 1989, described the following:

"The features are either on the Martian surface or in the lower atmosphere. The features are between 20 and 25 kilometers wide and do not resemble any known geological formation. They are spindle - shaped and proving to be intriguing and puzzling."

An unusual photo of a thin shadow across mars (below left) was shown on the Russian television segment. Seen on the surface of Mars was a clearly defined dark shape that could indeed be described, as it was in he initial dispatch from Moscow, as a "thin ellipse" It was certainly different from the shadow of Phobos recorded eighteen years earlier by Mariner 9. The latter cast a shadow that was a rounded ellipse and fuzzy at the edges, as would be cast by the uneven surface of the moonlet.

The 'anomaly' seen in the Phobos 2 transmission was a thin ellipse with very sharp rather than rounded points (the shape is known in the diamond trade as a "marquise") and the edges, rather than being fuzzy, stood out sharply against a kind of halo on the Martian surface. Dr. Becklake described it as "something that is between the spacecraft and Mars, because we can see the Martian surface below it," and stressed that the object was seen by both the optical and the infrared (heat seeking) camera. All these reasons explain why the Soviets have not suggested that the dark, "thin ellipse" might have been a shadow of the moonlet.

While the image was held on the screen, Dr. Becklake explained that it was taken as the spacecraft was aligning itself with Phobos (the moonlet). "As the last picture was halfway through," he said, "they [Soviets] saw something that should not be there." The Soviets, he went on to state, have not yet released this last picture, and we wont speculate on what it shows.

So what was it that collided or crashed into Phobos 2? Was the space probe shot out of space for "seeing too much"? What does the last secret frame show? Well... Cosmic Conspiracies have managed to track down this elusive last picture (below right). In his careful words to 'Aviation Week and Space Technology', the chairman of the Soviet equivalent of NASA, referred to the last frame, saying,"One image appears to include an odd-shaped object between the spacecraft and Mars." This "highly secret" photo was later given to the Western press by Colonel Dr. Marina Popovich, a Russian astronaut and pilot who has long been interested in UFO's. At a UFO conference in 1991, Popovich gave to certain investigators some interesting information that she "smuggled" out of the now ex-Soviet Union. Part of the information was what has been called "the first ever leaked accounts of an alien mother ship in the solar system".

The television sequence thus released focused on two anomalies. The first was a network of straight lines in the area of the Martian equator; some of the lines were short, some longer, some thin, some wide enough to look like rectangular shapes "embossed" in the Martian surface. Arranged in rows parallel to each other, the pattern covered an area of some six hundred square kilometers (more than two hundred thirty square miles).

The "anomaly" appeared to be far from a natural phenomenon.

The television clip was accompanied by a live comment by Dr. John Becklake of England's Science Museum. He described the phenomenon as very puzzling, because the pattern seen on the surface of Mars was photographed not with the spacecraft's optical camera but with its infrared camera - a camera that takes pictures of objects using the heat they radiate, and not by the play of light and shadow on them.

In other words, the pattern of parallel lines and rectangles covering an area of almost two hundred fifty square miles was a source of heat radiation.

It is highly unlikely that a natural source of heat radiation (a geyser or a concentration of radioactive minerals under the surface, for example) would create such a perfect geometric pattern. When viewed over and over again, the pattern definitely looks artificial; but what it was, the scientist said, "I certainly don't know." (Cosmic Conspiracies have written to Dr. Becklake in the hope that we can track down this picture).

Since no coordinates for the precise location of this "anomalous feature" have been released publicly, it is impossible to judge its relationship to another puzzling feature on the surface of Mars that can be seen in Mariner 9 frame 4209-75 (image below).

It is also located in the equatorial area (at longitude 186.4) and has been described as "unusual indentations with radial arms protruding from a central hub" caused (according to NASA scientists) by the melting and collapse of permafrost layers.

The design of the features, bringing to mind the structure of a modern airport with a circular hub from which the long structures housing the airplane gates radiate, can be better visualized when the photograph is reversed.

We have managed to track down the final picture taken by Phobos 2 before it was "shot out of orbit" (see above). One report indicated that it was presented at a closed meeting with US and British officials.

In the 19th October, 1989 issue of 'Nature', Soviet scientists published a series of technical reports on the experiments Phobos 2 did manage to conduct: of the thirty seven pages, a mere paragraph deal with the spacecrafts loss. The report confirms that the spacecraft was spinning, either because of a computer malfunction or because Phobos 2 was "impacted" by an unknown object.

And so we see that it is not only NASA that is apparently involved in suppressing photographs and knowledge of other planets, but the Russian space program as well.

Chain Craters of Phobos

In an interesting article in the January 1977 issue of 'Astronomy', entitled "Chain Craters of Phobos", the anonymous author discusses the strange grooves and craters of Phobos:

"Viking has discovered another mystery in the most unexpected place - one of the two small Martian moons.

Mariner 9's mapping of Phobos (12x14x17 miles or 20x23x28 kilometers) and Deimos (6x7x10 miles, or  10x12x16 kilometers) showed many craters, and left most investigators with the impression that they were merely rocky chunks that bore the scars of meteorite impacts.

There was a puzzling feature on Phobos that a few analysts noticed but, without better data, could say little about.

At the limit of resolution were a few small crater pits that seemed to align in one or two chains. This was unusual, because crater chains on the moon were traditionally explained as volcanic pits - small eruption sites string along fracture lines.

Yet Phobos apparently is too small to generate heat and conventional volcanic activity.

"Vikings high resolution photos have revealed that the crater chains are real and part of an extensive system of parallel grooves, a few hundred yards wide (shown in Viking orbiter photo number 39B84).

There may be a tendency for the grooves to lie parallel to the direction of the satellites orbital motion, although there appears to be several swarms with somewhat different orientations.

Scientists are at a loss to explain them.

Theories being discussed include:

- grooves left by much smaller satellite debris also orbiting Mars (though the grooves seem to follow contours of Phobos' surface to closely for this to be tenable)

- fractures radiating from an impact crater not yet recognized (perhaps on the side of Phobos still poorly photographed)

- or fractures created in the body of the Martian satellite when it was part of a hypothetical larger body and that it spawned both Martian moons, perhaps during a catastrophic impact"

In the latest effort to photograph Mars and its moons, the NASA 'Mars Observer' was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida in late 1992, on a 337 day voyage to Mars.

The Mars Observer initially was expected to arrive at Mars by 19 August 1993, and enter a long, elliptical orbit over the poles. In mid November 1993 it was to begin its two year mapping of the surface of Mars. Then suddenly, on 22nd August 1993, it was announced that NASA had lost contact with the spacecraft.

Americans and the world mourned the loss of a valuable scientific tool for understanding Mars. Taxpayers wondered if there was a better way to spend their money than on expensive space probes that didn't work. A dark shield was going up on new information about Mars to the public at large...

According to retired Soviet Air Force Colonel Marina Popovich, Phobos, one of the two Martian moons, is an artificial structure. In a meeting with CSETI's International Director, Steven Greer, she told him that her sources also advised that it is hollow.

Interestingly, the same story was told to contacteé Paul Villa Jr. by an ET that he had an encounter with in Long Beach, Ca in 1953. (See "Alien Base", by Timothy Good, P. 241) 

Source: https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/marte/marte_phobos05.htm

Russian Cosmonauts and Their Sightings of UFOs and Other Strange Phenomena

by Paul Stonehill

Sightings in the Low Earth Orbit

Soviet, and later, Russian cosmonauts have observed interesting , unusual, and often inexplicable phenomena while in space. Some of them have talked about their experiences, although doing so is not encouraged by their space program. A cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft; cosmonauts are professional space travelers.

Cosmonaut Vladimir Lyakhov once remarked about a very unusual phenomenon he observed from his spaceship looking down on Earth: two gigantic waves ascended from the waters of the Indian Ocean, and crashed onto each other. The mass of water resulting from the crash seemed to be a giant mountain that had vanished in an instant (published in Tekhnika-Molodezhi, Issue 3, 1980). Cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalyonok reported a very similar water pillar of over 100 kilometers in height in the Timor Sea near Australia (NLO magazine, 10/11, 1996). In an article published in Tekhnika-Molodezhi (Issue 3) back in 1979, cosmonaut and scientist Yevgeny Khrunov, remarked that UFOs cannot be denied, as thousands of people have observed them. Properties of unidentified objects simply astound the imagination. He was outspoken in another interview, a year later. It was in the pre-perestroika times, and Khrunov could not speak freely. Cosmonaut Aleksei Gubarev went a step further: he admitted that he believed in aliens. Interestingly enough, he mentioned the information that the Americans had at their disposal, information that confirmed his belief (Tekhnika-Molodezhi, Issue 1, 1980). Cosmonaut Valery Rozhdestvensky, a cosmonaut who does not believe in the presence of extraterrestrial civilization anywhere in the close vicinity to us, at the same time revealed knowledge about secret rumors or information that those outside of special circles (the Soviet space program and their military) could not know. In the article in Tekhnika-Molodezhi (Issue 10, 1980) he stated that he did not believe that a “small green man” actually knocked on the porthole of a Soyuz spaceship.

 Russian UFO researchers managed to collect more information about cosmonauts and strange phenomena. An article published in Spektra newspaper (Issue 8, Leningrad, 1992, after the demise of the Soviet Union) lists several incidents. In 1976, Cosmonaut Vladimir Kubasov told a reporter that he and others had numerous facts that prove the existence of UFOs. This was the year of the famous Teheran UFO incident. In 1978, Vladimir Kovalyonok observed a strange object on August 15 from the Salyut-6 space station: it approached and distanced itself repeatedly. Cosmonauts Valery Ryumin and Leonid Popov, while aboard the same station in 1980 (from June 14 to 15) had observed a school of white glowing dots that took-off in the area of Moscow, and flew into space above their station. They reported it to the ground control.

 An interesting sighting took place on September 2, 1978. Soviet cosmonauts Kovalyonok and Ivanchenkov observed the shadow of Salyut-6 orbital station over the clouds. The shadow had very strange orange-reddish color. What’s more amazing, it changed its size. Earlier that year, on August 25, both cosmonauts observed iridescent clouds: green, purple, reddish, blue, and even violet. Other Soviet cosmonauts (V. Sevastyanov, P. Klimuk) had reported silvery clouds. Their origin remains unexplained. Sevastyanov was mesmerized by their dull, occasionally pearly-white, cold, glitter. The structure of such clouds was either very thin (or bright) on the edges of the pitch-dark sky, or porous, resembling a swan’s wing.

 These clouds are said to be a magic spectacle. Russian astronomer Vitold Tsesarsky first reported them in 1885. The clouds are the highest in the Earth’s atmosphere, located at the altitude of 70-90 kilometers. They consist of diffused particles, its nature still unclear.

Colonel Yury Nazarov, former deputy commander of the Soviet Space Mission Control Center, recalled that on August 29, 1978, cosmonauts Kovalyonok and Ivanchenkov (mentioned earlier) , and the newly arrived cosmonaut Bykovsky and East German cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn had observed an unidentified large-sized spherical object that flew around Salyut-6. After the cosmonauts returned to Earth, Soviet UFO researcher Vladimir Ajaja approached Bykovsky, to get some explanations, but the cosmonaut only admitted that they did observe something inexplicable from aboard the Salyut. The source is V. Ajaja’s booklet Znakomtes’, NLO (1990).

Cosmonaut Georgy Grechko reported seeing a strange being of gigantic dimensions over Mongolia. Georgy Grechko and Yuri Romanenko had also reported to the Tsentr (Soviet Space Mission Control Center) that while in their orbital station over the Falkland Islands they had actually observed huge letters. The photograph they took was delivered to Earth by visiting cosmonauts Dzhanibekov and Makarov.

Cosmonaut Vladislav Volkov, who perished in 1971, recalled the inexplicable noises he had heard in space, in his headset intercom: Sounds of dogs barking and babies crying. The Earth was below, and he was in orbit, yet he heard strange noises.

To his death Volkov was not able to explain it.

Cosmonauts Gagarin and Leonov heard music that the former described as “not of this Earth.” Not everything could be explained by sensory depravation. Nor did everyone involved attempt to seek explanations (NLO, 1999).

Cosmonaut Yury Malyshev said that when it comes to UFOs, no one in the world, probably, can say what they are. It is impossible to refute similar phenomena, for there were thousands, or tens of thousands of people who have witnessed them. But the physical nature of the (UFO-P.S.) phenomenon remains indeterminate (Tekhnika-Molodezhi, Issue 11, 1981). Earlier that year, Cosmonaut Vladimir Aksyonov was more cautious. He said that cosmonauts often observe peculiar light phenomena as of yet inexplicable in nature. The contemporary stage of research of the phenomena is similar to the early establishment of such sciences, as zoology and botany, when the naturalists simply described unknown species of animals and plants (Tekhnika-Molodezhi, Issue 1, 1981)

In the year 1982, on July 12, Soviet cosmonauts Georgy Beregovoy and Valentin Lebedev were able to observe an unusual drop-shaped object on the monitor’s screen of the Salyut-7. It flew, ascending, between the orbital space station and Progressor-14 craft. The object, at the distance of 200 meters, could have been the size of a spaceship. The cosmonauts reported their sighting to the Tsentr. This information comes from the books authored by Gherman Kolchin, former Soviet colonel and UFO phenomenon researcher. The author also recalled speaking with Cosmonaut Pyotr Klimuk in April of 1989, who confirmed he does not refute the existence of UFOs (Fenomenon NLO: vzglyad iz Rossii, Kolchin’s book published in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1994).

An interesting interview was published in Sputnik magazine. The subject of the article was perception of UFOs by cosmonauts and astronauts. It contained stories told by ten Soviet and American space explorers. Only one did not refute the possibility of UFOs coming to our galaxy. Yevgeny Khrunov actually mentioned that it is not possible to deny their (UFOs) presence in our galaxy. Thousands of people have observed them. Maybe they are but optical illusions, but some of their characteristics, for instance the change of their flight course at 90 degrees, boggle imagination.

Cosmonaut Gennady Strekalov mentioned that he saw strange phenomena several times, but is hesitant to classify what he saw as UFOs. But his colleagues did see “flying saucers,” and he envies them. Strekalov did not provide details about their sightings. He described the phenomenon he observed in 1990, on September 28, during his sojourn on the space station MIR: a sphere over the Newfoundland (at the altitude of 20-30 kilometers). The source is Rabochaya Tribuna newspaper, October 16, 1990 issue. The atmosphere was clear and visibility was perfect. The sphere was beautiful, and changed colors. It remained visible for ten seconds, and vanished instantly. Strekalov remembers that it had a perfect shape. He reported the incident to the Mission Control Center, but did not classify it as a UFO explaining that cosmonauts must be cautious. Cosmonaut Gennady Manakov was with Strekalov aboard the MIR space station station, and observed the same phenomenon.

Cosmic Whisper

There are still episodes of the Soviet space exploration that are not widely discussed in Russia. Such are the accounts of the so-called “space whisper.” One former cosmonaut known only as, Cosmonaut X, revealed some information, but demanded that his name remain anonymous. He recalled that Soviet cosmonauts heard hushed up rumors about the “whisper,” but did not share definite information among themselves, nor did they report anything to the doctors. They were afraid that the latter would remove them from the space program. Cosmonaut X and his colleague believed the rumors to be a legend created by the first team of Soviet cosmonauts, to scare the greenhorns. He was wrong.

They were aboard a Soviet spacecraft, flying over the Southern hemisphere, when the “whisper” came to them. The narrator said that he suddenly felt as if someone else was next to them. He felt that some invisible being stared into his back; and it was a hard gaze. The cosmonaut had no doubt he was being observed. A second later his comrade, the flight engineer, who was looking into the porthole, sharply turned around and looked about him. Both were quite ordinary people, far removed from any mystical beliefs. But they were good friends, and knew each other long before the Star City training. They were not afraid to compare their impressions after the episode. They received different “texts,” but their initial reaction to the “whisper” was identical: both became mute and dumbfounded. The “whisper” came from the depths of Cosmonaut X’s consciousness and said: “You arrived here too early, and you did it in a wrong fashion. Trust me, for I am your ancestor on the maternal side. Do you remember, she told you; back when you were a child, about your great-grandfather, who had founded the D-s factory in the Urals? Sonny, you should not be here, go back to Earth, do not violate the Laws of the Creator…Sonny, you must return, return, return…”

The “whisper” also told the cosmonaut a very private story, as if to prove knowledge that existed only inside the family; it concerned the cosmonaut’s great-grandfather.

Both cosmonauts were back on Earth two days later. The “whisper” came back to them one more time; the “texts” of what it said were the same as the first time; and both felt the alien presence throughout their time in orbit.

The cosmonauts faced a dilemma: to report the incident or not. If they did, their careers could end immediately. They could be considered impressionable people, their psyche too unstable for further flights into space. Other cosmonauts kept somewhat silent about the “whisper,” at least nothing was reported to their superiors.

Cosmonaut X and his colleague spent endless hours trying to determine what it was that they had experienced. They were atheists, and both liked science fiction. This led them to a conclusion that alien intelligence, using some king of hypnosis, is determined to prevent the mankind from exploring the outer space. To convince the mankind that its sons and daughters in outer space are not experiencing hallucinations, hard facts are presented, facts picked up from probing human brains, memories and subconscious. How long have “they” researched our civilization? Perhaps for thousands of years.

But are the aliens so naïve as not to understand that we would see their ploy? Then, if it was not an alien “whisper”… whose would it be? Did the departed relatives truly visit Soviet crews in space? This conclusion shattered the cosmonauts’ convictions, their atheism, and their view of the world. Does it mean that there is life after death, and that the consciousness (not the physical body) continues to exist on other stages of existence? There must be a hierarchy to such stages, and on the top of the hierarchy would be the Creator, as the great-grandfather had informed the cosmonaut.

Their sense of duty told both cosmonauts that a report had to be made. They did not listen to that sense. But some other cosmonauts, who had heard the “whisper,” did make reports. As a result, special medical teams were introduced into the training program, top-rated medical hypnotists began to explore cosmonauts’ psyches, and the whole fight-training program underwent changes.

Cosmonaut X, who has since retired, does not know how the “whisper” is treated nowadays, and what conclusions Russian scientists have come to (the report was published in Press-Extra newspaper, Issue 135, 1997). He did say that his whole outlook on life had changed. The outer space is full of intelligence, and is much more complicated than we imagine it to be. Our present knowledge does not allow us to understand the essence of most processes taking place in the Universe. Our abilities are still quite limited. But for those who had heard the “whisper” one thing is clear: the future exists, and it is endless, just as time and space are endless.

Who knows what awaits the humans in our exploration of the outer space? We have not wandered far from the embrace of our planets, but have already encountered wonders we are not able, as yet, to explain…