Astronaut UFO Sightings 101

First of all let me start by saying that this thread is for members like myself who are new to the UFO milieu and are interested in discovering some background facts and information on the subject.

We have so many informed members and subject matter experts. So much so that sometimes it can be a little intimidating for a person of lesser knowledge on the subject such as myself, to try to participate in some threads, lest we come off as dare I say, "ignorant."

It is in this vain and for others such as myself that I wanted to do this thread.

I ran across this basic but fascinating information on astronaut UFO sightings and interesting links compiled in one webpage. I thought would be a good starting point for beginners such as myself. It is my assumption, perhaps a false one, that astronauts would be the most credible and qualified witnesses of all.

UFO Sightings by Astronauts

It includes the accounts or testimonies of:

Major Gordon Cooper
Donald Slayton
Major Robert White
Joseph A. Walker
Commander Eugene Cernan
Ed White & James McDivitt
James Lovell and Frank Borman
Neil Armstrong & Edwin Aldrin
Maurice Chatelain
Scott Carpenter

So please don't have a go at me I realize that for many of you this is old news and information.

There's also great information on the subject, including Edgar Mitchell, on this thread: The Astronauts Thread

And if any of our experts have further names or useful links for "beginners" within the context of astronaut sightings, your input would be most welcome and appreciated.

Thx for your post!

You said what many of us, for damn sure including myself, felt like, since joining ATS. Many of us have so many theories & question, but are fairly afraid or caution, probably a better use, to make a post because of the ridicule that it will attract from the more seasoned members.

Hi Schrodingers Dog.

Excellent site , thanks for posting. I myself believe that astronauts are best witnesses in the Ufo field. The first scientist ever to visit space Edgar Mitchell , claims they are here. Who are we to doubt him ?

Well done. 5stars =)

[edit on 26-1-2009 by avail]

This poses a question.

What are they doing on the moon? Why can't we go back ?

reply to post by avail

Mining

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I could swear Gordon Cooper denied the entire "green UFO" incident that allegedly occurred in orbit.

Originally posted by bskivss3
Thx for your post!

You said what many of us, for damn sure including myself, felt like, since joining ATS. Many of us have so many theories & question, but are fairly afraid or caution, probably a better use, to make a post because of the ridicule that it will attract from the more seasoned members.

For yourself and the op.

Dont worry about getting hammered by other members as most of us have been there and done the hard yards, and not all ATS thread conclusions should be taken as fact?

I have have studied this subject for 30yrs and I still post some, How can you call it? no doubt debunckable material on ATS as it might be of interest to others.

Its a learning curve as they say, the more you dig deep and realise the bull# that over shadows this subject more will come to light?


Keep well

Star and Flagged

[edit on 26-1-2009 by Bob Down Under]

Well you know Astronaut UFO sightings are real.
Ive watched alot of things on it.
Plenty of evidence of them saying "We have a UFO".
And much of them saying "We have a bogey".
Then there is even some where they can be heard saying "The Alien space craft".
Which I think doesn't leave much to the imagination now does it.
If they said only "UFO" then of course we could always ignorantly assume it could be anything including space junk.
But Alien space craft?
Not to mention after they said these things, the radio suddenly went dead.
Like they switched it to an encrypted secure channel.

Also! you will not be shot at dawn

You just post what you feel and need to say on the subject and do not worry about it

[edit on 26-1-2009 by Bob Down Under]

Originally posted by avail
This poses a question.

What are they doing on the moon? Why can't we go back ?

this one always gets me....why do people think we have never been back....according to a quick search 12 people have been to the moon from 1969 to 1972....

wiki.answers.com...

Originally posted by booda

Originally posted by avail
This poses a question.

What are they doing on the moon? Why can't we go back ?

this one always gets me....why do people think we have never been back....according to a quick search 12 people have been to the moon from 1969 to 1972....

wiki.answers.com...

May be we Have?

Search! and one lines dont work for me, sorry ATS

Originally posted by Schaden
Someone correct me if I'm wrong,

Gladly...

Colonel L. Gordon Cooper, Mercury-9, Gemini-5 Astronaut, Addressing a United Nations Panel Discussion on UFOs and ETs in New York in 1985. The panel was chaired by then Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim.

"I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth. I feel that we need to have a top level, coordinated program to scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion. We may first have to show them that we have learned to resolve our problems by peaceful means, rather than warfare, before we are accepted as fully qualified universal team members. This acceptance would have tremendous possibilities of advancing our world in all areas. Certainly then it would seem that the UN has a vested interest in handling this subject properly and expeditiously.

For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us.

And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public.

Why? Because the authorities are afraid that people may think of some kind of horrible invaders. So the password still is: We have to avoid panic by all means."

In another interview he said:

"As far as I am concerned, there have been too many unexplained examples of UFO sightings around this Earth for us to rule out the possibilities that some form of life exists out there beyond our own world."

And in an exclusive interview with the National Enquirer on 14 January 1997, Cooper speaks openly about alien spacecraft. He says there's been a massive government cover-up of UFOs for nearly 50 years and insists the American public has a right to know the truth.

"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.

"America has a right to know!"

SOURCE

HOWEVER just like Edgar Mitchell was adamant about stating that none of his UFO revelations had anything to do with NASA, so too Cooper was under the same 'gag order'

They can talk of stuff outside NASA but they signed a still binding non disclosure paper while in the employ of NASA

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin
On Apollo 11 UFO Sighting
www.thelivingmoon.com...

reply to post by zorgon


Hey Z, thanks for chiming in.

I was wondering, is the list of Astronauts as they relate to UFO sightings in the OP complete, or are there others who have gone public?

reply to post by schrodingers dog


good thread schrodingers dog,

i have always been very interested in the many Astronaut UFO sightings so i will be keeping an eye on your thread here

here is my contribution for now...

The Mercury missions were followed by the Gemini space flight series, and, according to some researchers, every astronaut in all twelve space missions of this series saw one or more unexplainable objects in space. NASA continued to claim such ‘encounters’ had never occurred.

In fact the closest NASA authorities came to admitting unknowns were actually sighted was in June 1966 after the launch of Gemini IX, a flight that was later cancelled due to what was claimed as ‘interference’ with the radio hook-up. This position was later changed, with NASA admitting that astronauts had seen unidentified flying objects on several occasions.

www.violations.org.uk...


and the Skylab 3 UFO encounter is not well known but one of the best imo

www.abovetopsecret.com...

hope that helps

reply to post by schrodingers dog


Good stuff
Some nice cosmonaut quotes here (amongst others)
www.bibliotecapleyades.net...

"Is the presence of extraterrestrial civilizations conceivable? Of course. Before the uniqueness of the earth is demonstrated, this assumption should be taken as quite legitimate. As regards UFOs, their presence cannot be denied: thousands of people have seen them. It may be that their source is optical effects, but some of their properties, for instance, their ability to change course by 90 degrees at great speed, simply stagger the imagination."
Yevegni Khrunov, Soyuz-5 spacecraft pilot in 1969

"The UFO sightings have become the constant component of human activity and require a serious global study. In order to realize the position of man on earth and in the universe, ufology, the scientific study of the UFO phenomenon, should take place in the midst of other sciences dealing with man and the world..."
Major-General Pavel Popovich, pioneer Cosmonaut

"On May 5, 1981, we were in orbit [in the Salyut-6 space station]. 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."
Vladimir Kovalyonok, Major-General of Aviation

The barbell object Vladimir Kovalyonok witnessed in orbit sounds similar to this green object filmed by Buzz Aldrin on his way to the moon
(found at 1:11 and 1:42)

Originally posted by schrodingers dog
I was wondering, is the list of Astronauts as they relate to UFO sightings in the OP complete, or are there others who have gone public?

Well you forgot Edgar Mitchell... the most outspoken recently

There are a few others I am aware of, but ermmm they have not done so publicly yet

Check your U2U in a minute or two (stupid time delay )

[edit on 26-1-2009 by zorgon]

reply to post by zorgon


Edgar is mentioned in the OP.

Originally posted by schrodingers dog

Major Gordon Cooper
Donald Slayton
Major Robert White
Joseph A. Walker
Commander Eugene Cernan
Ed White & James McDivitt
James Lovell and Frank Borman
Neil Armstrong & Edwin Aldrin
Maurice Chatelain
Scott Carpenter

Good thread.

May I suggest adding cosmonaut Victor Afanasyev to the list. In 1979 while en route to the Soviet Solyut 6 space station he saw an unidentified object turn toward his craft and begin tailing it through space.

"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 engineering 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 23 to 28 meters away."

www.ufoevidence.org...

The Buzz Aldrin interview regarding Apollo 11 and the UFO sighting is frequently referred to in support of the 'Astronauts saw UFOs' contention. A couple of members cite it on this thread. As usual with this subject, it's never that straightforward. There's another interview with Aldrin where he asserts that the sighting was a panel from the 3rd stage deployment of the command module.

He's emphatic that it wasn't anything unexplained or unidentified. Larry King is less than polite and interrupts Aldrin's explanation several times. Buzz Aldrin explains the Apollo 11 UFO sighting.

There's never any straightforward evidence, always a moving target

[edit on 26 Jan 2009 by schrodingers dog]