H eadquarters Action Tracking System (H ATS) INCOMING CORRESPOND ENCE ACTION ID Number: UI998-00407 (b) Title: WARD /Sen Snowe fwds Itr from U.F.O. and the recent Mars photo who's interested in Abstract: SEN SNOWE FWD S LTR FROM (b) (6) OF STOCKING TON, MAINE, WH O'S INTERESTED IN U.FO.'S AND TH E RECENT PH OTOS OF MARS WH ICH WERE RECENTLY RELEASED . Recipient: UH effernan Author: SNOWE Organization: SENATE D ate Written: 05/18/1998 D ate Received: 05/26/1998 D ate Concurred: D ate Submitted: D ate Signed: 06/24/1998 D ate Closed: 06/24/1998 Action Office: L/Ward:S »Current D ue D ate: 06/18/1998« Original D ue D ate: Status: Closed Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices: UH effernan, UH eninger, UKerwin Cornments: Enclosures: NO Related Records: Keywords: ^ ^ File Plan: 13 20.4 MAINE U.F.O. MARS Analyst: BMoore 06/24/1998 Page 1 of 1 H eadquarters Action Tracking System (H ATS) INCOMING CORRESPOND ENCE ACTION ID Number: L/1998-00729 Title: Rothman/UFO Sightings by Astronauts Abstract: Senator G rassley forwards letter from (b) (6) who is requesting information on UFO sightings by Astronauts. Recipient: L/H effernan Author: G rassley Organization: Senate D ate Written: 08/03/1998 D ate Received: 08/3 1/1998 D ate Concurred: D ate Submitted: D ate Signed: 09/04/1998 D ate Closed: 09/10/1998 Action Office: LD /Rothman:P »Current D ue D ate: 08/22/1998« Original D ue D ate: 08/22/1998 Status: Closed Signature Office: L/H effernan Info Offices: L/H effernan, L/H eninger, L/Kerwin Comments: Enclosures: letter Related Records: Keywords: t6) UFO,astronauts,sightings File Plan: 13 20.4 Analyst: JMassey 09/10/1998 Page 1 of 1 SEP - 1998 L:H R:mtg:L/1998-729f The H onorable Charles E. G rassley United States Senate Washington, D C 20510 D ear Senator G rassley: Thank you for your letter of August 3 , 1998, on behalf of^ ^ who is requesting information about the possible sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) by NASA astronauts. Over the years there have been many objects sighted by the astronauts during space missions Most of these items were later identified by photographs or NORAD records as material from launch vehicles or spacecraft or were such items as water droplets. No unidentified materials were seen on missions to the moon The Air Force, in the interest of national security, received and investigated all reports for many years but has discontinued this activity. NASA has no program for investigating UFOs and has not withheld information on sightings. In 1976, James Oberg thoroughly researched the UFO/astronaut allegations and published an article about it in SEARCH magazine We are enclosing that article for (b) (®) information. In addition, enclosed is a NASA Fact Sheet which summarizes the current status of NASA's involvement in UFO investigations. We trust this information will aid you in responding to^ inquiry. Sincerely, PAGINAL SIGNED St Edward H effernan Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs Enclosures bcc: Z/Roger Launius (with incoming); provided info Sent to Sherry Kuntz in the H ill office S ince the 'astronaut UFO ” genre is one of the m ain pillars of UFO evidence, this study claim ing that the entire set of cases is invalid Wiil ouviO usiy oc recer/eo w ith skepticism and criticism from UFO buffs. R ational objections and argum ents w ill bo printed and answ ered in a subsequent issue of this m agazine. C ritics are urged to raise specific points not addressed in the study, or to cite and docum ent facts w hich m ight m odify or invalidate conclusions in the study. Th© W hole Stores James E. Oberg Associate Editor "Space World" magazine Scotti ru^-w ^in ts^ 1^6 (issue iH aO PhLtf^R f ^E Lie A n 0 H S fW t^Tdiji sc. 5^06 Single copy pne* ^1,5^ Space flight has opened many mysteries. True, scientists prefer to list the puzzles solved and unknowns discovered, but as men venture beyond the earth it is inevitable that new mysteries will be encountered. Somewhere out there, many observers believe, are intelligent species with technological civilizations far more advanced than that of Earth. Perhaps they are sending us radio signals we have not recognized. Perhaps they have left artifacts of past visits for us to find. Perhaps they are even now keeping the earth under surveillance. If they are out there, someday we will meet them. As illustrated in science fiction, this meeting will probably occur in space. Have such meetings already occurred? Have astronauts and cosmonauts already seen alien spacecraft? The UFO literature is full of tales of “space UFOs". Are any of them valid? What can a careful study reveal? H ardly a UF O book or movie is complete without the standard assertion that “astronauts have seen UF Os too”. W hile critics may attack the character or intelligence of many UF O witnesses, they cannot use these tactics on American and Russian space pilots. W here UF O photographs can be accused of distortion and forgery, photographs taken by astronauts and processed by N ASA must be of the highest trustworthiness. H ence, most UF O scholars consider the family of astronaut UF O sightings to be one of the strongest bodies of evidence in the past thirty years. The best of these cases include astronaut James McD ivitt’s sighting of of an “unidentified spacecraft” near his Gemini-4 space capsule in 1965, a curious photo of a pair of UF Os with glowing propulsion fields taken by the Gemini-7 astronauts, reports of nearby objects from X-15 and Mercury spacecraft, tales of how the 1968-1969 Apollo moon shots were followed by UF Os on their way to the moon, and reports and photographs of objects seen by crewmen on the Skylab space station. Last year, the N ational Inves­ tigations Committee on fterial Phenomena (N ICAP) selected the “McD ivitt UF O” photo as one of the four best photographs ever taken. The “astronaut UF O” sightings must appeal to many serious researchers for a number of reasons. The witnesses and the photographs are unimpeachable as to honesty and authenticity. The conditions of the space missions can be calculated and recorded, and every object near the spacecraft can be determined by con­ sulting the giant space radars of the N orth American Air D efense Command (N ORAD ), headquartered inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado. Extensive crew debriefings and on-board tape recorder transcripts may be available to obtain direct eye­ witness testimony. W ith all these facts and assumptions in mind, and mindful of the numerous ‘unsolved’ cases which might tell much about the UF O phenomenon, I began a special research program into this particular body of evidence. As an aerospace writer, historian, and re­ searcher, I felt that my experience with astronautics, computers. Air F orce operations, and space missions might give me new insights into this most puzzling series of cases. I was not disappointed, and my results were startling. The basic truths behind these sightings seems lately to have gathered an accretion of exaggeration, confusion, and outright fiction. The 1968 “Condon Report” on UF Os (conducted by the University of Colorado for the U.S. Air F orce) found itself unable to penetrate three specific cases, which the analyst felt were a “challenge” to any serious investigator. Stories later began circulating about sightings of lunar surface lights and structures, and the discovery of artifacts on the moon, about near approaches of structured objects, and about attempts at radio contact between Apollo capsules and UF Os. Recent books on UF Os give lists of astronaut sightings which are out of numeric sequence, misdated, mispelled, and otherwise distorted. My research has revealed a few examples of deliberate photo forgeries by UF O buffs or opportunistic authors. My investigations in the N ASA 3 8 archives has revealed cases where UF O researchers withheld certain informa­ tion freely given them by N ASA officials, information which would have clearly explained many cases which the authors wanted to appear mysterious. So the time has come to take a new look at this whole phenomenon. W hat is the truth about “astronaut UF Os"? The first step in any research might be with the Condon report, thought by many to have been commissioned as a “whitewash" of the UF O phenomenon. UF O enthusiasts are accustomed to hearing harsh criticism of almost all aspects of this study, but my own objections to the “astronaut UF O” section is from a novel angle. My own research suggests that the Condon investigator, far from being the best man for the job, was clearly unqualified to evaluate the difficult cases. H e was not familiar with the terminology of space flight or the basics of orbital flight trajectories, as I am. As a result, he ignored possible explanations while incorrectly eliminating other possible answers. In other words, far from being a coverup, this chapter of the Condon report is superficial. It is entirely worthless as an endorsement of the unexplained and unexplainable nature of several astronaut sightings which I will discuss. I can prove this remark­ able assertion to any investigator serious enough to consider all the evidence, much of which has never before been published. The Condon report does give some details about the environment of astronaut sightings, but even here does not go far enough. More stress needs to be put on the visual and photo­ graphic limitations of space flight: the windows are far smaller than popularly realized (about half the size of this open magazine at arm’s length), and for many years were subject to obscuration and smudging by seepage of sealant and by contamination by rocket fuel. At various points in the flight, the spacecraft was surrounded by clouds of debris (leaking fuel, dumped water, chipping paint, fraying insulation, ejected equipment, and more), while the inside of the weight­ less cabin was usually plagued with floating particles of dust and debris which often passed in front of cameras pointing out windows. Other satellites should have been visible, since few people realize that on any clear night Despite the persistent rumors of 'secret space pictures', all photographs taken by NASA in space are in the public domain That is. any picture taker, by an astronaut or an earth resources satellite is available to anyone who wants to pay for it. There are four tiers of photograph availability, but two are reserved for newsmen only The structure is as follows: A. The most popular space photographs taken arc lithographed for general free distribution to anyone who asks for them. Several dozen new photographs are added to this list every year. Cost to NASA is a few cents per print. B. The NASA Public Information Offices at various centers and at headquarters prints glossy photographs of timely news stories for distribution to the news media. Hundreds of these photographs are released every year, but only certified newsmen can receive them for free.C. Many thousands of other photographs and drawings may be of interest to the news media and are therefore filed at public information 1 i i offices, but stock actual photo lab photograph. D. Any citizen 'C' aboue can get him to pay for it. News bureau photographs, along with all other flight photography-stills and movies—can be ordered from Bara Studios, P.O. Box 486, Bladensburg, MD 20710. The cost of any photograph ordered by stock number is several dollars apiece. Any cross-referencing or researching will also cost money. Some ground photographs of astronaut accidents, autopsies, and medical examinations are not releasable for publication. On several Gemini flights, special photographic experiments were undertaken for the DoD, but these involved special cameras and exclusively earth surface targets. In neither case would it be possible to withhold any hypothetical UFO photographs from the public. Astronaut photographs are indexed by a code which specifies year taken and frame number. S66-12387, for example, would be a NASA photo (not necessarily a space photo) taken in 1966. Beginning with Apollo, space photos were also indexed with a mission code, roll number and frame number (neither of which were repeated on later flights). For example, AS16-108-13005 was taken on the Apollo-16 flight, with the 108th roll of the Apollo project flight film. Movie Film is indexed per magazine with similar numbers. Every photograph ever taken by American astronauts for NASA is on file with Bara Studios and can be obtained by anyone willing to pay for them. Writers who produce ‘secret NASA UFO photographs' which they claim are being hidden from the American public are doing a gross disservice to one of the most open and cooperative public information offices of any federal agency. an observer on Earth can see a number of orbiting objects with only half an effort. Out of this “background noise", can we separate the “signal” which will indicate the existence of UF Os? These problems all are of interest to space officials, and numerous studies have been made. F ragments might imply a structural failure (a rescue ship was almost sent to Skylab-3 because of the crew’s observation of leaking fuel droplets). D ebris inside the cabin can irritate eyes and damage the electronic gear behind the instrument panels. Other satellites might be dangerous due to the potential of collision or they might be of intelligence interest if they are from some other nation. Therefore, any mysterious space sighting might as easily be vital for copies are not kept. Each request must be filled by orders, which costs NASA about one dollar per who wants copies of any photograph listed in 'B’or it, but it is entirely reasonable for NASA to expect - f ■ N ASA to know about as it might be a true UF O. Careful investigations are called for. W hat are some of the most famous cases, and what are the facts? Interpre­ tations may differ, but productive thinking can only be done when all the information is at hand. Some of it is hard to find or understand; other information, available to some researchers, may have been deliberate­ ly withheld. Some classical cases may consist of made-up fantasies. You can soon judge for yourself. H as there been any attempt to “cover up" space sightings (a common plea when no evidence is available, even in this age of sieve-like government secrecy)? Are astronauts “muzzled” about UF Os? H as fifteen 3 9 T he " M cDivitt UFO " , prize-w inning astronaut photograph taken on G em ini-4. A ctually. M cDivitt explained later after the flight that the sun w as com ing across the w indow as the spacecraft rolled, the sun rays struck a m etal bolt, causing the^ larcs in the cam era len? '. N A S A photo 65-H-1013. years of manned spaceflight uncovered any evidence at all which even remotely suggests that Earth is being visited and observed by advanced spaceships from another world? Let’s look at the evidence. On June 3, 1965, rookie astronauts Jim McD ivitt and Ed W hite blasted off from Cape Kennedy (now again Cape Canaveral), squeezed into their Gemini-4 capsule. The two youngest- ever American spacemen were to spend four days in orbit, tripling the previous US record. They would be the first American space crewmen to have time to sightsee in space, once major experiments like a booster rendezvous and a walk in space were completed. Approximately thirty hours into the flight (while W hite was asleep), McD ivitt reported that he had seen an object in space near his space capsule. It appeared to be cylindrical with "an arm sticking out”, possibly on a collision course. Interested N ASA officials in H ouston asked N ORAD which other space satellites were near Gemini-4 at the time of the sighting, and N ORAD came up with a list of about a dozen objects. All of them were pieces of tiny debris or small scientific satellites except one: the giant, “winged” meteor satellite, Pegasus-2. It seemed to fit the descrip­ tion radioed down by McD ivitt, so N ASA announced that the object had been identified. B ut Pegasus had been more than a thousand miles away, and McD ivitt clearly saw an object much closer, much more detailed, and in an orbit very close to his own (“Collision course” to a pilot means that the relative angle of sight is unchanging, which would not be the case for any satellite crossing McD ivitt’s orbit). The object became a UF O when nobody could identify it It has remained a UF O up until today, but not any longer. McD ivitt’s hasty attempt to take a photograph of the object through his smeared window was apparently fruit­ less, since the object’s motion combined with the slow stabilization spin of the spaceship carried it into the glare of the sun after about 30 seconds. The astronaut later recounted how he went through all the films of the flight (every roll of film is accounted for on a flight manifest, so they do not disappear) and found many over­ exposed or blank. This mission had been the first flight in which space photography was a major experiment, and the glaring sunlight of space had invalidated many pre-flight exposure settings. McD ivitt did not find any­ thing which looked like "his UF O”. W hat was it he saw? W hy has it become such a prominent UF O case? And if the pictures did not turn out, where did N ICAP get its “top four” photograph (which shows, not a winged cylinder, but a smeared blob)? W e can answer these questions at last. The first hint as to the true identity of this space UF O can be found in McD ivitt’s own words, given at a press conference a week after the flight when his memory was fresh: “It looked a lot like an upper stage of a booster”. Gemini does have a booster just like it, and McD ivitt had been carrying out maneuvers near it early in the flight. W hy didn’t the list from N ORAD include the Gemini-4 booster rocket? N ORAD had been tracking the objects, but N ASA had not asked about Gemini-4 and its own associated debris—it had asked about Gemini-4 and any other earlier satellites. Anyone familiar with computerized information systems (one of my professional specialities) can guess what happened: the computer was given a “query” which told it to compare Gemini-4 with the other satellites. The computer never knew where the Gemini booster was relative to the spacecraft, since it had not been asked. McD ivitt had been visually tracking the thirty foot long cylinder at a range of only 75 miles a few hours earlier, but this large satellite never made the “N ORAD list” because 40 view of the rendezvous evaluation pod after it has boon jettisoned from radar locked on to evaluation pod. A rtist’s rendition of the astronauts' .^va** u S cott C arpenter took this photo of a subsatellite balloon jettisoned by his M ercury-7 capsule in 19 63. B alloon did not inflate and looked like a lim p sleeve. C om pare w ith photo S G 5-45672. UFO researcher G eorge Faw cett has convinced m any that this actually show s a " classical dom ed UFO " accom panied by sm aller scout craft; fictional state­ m ents by astronaut C arpenter have been quoted. . it 04 ^ -W l fko^o \>\ow A ctual G em m i-5 photo (blow up of S 65-45672) of the pod at a range of several hundred feet. T he glare and the graininess of the enlarged im age give the subsatellite a " blob" appear* ance and oven m ake it look like tw o objects. T he potato-shaped grey blob is the pod's insulation blanket. T his sequence of pictures illustrates the problem of Identifying photographs of objects in the glare of space. S pace engineers at C apo Kennedy prepare tho " rendezvous evaluation pod" sub*satellite for a joint flight w ith the G em ini-5 spacecraft in 19 65. 41 t M cDivitt later saw tbs booster again but failed to recognize it, giving rise to the m ost im pressive UFO case in history. N A S A S -65-35453. nobody thought to ask about it! The list was incomplete! W hat we do know from the complete Gemini-4 transcripts (including the on-board tape recorder as well as space-to-ground links), is that the UF O appeared at the same point in the Gemini orbit where the booster had been repeatedly spotted earlier in the flight. McD ivitt had once described seeing his booster with straps hanging from it. F urthermore, on at least one occasion on the first day, McD ivitt had at first been unable to recognize the booster when he saw it because it was close to the glare of the sun! This had been at a range of less than ten miles. Yet another important factor unknown to the Condon report was that McD ivitt was complaining to the flight surgeon about his eyesight during this phase of th? flight. H is eyes were red and teary due to a reaction with the cabin atmosphere and an accidental massive urine spill. 'T didn’t think I was going to be able to hack it”. McD ivitt later had radioed to Earth. This famous UF O case now becomes that of a pilot with watering eyes catching sight of an object in parallel orbit, an object which he had already misidentified a few hours earlier. As to the photograph, an inves­ tigator must go through all the film of the flight to realize how common such blobs of light (overexposures, reflections, glare, etc. I were. B oth N ASA and McD ivitt have agreed that the sequence of movie frames are a view out the window, showing sunlight r-flecting <>ff a bolt against the dirty window glass. N ICAP thinks differently because ot the back of its copv of the photo is a handwritten note (nobody known by whom) stating that McD ivitt (nobody- knows when) had communicated (nobody knows how) the fact that the picture showed “his UF O”. (This was made clear by a telephone conversation between the author and Jack Acuff of N ICAP on March 5, 1976). W hy has this case achieved such notoriety? It probably resulted from the enthusiasm of UF O believers, the naive openness of N ASA public relations officials, and the publicity­ seeking opportunism of some of the principals. McD ivitt himself did little to clear the case up. instead using it as a ticket onto national TV talk shows and news interviews (especially after his retirement in 19^. To add to the mystery, the former spaceman asserts, “I have never been able to identify it, and I don’t think anyone ever will.” 42 On a recent “UF O recording'' released by Columbia, called “UF Os: The Credibility F actor”, McD ivitt clearly shows how his memories have changed or been changed to enhance the mystery of his experience: “They (N ASA) checked N ORAD .. .to see what they had up on radar and there wasn’t anything within very close range of us." Readers can measure the credibility of this statement against, the facts. If McD ivitt was fooled by his own booster ten years ago, is it too much to expect him to admit it now? W hat would that do to all of his public assertions of mystery? There is an easier way out, and McD ivitt took it when I sent him an advance copy of my manuscript. After keeping it two months, he wrote back. “I was not able to read it very thoroughly and I cannot offer any extensive comments. I do not foresee the opportunity for me to provide any further reltew.” There weren’t any errors in my analysis, he implied, but it would be better kept quiet. N ASA never had any real doubts. “W e believe it to be a rocket tank or spent second stage of a rocket,” wrote a high space official on July 1, 1965. N ORAD officials, confronted with my scenario, endorsed it: “Your comments on the N ORAD role related to the case appear to fe logical,” wrote N ORAD Public Information Officer D .W . Kindschi on F eb. 23, 1976. So the “McD ivitt case” is closed. The best space UF O case has now been identified. D o not expect to see any change in the UF O press, however. Such results are simply ignored. Photographs made in space show negative effects, such as the “McD ivitt UF O” aura, often. Spacecraft and astronauts may be engulfed in a strange aura caused by overexposure to sunlight brighter than ever seen on Earth. B lowups of photographs of known space objects show them appearing as “blobs” due to the enlargement process and to the ‘ courseness of the grain. Ordinary space ■ pictures are full of clouds of debris, constellations of man-made starlike points fluttering through space. The Condon report was fascinated with the McD ivitt case, and few UF O enthusiasts have not heard of it. B ut neither the Condon researchers nor the average reader had ever had all the facts. N ow people can make up their own minds. I have co doubt that McD ivitt was seeing his own Titan booster stage. D r. Roach was also fascinated with another McD ivitt sighting, that of a point of light cressing the skv. The object sounded just like the appearance of an artificial earth satellite, and that is exactly what McD ivitt thought it was. Thera is no information to suggest it was anything else. Another Condon favorite is a Gemini-7 case. The report of sightings of a cloud of debris right at the moment of booster separation (these particles included frozen fuel droplets, the booster itself, assorted insulation and structural fragments from where the explosive bolts were fired, and other smaller objects never identified and never cared about) is not very impressive. The crew, on their first space mission, saw a few pieces they had not expected (the pilot guessed— wrongly—that they “were in polar orbit”). Only a partisan digging for evidence, and desperate to find such evidence, would make much of this common event. B ut a sign of desperation is indeed found in connection with the Gemini- 7 UF O case. It is not the desperation of government official!; trying to cover up the truth about UF Os. Rather, it is the desperation of some outsider trying to manufacture count.‘if>ir “astronaut UF O” evidence, an activity which should not be necessary if the "real” UF O evidence were . as persuasive as many think. It involves a photograph showing two very strange glowing objects. Each is hexagonal in shape, viewed at an angle, and supported by a dazzling “force field” below it. A cloud- covered earth is sean in the background. $«t pieces 2112.8 This photograph has appeared in books, magazines, newspapers, and pamphlets. It is part of the travelling slide show of UF O lecturers from the Mutual UF O N etwork (MUF ON ) and elsewhere. I have heard it described as “showing a typical UF O force field propulsion system”, and “similar to other UF O photograph taken on Earth the same year”. The photograph is a forgery. It is a hoax. W hat the anonymous counter­ feiter did (I have reason to suspect a 43 T he author arid N A S A photo analyst R ichard Underw ood show " space UFO " photos to Dr. J. A llan Hynok, director of ths com er for UFO studios, July, 19 76. Hynok S ubsequently an. dorsad O berg's conclusions. S aturn booster S -IV-b and four open " S LA " panels. O n m oon flights ths four " petals.1.1 fly free and. together w ith the em pty boost­ er, tum ble through space a few m iles from the A pollo capsule. T hey w ore often seen as bright flashing lights as they reflected the pow erful sunlight. O n A pollo-12, astronaut descriptions of these fragm ents w ore m is­ interpreted by UFO buffs and m etam orph­ ized IntP alien spacecraft " M ysterious" bulls eye object seen and photographed by G em - lnl-6 astronauts In Decem ber, 19 65. Unfortunately for flying saucer buffs, It is not a UFO ; it is an out O f focus photo of the approaching G em ini-7 spaceship, nose on. N A S A photo S -65-6529 6. 44 Japanese UF O organization) was take an ordinary photograph of Earth made from the Gemini-7 spaceship on D ecember 4, 1965. The nose of the spacecraft fills the lower part of the frame, and on the nose, catching the glare of the sun, is a pair of roll control rocket thrusters used to adjust the attitude and spin rate of the Gemini. The original photo (N ASA S65 63722, which I have personally examined) was then retouched by the unscrupulous hoaxter to eliminate the edge of the nose from view, so the dark surface of the spaceship merged into the dark Earth beneath. This left the two now mysterious lights seemingly suspended in space, as it were. A normal space tourist photo was turned into convincing UF O evidence, and thousands of people were fooled. American spacemen are not the only ones reporting UF Os, according to the popular press. Stories that allegedly come from Moscow tell about UF Os following Soviet manned spacecraft in the Vostok and Voskhod series ten years ago. B ut such secrecy surrounds the entire Soviet space effort that these stories cannot be checked out. That very secrecy, however, is itself 45 a pawnf.il argum r>i. a .'"in,-I tint validity of th? rumu:;. So many ordinal'. tlU.;;s about the Soviet spice program arc secret (and long prison terms avail anyone who even accidentally divulges -.ucli data) that it is incredible that so sensitive and sig- nibcant a fact as a UF O sighting could ever leak out. even if such a thing had really happened. The rules of evidence have been stretched and broken by UF O partisans. It is not up to me to “prove” that these sightings never took place. N obody has as yet seen any evidence apart from a simple slatament of fact that the sightings did take place. I will be happy to consider evidence when it becomes available. Let’s examine more of cnese “cosmonaut UF Os’*. In UFOs From Behina The Iron Curtain, the UF O magazine ‘Clypeus* is ouoted about an object seen by both Vostok-5 and Vostok-6, a fleet of disks seen by Voskhod-1. and “strange cylinders in space which were perfectly formed and had no apertures” seen by Voskhod-1, Voskhod-2, and Gemini4 (sic!). UF Os have even been blamed for the malfunction of the Voskhod-2 autopilot. As . I have said, these “reports” are hardly evidence, and can be far more easily manufactured than refuted. Surely one of the most specious and ghoulish “space UF O” stories deals with the Soyuz-11 flight, on which the crewmen perished during their return to Earth. UF O literature has recently been circulating a “transcript" between the cosmonauts and ground control. The crewmen describe several glowing red objects and discuss them with flight controllers. To anyone familiar with typical space-to-ground communications, this “transcript” is patently counterfeit. Someone's vivid imagination, emboldened by the knowledge that the men were dead and could not argue, must have created the entire incident. W ithout further evidence, the entire class of “cosmonaut UF Os” must be rejected. D eliberate attempts to “muddy the waters” and to manufacture fantasies are common in this UF O genre, as in others In investigating photographic evidence of UF O sightings by American astronauts. I worked closely with Richard Underwood at the N ASA Johnson Space Center (formerly trie .V..sniK-i Spacecraft Center) near IhoKtou. Underwood is an experi­ enced photuinlerpreler who has examined every single photograph brought back from orbit and beyond, and his incredible memory can ideiolfy a decade old photograph, describe the situation, and find the citation in the old record books within minutes. The office of this photogra- metric engineer is full of stacked film cans, light tables, world and local maps, and piles of letters from ex-astronauts and ordinary citizens alike. H as he seen any UF Os? Underwood answered that with a smile: “I've never found any thing in these pictures that puzzled me for long, and I'm kind of disappointed. It would be terribly exciting to find evidence for someone else’s spaceship!" W hen UF O writers hint broadly about a “N ASA coverup” or “space censorship”, they are essentially calling D ick Underwood and his colleagues a pack of liars. D istortion and withholding of the truth is not a stranger to Underwood's Phon O f A g. nj-12 from G em ini-12. T his is part of a sequence of photos w hich lanes tn a A gena from light u,tu dark. A fter dark, only the running light* are visible. O ne researcher has w idely published this latter photograph as a ''UFO ”. 'S aid O y N A S A to be A gena track­ ing lights'*. N A S A photo S 66-63101. office, however. W hen a UF O researcher named Alan Sandler was working on a book and a movie (“UF Os: Past, Present and F uture", to he advertised as a “documentary") he visited Underwood's office and looked through dozens of rolls of film, writing down orders for prints of anything that looked interesting. This is a standard service provided by N ASA to journalists. Sandler chose a set of photographs for his movie, pnotographs which Underwood advised him probably only showed dust particles in front of the camera, debris outside the spacecraft, or glare on the windows (this was easy enough to prove by looking at pictures ahead of and behind the shots in question). Two photographs were particularly upsetting. They both showed a black back­ ground with a string of lights in the middle of the photograph. In ’he book (with the same name as the movie, although written by another author, Robert Eineneggar) the two shots are 46 jsticJiasjii^ siaaiiiL^ iiiw & fci^ iiaiiiasiiaikEas^ iiii^ ’S aid to be ranging lights" on G em ini* 12, according to S andler. C om pare w ith earlier photo show ing A gena in the sunlight. Deliberate slanting of evidence. M .4 M 1 reproduced with the caption: “Shot during Gemini XII on N ovember 13, 1966, and said to be Agena Ranging Lights prior to docking”. The erroneous implication of these twisted words is that this is another N ASA excuse for some remarkable UF O photographs. Said to be ranging lights, indeed, sneers the book! “That’s exactly what tney were!” Underwood told me plaintively. “They are part of the complete sequence of twenty photographs showing the Agena as it moves from the sunlit side of Earth into the shadow”. As Underwood and I stood in the photo laboratory inside building N o. 8 at the historic H ouston space center, the sequence was right there in front of our eyes on the glowing viewing board. H ow did the “UF O researcher” react to this explanation, I asked; H e continued to explain: “I took the whole sequence with me to H ollywood along with other films which N ASA was providing. I showed the sequence to Sandler. H e wasn’t interested. Unfortunately he went ahead and used the photographs anyway”. Thousands more people were deceived. The flight of Gemini-11 began a long battle between astronaut Charles “Pete” Conrad and UF O believers. The astronauts had taken three even more remarkable photographs. “Pete” Conrad had spotted a moving object outside his window and had snapped off a few frames of film, varying the exposure on each shot in an attempt to get at least one good view which would show something. Per a request from N ASA, N ORAD soon reported that the object had been a Rusda.i co mi<: ra_ labor::lory c.iiivo Proton-3. Accord tr. g to Air ro.ee computers, it would have crosses Gemini’s orbit several hundred miles behind the spacecraft. Vet this object was in a different diwetion and v.as much too close. Il was a UF O! D espite these objections. N ORAD was right for the wrong reasons. The object was indeed Proton-3, even though the Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization (APRO) and its research director, D r. James H arder, has made much of the discrepancy and considers this the best Gemini UF O ever seen. (Set piffles 17^18^3 JT3^^4') F ew researchers have noticed, and none had recognized the significance of the fact, that the Proton-3 satellite was only hours away from burning up in the atmosphere. As its orbit decayed toward a fiery doom, it circled Earth faster and faster, running ahead of the schedule predicted bv N ORAD . The simple truth, often ignored or distorted by many writers, is that N ORAD does not “track everything in space” like the radar screens of some air traffic control center. Instead, objects which pass through the beams of a handful of worldwide radar sites (at a range of a thousand miles or less) are observed and catalogued, and their orbits are calculated. These calcula­ tions are then projected forward in time (the mathematical term is “extra­ polated”) to plot where the spacecraft should be if its orbit hasn’t been changed. Gemini’s orbit had been changed by a rendezvous rocket firing. Proton’s orbit was changed by its decay. I ordered microfilm copies of the last few N ORAD predictions from the Tracking Reports Section at the N ASA Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and as soon as I read them I knew the answer. The predictions were off by several hundred miles per day! Each new projection made a correction to the previous one. Using a combination of these figures, a new altitude difference between Gemini and Proton could easily be computed. It was entirely close enough to coincide with the astronauts’ sighting. F urthermore, the astronauts had made a visual as well as a photographic record. Their eyewitness testimony describes a satellite that looks like Proton-3 looked, as shown by exhibits in Russian museums: astubbv cylinder with four large triangular canted solar panels. (Conrad compared the sight to the strap-on boosters of a Titan-3 rocket.) Even the photographs show this when studied with real Proton-3 photographs close at hand. ‘Xstro” 2ur Oorirnci nnci the UPO people clashed again over his next space mission. Apollo-12. According to the Research D irector of APRO, D r. H arder, Conrad reported that he was being followed by a UF O on the way . to the moon. Conrad claims that it was just a joke about the large panels which enclose the lunar module during launch but are jettisoned later in the flight and which tumble through space a few miles from the Apollo all the way to the moon. H arder says that Conrad, under pressure from a secret government agency, is lying. These are Conrad’s words: “They’ve been after me for years because we were followed by a UF O on the way to the moon. That, of course, was untrue. The guy who came up with it was going by our transcript where we saw debris from our own rocket and we were joking with the ground crew about it. H e took this out of context.. .1 called the ground and said, ‘hey, gang, we’re being followed, there’s some flashing object out there’. Some scandal sheet took that and Fragm ent in focus at range of 3 to 5 feet— S andler calls it " unidentifiable" , and M alian and B arry also use it. fe.nl«**S'i*'»*f CT lb") 'I Debris from open hatch on G om tnM 2. Ai-^i .w^sMkii—fcU*s*« B low ups of G em ini— 11 photos of Proton-3. S un glare and extrem a m agnification contribute to bizarre appearance. made a helluva story out of it. B ut it was nothing like anything I was connected with”. Conrad has left N ASA and lives in D enver, presumably beyond the reach of any N ASA censors. H e describes a phenomenon common to all Apollo moon flights; the claim that he saw a UF O is also common, but hardly as valid. Conrad confirmed these quotations in a letter to me dated April 12, 1976. “I hope your paper is widely printed,” he added. Referring to H arder’s claim of coverup, Conrad could only say: “I think you have more than your share of Kooks.” 48 - _^ <.v!A & »i»& iS ^ ^ G em ini-11 photo of Proton-3 (arrow ) and extrem a enlargem ent of im age. UFO m agazines often print tuuy blobs w ithout indicating that object w as highly m agnified. Film artifacts cause " blobbiness" . N A S A photo S -66-54661. Let’s take a moment to look at the Apollo-12 flight more carefully. It probably rates as one of the most “UF O-ridden” space flights ever made, and probably did more than any Apollo mission to encourage the stories of astronaut sightings of UF Os. W hat lies behind all these stories? W ho started them? W hat is the “official" N ASA position? Apollo-12 was launched on N ovember 14, 1969, on the second moon landing mission. The crew consisted of Gemini-11 veterans "Pete" Conrad and Richard Gordon, and space rookie Alan B ean (Conrad had also flown into space on Gemini-5.) Taking off during a thunderstorm, the craft was twice hit by lightning which threatened to abort the mission. Instead, the flight proceeded successfully to the first pinpoint moon landing four days later. Astronauts Conrad and B ean flew their Lunar Module in to a precision touchdown near the Surveyor-3 automatic moon probe. D uring a scheduled moon walk, the men retrieved samples from the robot craft. The return on Earth was “routine", if flights to the moon can ever be considered routine. On the outbound leg, Conrad had radioed to Earth that the Apollo was “being followed". This message, trans­ mitted over the open radio link, was heard by hundreds of newsmen and by millions of Americans. It immediately gave rise to new UF O stories. According to the account best known to UF O believers (published in Saga magazine. May 1970, entitled “Apollo 12’s Mysterious Encounter with F lying Saucers”, written by T.G. B eckley and H . Salkin), the astronauts watched two flashing lights near their Command Module about 150,000 miles out from Earth. At first, the 49 te.—I.Z : A pollo 11 UT O . 19 69 . O bject tum bled put w indow im m ediately altar A pollo pulled aw ay from S aturn booster. M etam orphosis of obvious spacecraft insulation fragm ent into " odd-shooed UFO " is courtesy of B ob B arry of the fringe " 2oth C entury UFO B ureau" . Hans Hotter's " Ufonouts" (19 76) assigns object to John G lenn's flight, invents fictitious com m entary and continues w eaving m yths un. fettered by facts. ground thought it was their S-1V-B booster rocket but quickly calculated that it would have been in a different direction. N ext, they suggested that the lights could have been pieces of the Lunar Module “garage”, called “SLA Panels”, which are quite large and highly reflective. Conrad, so the UF O story goes, remarked that this was unlikely since one of them had suddenly taken off at a high velocity, something that a piece of space debris simply could not do. F inally, the astronauts decided to ignore the apparently harmless escort and carry on with their mission In lunar orbit, new (or perhaps the same) UF Os dogged the spacemen. D uring the descent to the lunar surface, millions of television watchers on Earth saw bright objects crossing the field of view of the Apollo TV cameras. Similar objects were seen during the launch from the moon and during the final approach to Earth. H ere, then, is a major case for “astronaut the three Americans heard the UF O sightings”. B esides astronauts, millions of saw the TV images and voices of the crewmen wondering what the objects could be. They were obviously unidentified, they were flying in space, and they were objects of some sort. H ence, they were UFOs. The “F awcett List" of space UF Os says that the astronauts “said a UF O accompanied them all the way to within 132,000 miles of the moon. M «rcury-7. C o” o j UrO O n S cott C arpenter $ Hight in 19 63. S m ears and glares one fram e to the next v^ hilw astronaut v^ ns snapping pictures of lim p balloon sub-satellite. IM plants "Aj^j^jS 3^ 50 T w o objects drifting out of open hatch (tow er right) of G em ini-12. B oth specks are out of focus and hence are w ithin several feet of cam era, -w hich had a very large depth of field. O bject on right, in focus, is a scrap of paper, N A S A photo S -66-62871, preceding them all the way.” The origin of that mileage figure is obscure, but it lends unwarranted authenticity to the report. Observatories in Europe also watched the two UF Os, ether sources reveal. Embellishing the story, another UF O source claims that “N ext day, the 15th, at 21.15 hours, one bright revolving light approached the Apollo 12 spacecraft." F awcett, not to be outdone, also claims that the astronauts photographed the UF O (or UF Os). One of the loudest proponents of the Apollo-12 UF O is APRO research director D r. James H arder. At a UF O symposium at the University of California at Santa Cruz on N ovember 8, 1975, H arder claimed that one UF O “followed Apollo 12 on three orbits around the moon". F urther, “N ASA suppressed the UF O incidents for fear of panic", but H arder was able to discover the sightings because it “was disclosed by a member of the space team” who he refused to identify. 51 Since all the material H arder used to “prove" the existence of the incidents were public information (H arder could have read it in Saga, which is hardly a top secret government report), his reference to a coverup and to secret inside information were clearly only gimmicks to impress the news media with the value of his “information". N ASA, meanwhile, says that no such UF O event took place. The tights, according to D ale Myers (Associate Administrator for Manned Space F light: quoted in a letter dated F eb. 5, 1973 to Mr. D onald Ratsch of APRO), were spacecraft fragments: “D uring all of our Apollo lunar missions, objects have been sighted by the various crews. Subsequent to the crew sightings, the flight controllers determined the observations were probably either the S-IVB booster, the spacecraft lunar adapter (SLA) panels, or smaller objects such as mylar foil particles. B ecause of their large size and highly reflective surfaces, the S-IVB and SLA panels should be visible at great distances in the space environment...” Astronaut Conrad, as quoted earlier, claimed that the flashing lights were obviously SLA panels but that he was joking with the ground. H e denounced the Saga story explicitly and gave his opinion that H arder was a “kook". Astronaut Gordon has publicly stated that he has never seen a UF O on any space flight. Alan B ean, the only one of the three still on active N ASA duty, issued a statement soon after H arder's latest charges went out over the news media late in 1975. In a UPI dispatch: “Astronaut Alan B ean.. .said that at no time during his mission did he ever see an unidentified object B ean said that there were some metallic parts which floated behind their space­ craft after the Apollo-12 lunar module lifted off from th.- moon. H e said these small pi ces were visible until they (the astronauts) made an engine burn The metallic objects were parts of the insulation which came off the lunar module during the launch phase and lunar orbital phase. ‘At no time did we see anything which was not of our spacecraft, either during lunar orbit or during the voyage to and from the moon,' B ean stated." To H arder and his “N ASA coverup", these statements are just more lies designed to confuse the American public. So let's go back to the key Apollo-12 UF O encounter and try to determine just who is confused. Late on N ovember loth, 1969, about 150,000 statute miles from Earth, the Apollo crew was talking to capsule communicator astronaut Ger*d Carr about some lights they were watching out their window. Apollo: The object is very bright and it is obviously something that is tumbling. It is tumbling (at) one and one half rev(olution)s per second, or at- least it is flashing at us (at) about that (rate)... CAPCOM: Roger. W e are standing by- CAPCOM: (Apollo) 12, (this is) H ouston. Apollo: Go ahead. CAPCOM: As best we can tell, looking at things down here, on those SLA panels, we assume they weren’t imparted with any great amount of delta-V (velocity change)—like anything more than one or so feet per second when they separated (thirty-three hours ago). Your SLA panels would probably be only about 300 (nautical) miles (345 statute miles) away from you right now. **** The following reply by Conrad has been claimed by UF O believers to indicate that the lights (the so-called “SLA panels”) have suddenly pulled away from the Apollo, something that a tumbling piece of debris could not do. To clarify the meaning, punctuation and a few extra parenthetical words have been added by the UF Ologists: Apollo: That could be true, but gee whiz, when I (just) turned around I saw one of those “SLA panels” leaving the area at a high rate of speed, and it looked to me like it was leaving us pretty (fast)—at a pretty rapid clip, like it got a lot more than a foot per second or so. CAPCOM: W ell, since we don't really have any idea how they left, or what their trajectory could be, it’s kind of tough really to say just what the heck that could be. Apollo: Okay. W e’ll assume it’s friendly anyway. OK? The UF O reasoning, as worded by APRO member B rad Sparks, goes as follows: "After the SLA panels separated and the S-IVB 's tanks were emptied (on N ov. 14) they could not change their velocity simply because they had no form of propulsion to do so. B ut Conrad saw one of the “SLA panels" (on N ov. /5th) suddenly leave its position at a “high rate of speed", an impossibility, unless it really was a maneuverable spacecraft of some sort. B ut where docs one find a maneuverable spacecraft nearly 150,000 miles from the earth? The answer: (excepting Apollo 12 itself) in N ovember of 1969 there weren’t any. The conclusion is inescapable: One (possibly two) maneuverable spacecraft not of man-made origin were following our Apollo 12 on N ovember 14 and 15, 1969.” To anyone familiar with the flight plan of an Apollo moon flight. Conrad’s words imply nothing of the sort. Two facts must be brought to mind. F irst, Apollo and the Capcom were discussing the present position of the SLA panels based upon their initial separation velocities from the spent S-IVB rocket stage. Second, the SLA panels break free after the Apollo pulls off from the booster; the astronauts then perform a maneuver called the “turnaround" the Command Module returns to the booster to dock with the now-exposed Lunar Module, before pulling the LM free from its “garage”. Striking the UF Ologist’s punctua­ tion and clarifying words from the communication, and putting it in proper perspective, what Conrad was saying was: Apollo: That could be true (that the SLA panels were flying off at one or so feet per second), but gee whiz, when I turned around (right after they flew free, thirty-three hours ago) I saw one of those SLA panels leaving the area (of the LM “garage”) at a high rate of speed, and it looked to me that it was leaving us pretty.. .at a pretty rapid clip, like it got a lot more than a foot per second or so. The UF O believers’ reasoning—and the entire basis for H arder’s and for the Saga article’s Apollo-12 UF O sighting—is phony. The most generous description of it would be a mistake, a misreading of the transcript’s meaning in an attempt to “prove” a UF O incident that never really happened outside of the fertile imaginations of certain UF O believers. Conrad’s statement, Gordon’s statement. B ean's statement, and the N ASA letter must stand validated on this case: Apollo-12 was not followed by a UF O on its to the moon. B ut how about on the way back? “A light of indistinct shape" was spotted just prior to reentry, 52 tii-iifaiiJU M rtuaM ijitaM ^^ Published new spaper story on UFS s captions this pnoxo: " T hese tw o UFO s w ere- photographed on July 19 . 19 69 -thc day before A polo's historic m oon landing-* during B uzz A ldrin's scheduled lunar photo session. N ota the sim ilarity to the shot snapped three years earlier during G em ini*12." according to UF O sources. Saga reports that “...at 11:47 a.m. on N ovember 24th, the spokesman for Apollo 12 reported in a startled voice that they were all watching a bright red object flashing brilliantly against the earth.” This incident was carefully analyzed by B rad Sparks of APRO (I am indebted to his letter to Saga of August 28, 1970, a letter Saga editor never bothered to answer), who objects that “the astronauts did not report that the object they were seeing was red, and they stated specifically that ‘it’s a steady light’, not flashing.” It was seen between them and the dark earth, somewhere off the coast of India by a guess of the crewmen. Perhaps it was a ship’s searchlight, perhaps a fire, perhaps a violent lightning storm.. .there is no reason to suspect that it was a craft in space. The astronauts lost sight of the light as they turned the Apollo to take a series of photographs of the sunrise. The wild fantasies printed in Saga do not end here. B eckley and Salkin claim that the astronauts had been “startled by unaccountable seismic disturbances on the lunar surface." This event never occurred; there were no such earthquakes during their visit. B eckley and Salkin refer to “a mysterious blue halo encircling one of our spacemen." Sparks of APRO considers this to have been lunar dust kicked up while the crewmen were walking around. Photo analyst D ick Underwood suggested that it is a defect in the development of the photo caused be the vivid solar glare otf of a highly reflective surface; Underwood quickly located half a dozen similar "haloes" on other space photos taken during the 1960s. W hatever it was, this “halo" appeared only in the photo, and was neither seen nor remarked on by the astronauts. H ouston radio commentator and UF O enthusiast F rank H aley has his own theory about why the Apollo-12 TV camera did not work on the moon (N ASA says B ean accidentally pointed it toward the sun). Says H aley, “The camera was intentionally shut off to avoid showing something on the moon that disturbed the astronauts” (“H aley’s Comment” newsletter, Mar. 22, 1976). It is only a matter of time before this nonsense is absorbed into the lore of the “Apollo-12 UF Os". B ut Apollo 12 did see some unidentified flying objects, and N ASA engineers were justifiably concerned that they could have been debris from important spacecraft systems which might indicate unexpected failures, or which might interfere with other spacecraft equipment. H ence, the Manned Spacecraft Center in H ouston (now the Johnson Space Center) gave a contract to Lockheed to study the objects seen on the TV pictures and on some movie film. The Lockheed report was quietly issued on March 18, 1970, about the same time that the sensationalized and fictionalized Saga story was being printed. Titled “Unidentified Visual Phenomena Associated with Space F light" (N ASA Contract N AS 9-5191. LEC/H ASD N o. 671-80 013), the report documents the “moon pigeons” (a term “coined by N ASA engineers to describe unexpected objects seen in operational photography that defy positive identification") of Apollo-12. Contract engineers were F . D . B eattv and J.G. B aron. “Unidentified visual phenomena associated with space flight were rather common operationally." reveal the authors." but...little or no documentation ui past events has been marie." B efore UF O believers jump up and down with confirmation of a whole new family of “astronaut sightings of UF Os", the authors announce their intention of demonstrating thal’such events were spacecraft debris associated with an earlier pyrotechnical operation, or ice, or window reflections. Cases for each of these theories have been presented and exhibits of similar occurences are included. Positive identification was not possible... The quality of the imagery precludes a precise definition of the object under question... In general, it takes much more information to identify an object that it'does to detect it." Sixteen millimeter color magazine 1165M, exposed on Apollo-12, shows three objects, called “A”, “B ”, and “C". The objects appeared during the LM jettison maneuver in lunar orbit. “A” is believed to be a small segment of the docking channel; “B ” was identified by engineers as a portion of the docking ring, possibly the fiberglass seal; “C” was probably part of the electrical harness. All were near the spacecraft and were tumbling. F rom this and other examinations, B eatty and B aron concluded that “most ‘moon pigeons’ have as their source a programmed pyrotechnic event and are the normal debris associated with such an incident They are often spectacular. .. The main thing to be learned from this study is that the event (in question) was. in all probability, a normal result of routine spacecraft operations. .. These data will undoubtably be of use to the engineering, scientific, and public relations communities.” The closing reference clearly indicates that B eatty and B aron were aware of the “Apollo- 12 UF Os” controversy and felt that their study would be useful in demolishing any UF O buffs’ wild rumors. Unfortunately, the “moon pigeons” report seems to have been filed away in the N ASA archives. B aron, who still works at the Johnson Space Center, told me early in 1976 that he never got any feedback on his report, even though it was fun doing it and it had This photo was snapped only moments after Aldrin's other Apollo 11 shot. Here the two UFOs have begun their separation and a halo-like force field between the two is clearly shown. pretty obvious implications for UF O reports. N ASA apparently decided to let the UF O writers spread their rumors, hoping that the stories would fade away if ignored. W hat had happened, though, was a new shot in the arm for “astronaut UF O cases’’. The explanations could never catch up with the misinterpreta­ tions and wiong impressions engendered by the overheard conversations and viewed images from Apollo-12. Millions of Americans were practically eyewitnesses to a “space UF O”, and were suitably impressed. " Exclusive N A S A Photos" and N A S A censorship is another part of m yth. T hese A pollo-11 spots are highly m agnified w indow reflections in Lunar M odule deep in space (A ldrin turned the cam era on by accident w hile checking equipm ent). W hen presented with the Saga story and with APRO’s (and MUF ON ’s) account of the “maneuvering alien spacecraft at 150,000 miles from Earth”, the average citizen could only assume that it might indeed be true. If N ASA was denying it, well then, the government has been known to lie to us in the past. It is a vain hope to imagine that the truth will ever catch up to the Apollo- 12 and other Ct Os. As detailed here, the Apollo-12 UF O never existed. Somehow, millions of people believe that it did. There is sufficient blame 55 nght regulations because thu it j N A S A photo, Evon retouched, it cannot be copyrighted. yet complete. Let’s return more examples. Another example of omission of facts occurs for this delusion to be generously distributed to UF O buffs, N ASA public affairs officers, sensation- seeking news media, and lazy readers. And the "astronaut UF O" genre is not to some selective in the G em ini-7 photo of sunlight glinting off roll thruster rockets on nose. Photo forgers airbrushed the nosc/Earth bound* ary out, m aking the tw o lights appear to bo floating in space. N A S A photo S 35-63722. '■ lilll** P^to Also Revels eh 56 overboard.” The original entirely ordinary the Condon responsibility of L.a radar screen (this wasn’tbogie on ^ Shot during Sky Lab III second manned Sky Lab Flight 263 day of 1973—1645 Zulu Time. NASA Photo =SL3 -118-2140 (4 shots taken) Listed as unidentified object or satellite by NASA Photo Evaluation Lab distortion of this event, according to Report, is the UF O water, John “F awcett list” of astronaut sightings. George F awcett is a respected and levelheaded UF O researcher in Maiden, N orth Carolina. B ut an example of his work gives a different impression: “Gemini-XII: Jim Lovell and Edwin Aldrin saw four UF Os linked in a row. B oth spacemen said the objects were not stars” (quoted from The Edge of Reality, H ynek & Vallee, 1975, page 64). F rom the GT-12 Astronaut D ebriefing, page K/3,4, Lovell relates: “D uring the last EVA we discarded, in addition to the ELSE (life support system), three bags. About 2, maybe 3 or possibly 4, orbits later at sunrise condition, we looked out again and saw 4 objects lined up in a row and they weren’t stars I know. They must have been these same things we tossed Keel, F awcett took it and embellished it. Another of F awcett’s favorites is Mercury-7: “Scott Carpenter reported that he had what looked like a good shot of a saucer." Elsewhere he claimed that Carpenter "took a photograph of a classical saucer-shaped UF O with dome that followed his capsule." fA<- p)o.+<_ 7,1 In fact, the photographs show an entirely ordinary object: a space balloon ejected from the capsule for tracking practice. The balloon did not inflate but spun in a limp oblong sack. The flight schedule and the voice transmissions confirm this unexciting explanation—and confirm F awcett’s fantasizing. An example of the difficulty of “disproving” an “astronaut UF O sighting” is the Mercury-9 case in 1963. W ell established in the UF O lore, the story claims that on the 15th orbit, over Muchea, Australia, the astronaut (Gordon Cooper) saw a green object. More than one hundred people at the tracking station saw the K f r ^F Ti^’iTr^^PF ^^ ^ ^ ,w t]iiLM 23ti*i4^ <4^ ^ » sensalimial cnongh for fictional "fact” writer H ank Edvard.: he had Imo hundred people actually ree the object). The source of the story seems to have been an N B C newsman in Australia. B ut the problem seems to be that Cooper has never heard of it. H e has been out of tile space program for seven years, and talks freely about CTOs to reporters, to the Columbia “UF O recording”., to '.like D ouglas, to friends and associates. Somehow he knows nothing about “his” space UF O—and he has no reason to be silent. His space UF O never existed. Confronted by this evidence, F awcett (letter of May 10, 1976) insists that “I sincerely believe some of the astronaut sightings are bonafide, based on some of my sources of information.” John Keel, too, recalls (letter of March 26, 1976) that “ex­ N ASA engineers have told me all kinds of fascinating UF O tales. ..” Always these writers fall back on “secret reports” and “private information” when their published reports and open articles disintegrate in the face of the truth. On October 18, 1973, the famous Mansfield, Ohio UF O sighting occurred, for which Captain Lawrence Coyne and his helicopter crew later were to receive the 'B est UF O Case of the Year” award (and check) from a weekly tabloid’s ‘blue-ribbon panel’ of UF O experts. A few months later, Coyne said he was told by the panel chairman, J. Allen H ynek, (the respected head of the Center for UF O Studies) that Skylab astronauts had photographed the same UF O from space. (H ynek ultimately denied this.) A reputable magazine, “Army Reserve” published the story with an Intriguing photograph it had received from N ASA and which it labeled “N ASA: Skylab”, clearly indicating that this was the astronaut photograph which had buzzed Coyne. It would have been a neat trick for the Skylab astronauts to have photo­ graphed anything on October 18th, since they weren’t even on board the space station. The previous crew had returned to Earth a month before and their relief crew was not scheduled to blast off for another three weeks. The photograph printed in the magazine was clearly labeled on its backside as taken by Scott Carpenter on Mercury 7 more than ten years before. It showed a limp balloon Carpenter had ejected from his spacecraft in an attempt to get visual tracking practice (this photo is often referred to as the “classical domed UF O” shot). UF O researchers and magazine editors had clearly not made even a minimum of effort to verify these transparent errors and mistakes, but instead passed on the false data to the public. Thousands more were deceived. Laie in 1973, a strange object did appear in Skylab space photographs. Taken on Conrad’s Skylab flight in June, the object was not noticed by UF O researchers but by government photo analysts. pUK 33 Rather than “sweep the UF O under the rug”, the officials Look the other tack: it might be a mysterious Soviet Satellite and could be of great value to 58 sensational enough for fictional “fact” writer H ank Edvard;: he had Iwo hundred people actually fee the object). The source of the story seems to have been an N B C newsman in Australia. B ut the problem seems to be that Cooper has never heard of it. H e has been out of the space program for seven years, and talks freely about CEOs to reporters, to the Columbia “UF O recording”., to Mike D ouglas, to friends and associates. Somehow he knows nothing about “his” space UF O—and he has no reason to be ejected from his spacecraft in an attempt to get visual tracking practice (Ibis photo is often referred to as the “classical domed UF O" shot). UF O researchers and magazine editors had clearly not made even a minimum of effort to verify these transparent errors and mistakes, but instead passed on the false data to the public. Thousands more were deceived. [.ale in 197.3, a strange object did appear in Skylab space photographs. Taken on Conrad’s Sky lab flight in June, the object was not noticed by UF O researchers but by government photo analysts. pkk 33 ‘ [lather than “sweep the UF O under the rug”, the officials took the other tack: it might be a mysterious Soviet Satellite and could be of great value to silent. His space UF O never existed. Confronted by this evidence, F awcett (letter of May 10, 1976) insists that “I sincerely believe some of the astronaut sightings are bonafide, based on some of my sources of information.” John Keel, too, recalls (letter of March 26, 1976) that “ex­ N ASA engineers have told me all kinds of fascinating UF O tales. ..” Always these writers fall back on “secret reports” and “private information” when their published reports and open articles disintegrate in the face of the truth. On October 18, 1973, the famous Mansfield, Ohio UF O sighting occurred, for which Captain Lawrence Coyne and his helicopter crew later were to receive the ‘B est UF O Case of the Year” award (and check) from a weekly tabloid’s ‘blue-ribbon panel’ of UF O experts. A few months later. Coyne said he was told by the panel chairman, J. Allen H ynek, (the respected head of the Center for UF O Studies) that Skylab astronauts had photographed the same UF O from space. (H ynek ultimately denied this.) A reputable magazine, “Army Reserve” published the story with an intriguing photograph it had received from N ASA and which it labeled "N ASA: Skylab”, clearly indicating that this was the astronaut photograph which had buzzed Coyne. It would have been a neat trick for the Skylab astronauts to have photo­ graphed anything on October 13th, since they weren't even on board the space station. The previous crew had returned to Earth a month before and their relief crew was not scheduled to blast off for another three weeks. The photograph printed in the magazine was clearly labeled on its backside as taken by Scott Carpenter on Mercury- " UFO " seen from S ky I ah-2* T he elongated object is actually an airstrip in the B razilian jungles. Enlargem ent of N A S A photo S L2-16U09 . 7 more than ten years before. 11 4~tM« showed a limp balloon Carpenter had >A c^v-v • 58 military intelligence. A prompt and energetic investigation was launched. The object looked like a long cylinder with two square paddles resembling solar panels at each end. B y mudMu iug its «iiiguidr size on the negative, analysts were able, to determine that it was about 20 feet long a mile away or 2000 feet long a hundred miles away. A careful investigation revealed the surprising answer, the UF O was actually thousands of feet in length, but its altitude was zero! It was an airstrip in the B razilian jungles! F urther checking showed that the objected appeared at the same spot in Skylab photos taken months later; the airfield was also found on an inter­ national aviation chart. Recent UF O books and articles have resurrected the X-15 rocket plane sightings of fifteen years ago. This has prompted the N ASA H eadquarters Public Affairs Office to reissue a photograph taken by a belly camera of the spacecraft at an altitude of about 60 miles (photo 76-H -139). P^~ 3^f Published reports speak of “fleets of UF Os” at a range of 30 feet from the X-15. B ut even a casual reader with any familiarity with spacecraft systems will recognize the effect for what it was: “fireflies”. This is a phenomenon seen by many Mercury, Vostok, and later spacemen, as flecks of paint chipped off the spacecraft. On the X-15, it was flecks of ice clinging to the liquid oxygen tanks. The pilot clearly describes the pieces as being close-in, small, tumbling, and drifting along with his vehicle through the vacuum. • Considering these cases as I have described them (and there are other lesser ones which I have also investi­ gated to a successful conclusion), what can we now say about authors who present such evidence of “astronaut UF Os”? W hile speaking ominously about a N ASA coverup and of secret agencies which muzzle space­ men, these same researchers list such quotations as: John Young: “Odds are UF Os exist". Edgar Mitchell: “W e all know UF Os are real”. Eugene Ceman: “I believe UF Os belong to someone else and that they are from some other civilization”. Gordon Cooper: “I believe that UF Os, under intelligent control, have visited our planet for thousands of years". N one of these men claim to have seen UF Os in space. B y now it should be obvious to open-minded investiga­ tors that no other astronaut claims to have seen any either. Suggestions that they have really done so are either misconceptions, misrepresentations, or frauds on the part of UF O writers. Yet another case in point has just been given, and it deals with the John Young quotation. Young, in Seattle in 1973, said that the chances were good that there were intelligent civilizations on other planets (AP, N ov. 27, 1973). The newsman started the article with the lead, “John Young says that the odds are that Unidentified F lying Objects do exist", even though none of Young’s quoted words indicated that at all. B efore you could say “UF O flap", the UF O writers had a new authority: John Young says, “Odds are UF Os exist". It seems clear that astronauts as a class of the population do not possess any special knowledge about UF Os which they may have gained from their own experiences. They are about as well informed (or more truthfully, as badly misinformed) as the average citizen. To quote them as above with the suggestion that they are special authorities on UF Os is a misleading 60 and intellectually dishonest tactic. Three time space veteran W ally Schirra, who according to UF Ologists saw "glowing masscs’Yactually lightning-lit clouds, over the Indian Ocean) has written, “I do not know enough about this subject to render an opinion of any kind. The only information I have is that which has been released to' the public through the years by the various news media". UF O writers would have us believe that this is part of a vast conspiracy of lies which only they can penetrate. Acc'b tX The actual answer to the’"shapeless light” mystery illustrates the way N ASA faces real space mysteries. The crew was puzzled by the sighting but reported it to space officials who made no effort to conceal the incident. If N ASA were trying to cover up actual UF O sightings by astronauts, this was a good candidate for one—and it would never have been publicized. Astronaut D ick Gordon revealed to me the unpublicized solution to the publicized mystery. In a letter dated September 15, 1976, Gordon wrote: "I vividly recall the incident which occurred when a light of indistinct shape and size was spotted on our return to earth. . . (it) did appear to be in the Indian Ocean. In our discussions and debriefings that occurred later. Rusty Schwcikart provided the answer. H e simply said, ‘how about the moon’s reflection?'and, of course, that is what it was. .. H ow often those of us in aviation have seen the moon’s reflection on the water in the course of a normal flight. W e simply did not put it together in returning from lunar distance, where we had the black back­ ground of space, the dark night of the earth, and the moon behind us.” Other spacemen have been asked to answer these questions). They have been forthright in their denials: “I never have personally seen anything I could identify as a UF O”, says John Glenn, now a Senator from Ohio. Astronauts Grissom and Young said, “W e have never seen any UF Os”. Richard Gordon, who was with Conrad on Gemini-11 and Apollo-12, writes that “1 never saw a UF O”. Astronaut “D eke" Slayton claims that “I don’t recollect anyone reporting any UF Os on any of our flights". "B uzz” Aldrin went to the moon on Apollo-11, on which the UF O press lists at least three separate UF O incidents. There were no UF Os: “There are people who say there's a government conspiracy to cover up the existence of flying saucers.” Aldrin told a Reuters reporter in 1973, “That’s a lot of hogwash.” The LM pilot on the next flight, Apollo-12, was Alan B ean. F ollowing a new press conference in 1975 when James H arder repeated his stories of Apollo-11 and Apollo-12 UF Os, B ean told UPI that at no time during his mission did he ever see an unidentified object. “At no time did we see anything which was not of our spacecraft, either during lunar orbit or during the voyage to and from the moon,” B ean stated. A com m on source of space and other UFO s is show n here. T he aura and the lens-shaped disc is actually a sunrise photographed from S kylab. N A S A photo S L3-118-2177. 61 Tl>e AillO H ull tin (F eb. 19/6) continued to generate new astronaut UF O lairy tales with the anonymous revelation from "Mr. X”, who heard the Apollo-11 astronauts describe “three dhe di:ip-."! shadow? that w k™ pacing them across the surface of the moon." The best answer L'o this fabrication is in a It tier from N ASA Assistent Administrator for Legislative Affairs Robert F . Allnutt, to Congressman B ob Casey, dated January 29, 1970: “Conversation between the Apollo 11 crew and Mission Control were released live during the entire Apollo 11 mission. There were between 1000 and 1500 representatives of the news media present at the H ouston N ews Center listening and observing, but not one has suggested that N ASA withheld any news or conversations of this nature.” The evidence is clear. There is, out of all the dozens of “reports of astronaut UF O sightings”, no residue of authentic cases, no 20% or 5% or even 0.01% of "true UF Os” behind all the “noise”. My research is compelling in its conclusion: after fifteen years of manned space voyages including space stations and landing on the moon, spacemen have brought back not a shred of evidence—verbal, photo­ graphic, or otherwise—for the existence of extraterrestrial spacecraft, or “UF Os”. That evidence, if it exists at all, must be sought elsewhere. The performance and standards of conduct of the UF O groups and of UF O writers cannot be cause for optimism that such evidence, if it exists, will be recognized and correctly evaluated. The lesson of the “astronaut UF Os”, then, teaches us nothing about UF Os, but a lot about UF O investigators. Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (Condon Report). B antam Edition, 1969, Chapter 6: Visual Observations Made by Astronauts/F ranklin E. Roach. Pages 176-209, with bibliography through 1967. Good back-round material including unpublished valid solutions to a number of cases. Incorrect solution to Gemini-XI case. Inadequate amdy-L and unjustified endorsement of Gemjni-[V case. [lie Edge o/ Reality, by H ym k and Vallee. H enry Kegnery & Co., 1975. Page 63 61 in a section called "The Scientists al W ork”, v. e H ad the plumy F awcett li>l. List Las incorrect dales and many (lights out of sequence. On July 1, 1976. iJr. J. Allen H ynek reviewed my evidence and endorsed it, and mnndaKd the F awcett list, which he reported that he included in his book as a curiosity only. That is, just because he presented it as fact to thousands of readers was no reason for anyone to conclude he thought it was true. This appallingly irresponsible altitude towards rules of evidence seems to infect the whole UF O field. Sightings by 26 Astronauts Confirm: UFOs Spied on Shy labs (sic) .Many Other Space Shots—UF Os W atch Every Move N ASA Makes, Say Astronauts W ho W ere Tailed on Space Shot, “N ational Tattler”, March 17, 1974. This is an embellished version of the same F awcett fantasies. W eekly tabloid newspaper “conformed to the highest standards of modern reporting. Tattler and its staff are dedicated to total, truthful coverage...” In fact, staffer Robert Abborino made no effort to check any of F awcett’s outrageous claims. UFOs Past, Present and Future, by Robert Emenegger, research by Alan Sandler. B allantine, 1974. Chapter 15, “N asa”, pages 100-106. Extensive transcripts of space communications cover up the fact that Sandler carefuily selected evidence and must have knowingly omitted information which would have explained many cases. An excellent photo section is included. UFO Report, People Press, 1975. “N ASA H iding UF Os F rom You”, by Robert D . B arry’, pages 4-10. B arry is associated with Carl McIntyre’s fundamentalist Christian group, and is one of the wilder UF O writers. Even the mass media has learned to disregard his fictional descriptions of non-events. H ere, he explains “why N ASA called in the CIA to keep these photos secret”, without explaining how, in that case, he got copies. H e uses the forged Gemini-7 photo proudly. Flying Saucers—Here and Now!, by F rank Edwards, Lyle Stuart. N ew York, 1967. Astronaut fantasies wholly or in part created in the fertile (and unlimited by reality) mind of ’neusman’ F rank Edwards are found on pages 13. loh. and 197. Through such entries a journalism student can trace the actual growth of the myth. APRO bulletin, March-April 1970 62 and F ebruary 1976 and others. This flying saucer club newsletter bid typifies the disregard for imp.eual investigation of evidence which provided the climate in which the myth of "astronaut UF Os" could gtow and flourish. The Star, March 2. 1976. page 7. Sequence of headlines: On the front page, “Astronauts Say: W e Saw UF Os in Space". On page 7, “Top Astronauts Confirm: W e spotted two UF Os”. In the article, McD ivitt talks of his UF O. and Cooper discusses his experiences as a fighter pilot in Germany—and makes no mention of the space UF O associated with his name. The headlines, as can be expected in such a newspaper, are deliberately misleading. SAGA magazine, May 1970; Classified TOP SECRET—Apollo Astronauts Reported Two UFO Sightings, by B eckley and Salkin, p. 13 ff. Complete story of Apollo-12 UF Os, plus enough false information to “discredit” the true explanation. Q uotes “space expert Gary H enderson”, another active spreader of the myth. Refers to long-discredited stories of “secret dead Russian cosmonauts” probably created by F rank Edwards. H ouston Post, N ov. 30, 1975. page ID : “Just One Astronaut Claims Seeing UF O", by Jim Maloney. This sensible and sane investigation (McD ivitt stuck to his story) clearly did not excite the national news media and was relegated to the obscurity of a local newspaper. Science and Mechanics, June 1969. Cover Story; “This UF O was photographed by astronaut Gordon on Gemini 11 flight” (the cover photo shows a tremendously enlarged out of focus image of a piece of insulation floating a few inches in front of the camera). Page 44, Lloyd Malian: "Are UF O Space Crews Spying on our Astronauts?” D escription of the late L. Malian’s interviews on Gemini A2. provides some new information but cements some old misconceptions. Also embellishes Condon Report “unknowns”. Lock heed-N A S.A Contract N AS 95191 (March 1970), “Technical Report: Unidentified Visual Phenomena Associated with Space F light", F . B eatty and J. B aron. D iscusses the fragments sem and photographed on Apollo-12, and traces them to spacecraft effects. HtfVT o: □ 135 H art Sen ate O ffice Bu ildin g Washin gto n , DC S C S I0-1 B O I (2021 224-3744 T T Y: (202) 224-4479 e-m ail:chuck_grass1ey@ grassiey.senate.gov □ 721 Federal Bu ildin g 210 Waln u t Street D es Mo in es, IA 50309 -2140 (515) 2 84-439 0 O 206 Federal Bu ildin g 101 1st Street S E. Cedar Rapids, IA 62401-1227 (319 }363-6832 United States Renate CH ARLES E. G RASSLEY WASH ING TON, D C 20510-1501 August 3, 1998 Ms. Mary D. Kerwin Deputy Assoc. For Legislative Affairs National Aeronautics & Space Administration 300 E Street, S.W. Two Independence Square, Room 9L33 Washington, DC 20546 Reply To : □ 103 Federal Co u rtho u se Bu ildin g 320 6th Street Sio u x City, (A 51101-1244 1712) 233-1860 □ 210 Waterlo o Bu ildin g 531 Co mmercial Street Waterlo o . IA 50701-549 7 (319 1 232-6657 □ 116 federal Bu ildin g 131 E. 4th Street D aven po rt, IA 52801-1513 1319 } 322 4331 Q 307 Federal Bu ildin g 8 So u th 6th Street Co u n cil Blu ffs, IA 51501-4204 (712) 322-7103 Dear Ms. Kerwin: Enclosed please find a communication from (b)(6) regarding several concerns about the space program. I would appreciate any assistance you could provide pertaining to this matter. Please mark your return correspondence to the attention of Sherry Kuntz when responding to my office. Thank you for your attention to my request. United States Senator CEG/sk Enclosure FINANCE JUD ICIARY Committee Assignments: AG RICULTURE BUD G ET Chairman , SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AG ING PR IN T ED O N R EC YC LED PA PER > at internetAuthor: (b)(6) < (b)(6) Daje: 7/6/98 04:14 PM Priority: Normal TO: chuck grassley at Grassley-DC Subject: Message from a Voter Greetings Honorable Senator Grassley, I have recently encountered a number of new and interesting tidbits of information concerning letters T have previously written to you in regard of the UFO phenomenon that seems to be happening in the United States as well as the rest of the world. I greatly appreciate all the information you have led me to through our past correspondence. I am hoping you can help me track down a few more specific things. Here is a something I heard from someone I was corresponding with: "On Sunday, August 10, 1997 at around 9:45am CDT, I was watching ' TV and switched to the NASA channel for news of the ongoing shuttle mission. At the time, they were broadcasting a nighttime view of Earth. As T watched, I was surprised to see a light rising vertically from the bottom of the screen where Earth was displayed. As it continued to rise vertically (relative to the TV screen), the shuttle camera clearly began to track the light and kept the picture centered on it. "After it rose well above the horizon of Earth, the light made an apparent 90-degree turn to the right (again relative to the screen) and continued off in that direction. The shuttle camera continued to track the object and began to zoom in for a closer look. At that point NASA cut off the feed from the external camera and displayed the Houston space center instead, unfortunately, I wasn't prepared to record this on my VCR. The entire episode lasted less than a minute, so I was unable to get the VCR ready in time." I am also interested in any information that can be relayed about the Groom Lake Area, also know as Area 51, or Dreamland, and an area known as Area S-4. The media has stated that these areas in the Nevada desert are testing grounds for US "Black Projects". I believe that vehicles such as the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 Stealth Fighter where tested here. The government to date denies the e/istence of such places, even though I have in my possession of several videotapes, pictures, and even a Russian satellite image showing the area. Does such a place exist? Or at least, are you, the Air Force, or NASA, whoever happens to be in control of the site willing to tell us that is does exist. It is my understanding that the Nellis Air Force Base surrounds Area 51, so I imagine that the Air force is the one who has jurisdiction over the Area. Many people including Bob Lazar, Bill Uhouse, and the father of a guy I work with all claim to have worked in this secret area, and have seen and worked on craft of an alien origin. Bill Uhouse claims that both President Nixon, and Bush visited the Area 51 facility to examine the progress of recreating alien technology. He also claims that the project was going on with the aid of an alien "gray" known as Jarod (JAY-rod). If there is any truth to their claims and the claims of many others, I would wonder why such a spectacular secret would be kept from us, and why the aliens would not have made themselves known to the general populace of Earth. Please do not just send me another list of Project Blue Book documents, and I have already seen the censored files released by the CIA. These documents have been censored so all that they do is bring more suspicion toward the government, and they just make me think even more that someone is hiding something. The thing I can't figure out is why. . ’• Anything you can do to help in my search for the hidden truth is greatly appreciated. Please help me find out if we do have aliens at Area SI, or even an admission that Area 51 exists. Here is a list of Organizations, and places which may be helpful in helping track down some information: . Organizations - Military groups and civilian contractors. • * Nellis Air Force Base - Controls the land surrounding Area 51. * Nevada Test Site - Borders base on the west. Initially "owned" Area 51. * Security Anonymous "Cammo Dudes" patrolling base perimeter. * "Janet" Aircraft - Official EG&G "airline" ferrying workers to Groom Lake * Air Force Flight Test Center - Agency that controls Area 51. Based at Edwards Air Force Base. * EG&G Special Projects - General contractor at Area 51. * Bechtel - General contractor at Nevada Test Site, with some projects at Area 51. * Tonopah Test Range - "Semi-secret" aircraft testing base northwest of Area 51 • bockheed-Martin - Aircraft manufacturer for whom the base was built. * Johnson Controls - Contractor at Nevada Test Site, possibly also at Area 51. * Wackenhut Security - Security contractor at Nevada Test Site Places * Rachel, Nevada - Nevada's "UFO Capital", the closest town to Area 51 "• * Basecamp Airfield - "Secret" airfield in plain sight * Green River Launch Complex, Utah- According to "Popular Mechanics" the site of the "new Area 51" * Papoose Lake - Site of Lazar’s "Area S-4" south of Groom Lake * Tikaboo Peak - Last accessible viewpoint into Area 51 Author: (b)(6) <(b) (6) > at internet Date: 7/6/98 04:48 PM Priority: Normal TO: chuck grassley at Grassley-DC Subject: NASA This is a continuation of an e-mail I just sent you. These are some alleged conversations and observations made from NASA Astronauts. If there is ANY truth to this, there is a big shame shame, on NASA. If you could contact NASA on my behalf about these incidences I would be very grateful. Major Gordon Cooper One of the original Mercury Astronauts and the last American to fly in space alone. On May 15, 1963 he shot into space in a Mercury capsule for a 22 orbit journey around the world. During the final orbit. Major Gordon Cooper told the tracking station at Much (near Perth Australia) that he could see a glowing, greenish object ahead of him quickly approaching his capsule. The UFO was real and solid, because it was picked up by Muchea's tracking radar. Cooper's sighting was reported by the National Broadcast Company, which was covering the flight step by step; but when Cooper landed, reporters were told that they would not be allowed to question him about the UFO sighting. Major Cooper was a firm believer in UFOs. Ten years earlier, in 1951 he had sighted a UFO while piloting an F-86 Sabrejet over Western Germany. They were metallic, saucer-shaped discs at considerable altitude and could out-maneuver all American fighter planes. Major Cooper also testified before the United Nations: "I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets... Most astronauts were reluctant to discuss UFOs." "I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe." And according to a taped interview by J. L. Ferrando, Major Cooper said: "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public. Why? Because authority is afraid that people may think of God knows what kind of horrible invaders. So the password still is: We have to avoid panic by all means." "I was furthermore a witness to an extraordinary phenomenon, here on this planet Earth. It happened a few months ago in Florida. There I saw with my own eyes a defined area of ground being consumed by flames, with four indentions left by a flying object which had descended in the middle of a field. Beings had left the craft (there were other traces to prove this). They seemed to have studied topography, they had collected soil samples and, eventually, they returned to where they had come from, disappearing at enormous speed...I happen to know that authority did just about everything to keep this incident from the press and TV, in fear of a panicky reaction from the public." Ed White & James McDivitt In June 1965, astronauts Ed White (first American to walk in space) and James McDivitt were passing over Hawaii in a Gemini spacecraft when they saw a weird-looking metallic object. The UFO had long arms sticking out of it. McDivitt took pictures with a cine-camera. Those pictures have never been released. James Lovell and Frank Borman In December 1965, Gemini astronauts James Lovell and Frank Borman also saw a UFO during their second orbit of |;heir record-breaking 14 day flight. Borman reported that he saw an unidentified spacecraft some distance from their capsule. Gemini Control, at Cape Kennedy told him that he was seeing the final stage of their own Titan booster rocket. Borman confirmed that he could see the booster rocket all right, but that he could also see something completely different. During James Lovell's flight on Gemini 7: Borman: ER GEMINI 7, HOUSTON HOW DO YOU READ? Control: Loud and clear 7 go ahead. Borman: GOT A BOGEY AT 10 O'CLOCK HIGH. Control: This is Houston. Say again 7. Borman: SAID WE HAVE A BOGEY AT 10 O'CLOCK HIGH. Control: Roger Control: Gemini 7, is that the booster or is that an actual sighting? Borman: WE HAVE SEVERAL..-ACTUAL SIGHTINGS. Control: ...Estimated distance or size? Borman: WE ALSO HAVE THE BOOSTER IN SIGHT... Further controller cuts in: Gemini control here again, the reference in that conversation was er bogey. It was er Borman who reported sighting the bogey. Er this is Gemini control Houston at er 4 hours 24 minutes into the flight. Ironically, it was Lovell who made the classic statement "Please be informed that there is a Santa Claus". This was during his Apollo 8 flight on Christmas day in 1968 - some people believe there's a deeper meaning to these words, although the sceptics believe that this was little more than American humour. However, Walter Schitta, who was aboard Mercury 8, reputedly used Santa Clause as a code-name for a UFO presence, adding some weight to the argument that Lovell was experiencing another sighting. Neil Armstrong & Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin According to the NASA Astronaut Neil Armstrong the Aliens have a base on the Moon and told us in no uncertain terms to get off and stay off the Moon. According to hitherto un-confirmed reports, both Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin saw UFOs shortly after that historic landing on the Moon in Apollo 11 on 21 July 1969. I remember hearing one of the astronauts refer to a "light" in or on a crater during the television transmission, followed by a request from mission control for further information. Nothing more was heard. According Lu a former NASA employee otto binder, unnamed radio hams with their own VHF receiving facilities that bypassed NASA's broadcasting outlets picked up the following exchange: NASA: What's there? Mission Control calling Apollo 11... Apollo 11: These "Babies" are huge. Sir! Enormous! OH MY GOD! You wouldn't believe it! I'm telling you there are other spacecraft out there,- Lined up on the far side of the crater edge! They're on the Moon watching us! The two astronauts, talking to the NASA base in Houston. Text of the conversation: Astronaut 1: Ha! What is it? Astronaut 2: We have some explanation for that? --BEEP-- Houston: We have (not), don't worry, continue your program! --BEEP-- Astronaut 1: Oh boy it's a, it's, it, it is really something (similar to) fantastic here, you, you could never imagine this! --BEEP-- Houston: Roger, we know about that, could you go the other way, go back the other way! --BEEP-- Astronaut 1: Well it's kind of (rigged) ha, pretty spectacular ..... god . . . what is that there? -. --BEEP-- Astronaut 1: It's (hollow), what the hell is that? Houston: Go Tango, Tango! --BEEP-- Astronaut 1: Ha! There's kind of light there now! --BEEP-- Houston: Roger, we got it, we (watched it), lose communication, Bravo Tango, Bravo Tango, select Jezebel, Jezebel! --BEEP-- Astronaut 1: .....ya, ha! ...... but this is unbelievable! Houston: (we call you up Bravo Tango, Bravo Tango)! A certain professor, who wished to remain anonymous, was engaged in a discussion with Neil Armstrong during a NASA symposium. Professor: What REALLY happened out there with Apollo 11? Armstrong: It was incredible, of course we had always known there was a possibility, the fact is, we were warned off I(by the Aliens) . There was never any question then of a space station or a moon city. Professor: How do you mean "warned off"? Armstrong: I can't go into details, except to say that their ships were far superior to ours both in size and technology - Boy, were they big!...and menacing! No, there is no question,of a space station. Professor: But NASA had other missions after Apollo 11? Armstrong: Naturally - NASA was committed at that time, and couldn't risk panic on Earth. But it really was a quick scoop and back again. According to a Dr. Vladimir Azhazha: "Neil Armstrong relayed the message to Mission Control that two large, mysterious objects were watching them after having landed near the moon module. But this message was never heard by the public -- because NASA censored it." According to a Dr. Aleksandr Kasantsev, Buzz Aldrin took color movie film of the UFOs from inside the module, and continued filming them after he and Armstrong went outside. Armstrong confirmed that the story was true but refused to go into further detail, beyond admitting that the-. CIA was behind the cover-up. Donald Slayton Donald Slayton a Mercury astronaut revealed in an interview he had seen UFOs in 1951: "I was testing a P-51 fighter in Minneapolis when I spotted this object. I was at about 10,000 feet on a nice, bright, sunny afternoon. I thought the object was a kite, then I realized that no kite is gonna fly that high. " As I got closer it looked like a weather balloon, gray and about three feet in diameter. But as soon as I got behind the darn thing it didn't look like a balloon anymore. It looked like a saucer, a disk. About the same time, I realized that it was suddenly going away from me -- and there I was, running at about 300 miles per hour. I tracked it for a little way, and then all of a sudden the damn thing just took off. It pulled about a 45 degree climbing turn and accelerated and just flat disappeared." Major Robert White On July 17, 1962 Major Robert White reported a UFO during his fifty-eight-mile high flight of an X-15. Major White reported: "I have no idea what it could be. It was grayish in color and about thirty to forty feet away." Then according to a Time Magazine article, Major White exclaimed over the radio: "There ARE things out there! There absolutely is!" NASA Pilot Joseph A. Walker On May 11, 1962 NASA pilot Joseph Walker said that one of his tasks was to detect UFOs during his X-15 flights. He had filmed five or six UFOs during his record breaking fifty-mile-high flight in April, 1962. It was the second time he had filmed UFOs in flight. During a lecture at the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space Research in Seattle, Washington he said:, "I don't feel like speculating about them. All I know is what appeared on the film which was developed after the flight." - Joseph Walker To date none of those films has been released to the public for viewing. Commander Eugene Cernan Eugene Cernan was commander of Apollo 17. In a Los Angeles Times article in 1973 he said, about UFOs: "...I've been asked (about UFOs) and I've said publicly I thought they (UFOs) were somebody else, some other civilization." NASA's Maurice Chatelain In 1979 Maurice Chatelain, former chief of NASA Communications Systems confirmed that Armstrong had indeed reported seeing two UFOs on the rim of a crater. Chatelain believes that some UFOs may come from our own solar system -- specifically Titan. "The encounter was common knowledge in NASA, but nobody has talked about it until now." "...all Apollo and Gemini flights were followed, both at a distance and sometimes also quite closely, by space vehicles of extraterrestrial origin - flying saucers, or UFOs, if you want to call them by that name. Every time it occurred, the astronauts informed Mission Control, who then ordered absolute silence." Pilot Walter Schirra "I think that Walter Schirra aboard Mercury 8 was the first of the astronauts to use the code name 'Santa Claus' to indicate the presence of flying saucers next to space capsules. However, his announcements were barely noticed by the general public. James Lovell It was a little different when James Lovell on board the Apollo 8 command module came out from behind the moon and said for everybody to hear: 'PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS.' Even though this happened on Christmas Day 1968, many people sensed a hidden meaning in those words." The rumors persist. NASA may well be a civilian agency, but many of its programs are funded by the defense budget and most of the astronauts are subject to military security regulations. Apart from the fact that the National Security Agency screens all films and probably radio communications as well.We have the statements by Otto Binder, Dr. Garry Henderson and Maurice Chatelain that the astronauts were under strict orders not to discuss their sightings. And Gordon Cooper has testified to a United Nations committee that one of the astronauts actually witnessed a UFO on the ground. If there is no secrecy, why has this sighting not been made public? Shuttle Discovery - Mission 20 The voices of the astronaut and of the amateur radio station WA3NAN Goddard in the Space Center of Greenbelt Maryland. WA3NAN: We are retransmitting the Space Shuttle airground communication from mission 20. This is WA3NAN. Astronaut James F. Buchli... Astronaut: Houston, this is Discovery, we still have the alien spacecraft under observance... JUN 2 4 igg^ L:ATW:mtg:L/1998-407f The H onorable Olympia J. Snowe United States Senate Washington, D C 20510 D ear Senator Snowe: Thank you for your May 18, 1998, letter on behalf of 'bl '6) regarding Unidentified Flying Objects and his concern over the "authenticity of the recently released Mariner photographs." There are no recently released Mariner photographs. We assume^ ^6) is referring to the images taken from our Mars G lobal Surveyor (MG S). NASA does not tamper with images received from MG S. These images are received on Earth in digital format, meaning "0 and 1". NASA merely translates these digital images, using computer processing, into actual images. All images and other instrument data is deposited in a publicly accessible archive within six months after receipt where they are available to everyone. All the images currently released can be found on the Internet at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa gov. We appreciate your interest in these matters, and trust this information will be helpful to you in responding to (b) <6> Sincerely, -d by ^.~ a. flinger Edward H effernan (Acting) Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs ecc: S/Ruth Netting LB/Barbara Cherry Sent to Mark Berumen @ H ill Office (250 SROB) (p]22 fa ^ * OLYMPIA J. SNOWE M A IN E Co u n sel to the Assistan t « Majo rity Lf ade r 250 Ru ssell Sen ate Office Bu ildin g (2021 224-5344 United States Renate WASH ING TON, D C 20510-1903 C O M M IT T EES : A R M ED S ER VIC ES B UDG ET C O M M ER C E, S C IEN C E, A N D T R A N S PO R T A T IO N C HA IR O F O C EA N S A N O FIS HER IES S UB C O M M IT T EE S M A LL B US IN ES S May 18, 1998 Mr. Lawrence E. Medway Director, Congressional National Aeronautic and 300 E. Street, SW Washington, D.C. 20546 Inquiries Division Space Administration Dear Mr. Medway: I am writing to you regarding the concerns of my constituent, (b)(6) (b)(6) , of Stonington, Maine. (b)(6) is interested in U.F.O.'s and the recent photos of Mars which were recently released, (b)(6) is not convinced with the authenticity of the recently released Mariner photographs. Further, he questions the authenticity based on the picture only having 75 shades of grey, rather than the 256 it is supposed to have. Any information you could provide which would help me address his concerns would be appreciated. Thank you for your time and attention. OJS:mjb Au bu rn T w o G reat Falls Plaza Su ite 76 Au bu rn , M E 04210 (2071 786-2451 Au gu sta 68 Sew all Street. Su ite 101C Au gu sta. M E 04330 (207) 622-829 2 Ban go r On e Cu mberlan d Place, Su ite 306 Ban go r, M E 04401 (207)9 45-0432 Biddefo rd 231 Main Street, Su ite 2 Biro ffard. M F 04005 (207)282-4144 Po rtlan d 3 Can al Plaza. Su ite 601 P.O . B ox 188 Po rtlan d. M E 04112 (207) 874-0683 Main e Relax Service T DD 1-9 55-3323 Presq u e Isle 169 Academy Street, Su ite 3 Pre so u f 1st E. M E 04769 (207) 764-5124 IN M A IN E C A LL T O LL-FR EE 1-800-432-159 9 PR IN T ED O N R EC YC LED PA PER L98-407 - Sen. Snowe Enclosed is a fact sheet entitled "The US Government and Unidentified F lying Objects." As stated in the second paragraph of the F act Sheet, Congress, in 1993, directed N ASA to end its search program. Today the search-for extraterrestrials is conducted through.The Search for. Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI Institute) in Mountain View, CA. As for your interest in the recent photos of Mars taken from our Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), not the Mariner, these images are received on Earth in digital format, meaning “0 and 1”. N ASA does not tamper with these images. H owever, the images do require computer processing before they are suitable for public viewing. All images and other instrument data obtained from the MGS will be deposited in a publicly accessible archive, and they will then be available to everyone, scientists and citizens alike, who wants to examine them and draw their own individual conclusions. You can access all the images currently released from the following website: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/ W e appreciate your interest in this matter and trust this information will be useful to you. L98-407 - Sen. Snowe Enclosed is a fact sheet entitled "The US Government and Unidentified F lying Objects." As stated in the second paragraph of the F act Sheet, Congress, in 1993, directed N ASA to end its search program. TodayAhe-search for extraterrestrials is conducted through/Ihe Search-for, ExiraterrestTraH ntelligence Institute (SETI Institute) in Mountain View, CA. As for your interest in the recent photos of Mars taken from our Mars Global Surveyor (MGS), not the Mariner, these images are received on Earth in digital format, meaning “0 and 1”. N ASA does not tamper with these images. H owever, the images do require computer processing before they are suitable for public viewing. All images and other instrument data obtained from the MGS will be deposited in a publicly accessible archive, and they will then be available to everyone, scientists and citizens alike, who wants to examine them and draw their own individual conclusions. You can access all the images currently released from the following website: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/ W e appreciate your interest in this matter and trust this information will be useful to you. J CTION REQ UIRED C O N G R ES S IO N A L IN Q UIR Y Office of Legislative Affairs D ATE: May 26, 1998 NASA H eadquarters PAG ES, if faxed: 3 3 00 E Street, SW Washington, D C 20546 TO: S/Ruth Netting Anne Ward PH ONE: PH ONE: (202)3 58-1946 FAX: FAX: (202) 3 58-4343 Action assigned to: S/Ruth Netting D ue date: June 9, 1998 Information copies: Action number / Member: L98-407- Sen. Snowe INSTRUCTIONS: Please prepare a draft reply to the attached Congressional inquiry and send it via electronic mail to the following address: A nne.Ward@ hq.nasa.gov or send a copy of your reply on a diskette to the attention of Anne Ward. If you need clarification of this assignment or additional time to prepare this reply, please contact Anne Ward. M ES S A G E: R uth, If you answ er this before June 1, please send answ er to m e. T hanks. Helen < CONFIRMATION REPORT > 05-26-1998(TUE) 10:26 C TRANSMIT 3 NO. D ATE TIME D ESTINATION PG . D URATI ON MOD E RESULT 18502 5-26 10:25 NASA H OTS 2 0’00’52" NORMAL OK 2 0’00’52“ H eadquarters Action Tracking bystem (H A IS) IN C O M IN G C O R R ES PO N DEN C E A C T IO N ID N um ber: L/19 9 8-00407 T itle: S en S now e fw ds Itrfrom ^ ^ , w ho's interested in U.F.O . and the recent M ars photo Recipient: Author: Organization: UHeffernan SNOWE SENATE Action Office: LD /Rothman:P Status: Open Signature Office: UH effernan D ate Written: D ate Received: D ate Concurred: D ate Submitted: D ate Signed: D ate Closed: »Current D ue D ate: Original D ue D ate: 05/18/1998 05/26/1998 0G /18/1998« Info Offices: UH effernan, UH eninger, UKerwin Abstract: SEN SNOWE FWD S LTR FROM (b) (6) OF STOCKING TON, MAINE, WH O'S INTERESTED IN U.FO.'S AND TH E RECENT PH OTOS OF MARS WH ICH WERE RECENTLY RELEASED . Comments: Enclosures: NO Related Records: c^« $7 ^\ Keywords: y J C SUE J. smith^T DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF AGENCY LIAISON REFERRAL OF CASEWORK IN BULK An unprecedented number of individuals still write the President and the First Lady for help. I know that this has meant a far greater volume of mail for your agency than ever before. I appreciate your continuing cooperation in our efforts to be as responsive as possible. The attached letters have not received a White House Staff response. I am forwarding this correspondence to your agency for any appropriate action. Please return the original incoming letter, along with a copy of any written or telephone response, to me at the address below. I also would appreciate your sending a copy of your agency's log of the names and addresses of these individuals. Any misrefarrais should be tetuxxiea to my oEEice, if you have questions you can reach me at 456-7486. Sue J. Smith Director, Office Room 6, OEOB The W hite H ouse Washington, D.C. of Agency Liaison 20502 Again, thank you for your continuing help. A/fW'G&W ^9^ 01133 From nobody@ wwwTAvhitehouse.gov Sun May 17 17:57:3 7 1998 D ate: Sun, 17 May 1998 17:54:05 -0400 From: (W (®) > Subject; Inbound-Wliitc_H ousc_WWW_MAlL => PRESID ENT Apparent ly-to: president@ WhiteH ouse.G OV To: president@ WhiteH ouse.G OV Errors-to: The Postmaster Reply-to: (b) (6) <(b) (6) > Message-id: <199805172154.RAA07723 @ wwwl .whitehouse.gov> Keywords: WWW-Correspondence;; Ask a specific question regarding Administration policy; Science or Technology, Private Citizen; Comments: Forwarded from White H ouse WWW Comments: This message scanned by SCAN version 0.1 jms/960226 [Connection Information] CLIENT: ww-tr02.proxy.aol.com[l52.163 .201.13 6] BROWSER: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; AOL 3 .0; Windows 95; Sony URL: http://www.whitdiouse.gov/WH/Mail/htinl/Mail_President.htinl [Sender Information] PERSONAL-NAME: (b) (6) EMAIL-AD D RESS: ORG ANIZATION: RELATION SH IP: STREET-AD D RESS: (b) (6) CITY: Ventura STATE-PROVINCE: Ca ZIP-COD E: 93 004 COUNTRY: usa [Message Information] PURPOSE: Ask a specific question regarding Administration policy TOPIC: Science or Technology AFFILIATION: Private Citizen SUBJECT; UFO's [Message] D ear Mr. President, It is my understanding that you, Mrs. Clinton, Vice-President G ore and heads of Congress, including the CIA director, members of the Senate and H ouse, the Executive Branch and senior military reps in the Pentagon were briefed in or around D ecember of 1997 by D r. Steven G reer, International D irector of CSETT( The Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Basically, he calls on you and other members of congress to hold open congressional meetings. What is your positon and intent on this matter? Will you push for open hearings or are you stonewalled as well by MJ-I2? Certainly on your appointment as President you were briefed on the existence of UFO's. Please use your Executive power to report and open the truth to the American people. It is time. Your personal reply is respectfully requested. Thank you. Sincerely, (b) (6) DRAFT ^ LATW mtgL/1998-494f (b) (6) D ear (b) (6) We are not aware of any hearings scheduled on UI US G overnment and Unidentified Flying Objects,'j< investigations into UFO’k H owever, Thither NAS A lives a The White H ouse has requested NASA to respond to your May 17, 1998, letter £b 3 ^CjcH ?^ f / , concerning possible hearings on UFG ^s. x ^Ua^T.Vu^ t^iKj Objvth Fh e ait ached fact s heet, -"The brief history of NASA's -other-branch-of-the - We appreciate your interest in this matter and trust this information will be helpful to you. Sincerely, Edward H effernan (Acting) Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs Enclosure ecc: S/Ruth Netting LB/Barbara Cherry Sent to Sue J. Smith D irector, Office of Agency Liaison Room 6, OEOB The White H ouse Washington, D C 20502 H eadquarters Action Tracking System (H ATS) INCOMING CORRESPOND ENCE ACTION ID Number: U1998-00494 Title: Ward/White H ouse Referral: UFO H earings Abstract: White H ouse Correspondence from (6) who supports having congressional hearing regarding the existence of UFO's. R ecipient: A /G oldin Author: (b)(6) Organization: White H ouse D ate Written: 05/17/1998 D ate Received: 06/18/1998 D ate Concurred: D ate Submitted: D ate Signed: D ate Closed: Action Office: L/Ward.S »Current D ue D ate: 07/15/1998« Original D ue D ate: 07/15/1998 Status: Open Signature Office: L/H effernan Info Offices: L/Heffernan, L/Heninger, L/Kerwin Comments: Note: Vanessa needs letterhead copy of signed/dated response. Enclosures: White H ouse Memo Related Records: A/1998-00416 Keywords: (b) (6) File Plan: UFO, hearings Analyst: JMassey 06/18/1998 Page 1 of 1 6/17/98 15:54:01 Page 1 CORRESPONDENCE ACTION STATUS HISTORY Correspondence and Action Tracking System Code A ID Number: A98-01199 Title: WH R BULK: CONG RESSIONAL H EARING S ON UFO'S Recipient: Organization: G OLD IN A ‘Other Recipients / Organizations*: D ate Written: 05/17/1998 D ate Received: 06/17/1998 Original D ate D ue: 07/15/1998 » Current D ate D ue: 07/15/1998 « Submitted for Signature: D ate Signed: D ate Completed: Author: Organization: (b) (6) WH R BULK ‘Other Authors / Organizations*: Action Office: L Action Officer; H EFFERNAN Status: Open Security: Public Info Copies: A, P Signature Office: L Signature Officer: H EFFERNAN Priority: Normal In/Out: Incoming Abstract: WH R BULK: VIA E-MAIL, Hom er. hv the hell, get S#iaf5 I’m m adder than R 2D2 w ith a loose bolt thatpur free-spending C ongress T T paging 121F earned taxonx ^IreadvJ^gjfi, for aje the light-bulb lave to worry abouC years— B ut-what-makes me so pig-biting _mad is that we’re aiming all these.. hiefi-’te«h elec- line Is that smart aliens are ah ■ready here_and the only ones ■wc.'ll_can.tac_t ^ radio wav^ K^WwaS »° Wk to E.T W^earch to te J' f&j”’*2S& i ”W^ i££^f [ion bucks yrnard on a project to con IT 'S a w aste of taxpayers' hard-earned m oney trying to contact space aliens, says Ed A nger. Inset, new spapers folks _ from around the w orld report on N A S A 's funding for Dr. R uth Jones Hom er's project. 1 AITtheegaheads aU^A^haveto Organization: WH R BULK ’Other Authors / Organizations’: D ate Written: 03 /16/1998 D ate Received: 04/22/1998 Original D ate D ue: 05/28/1998 » Current D ate D ue: 05/28/1998 « Submitted for Signature: D ate Signed: | D ate Completed: | Action Office: L Action Officer: H EFFERNAN Info Copies: A, AB, S, P Signature Office: L Signature Officer: Status: Open In/Out: Incoming Priority: Normal ’Responsible Office / Responsible Officer (D ue D ate)*: Abstract- WH R BULK: Subject: Inbound-White_H ouse_WWW_MAIL => PRESID ENT Apparently-to: president@ WhiteHouse.G OV To: president@ WhiteH ouse.G OV Errors-to: The Postmaster Message-id: <199803 1703 16. WAA1413 2@ www 1 .whit gov> Keywords: WWW-Correspondence;; Ask a specific question regar Administration policy; Science or Technology; Private Citizen; Comments: Forwarded from White H ouse WWW Comments: This message scanned by SCAN version 0.1 jms/960226 [Connection Information] CLIENT: 206.147.215.243 [206.147.215.243 ] BROWSER: Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3 .02; Windows 3 .1) URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH /Mail/html/Mail_President.html [Sender Information] (b) (6) CSET1 PERSONAL-NAME: EMAIL-AD D RESS: ORG ANIZATION: RELATIONSH IP: member STREET-AD D RESS: (b)(6) CITY: Minneapolis STATE-PROVINCE: MN ZIP-COD E: 55405 COUNTRY: USA [Message Information] PURPOSE: Ask a specific question regarding Administration policy TOPIC: Science or Technology AFFILIATION: Private Citizen SUBJECT: public congressional hearings on extraterrestrial evidence [Message] D ear Mr. President: D uring these trying days in your Presidency, I want to let you know and appreciate the work you have done as President x//m-m3/^ AT^CO 723 and the warmth and good humor you've displayed. I would like to suggest as a way of changing the headlines about sex in the White H ouse, to an area that would give you a real legacy and enlighten the world as to are place in the universe... As a member of CSETI, I support open Congressional H earings or even a Presidential D iscussion - public - regarding evidence as to the existence of alien beings and spacecraft in our government's possession. Last April members of your staff were present during Congressional H earings in private with people who were in someway connected with knowledge about alien beings, ET technology, spacecraft. D id those discussions make you more interested to know more or are you being advised not encourage any more meetings with CSETI? Sometimes, sir... you have to take a positive risk on matters that can change the world for the better. The Richard H elms and Strom Thurmond types must be dealt with firmly. Whether it's opening Cuba to economic trade or a healthy discussion on a matter that will be far more remembered than whom you may or may not have had sex with, standing up to these dinosaurs and people like them, will go a long way in the American public's and historians recognition of you as a leader to another level. I do not have CSETI's telephone number in order for you and your staff to coordinate hearings with D r. Steven G reer. But, his website address is: www.cseti.org I've heard early in your Presidency you asked former colieage Webster H ubbel to investigate what is known about UFO's. I think compared to past presidents, you have been kept in the dark about ET matters. Well, I hope that your interest in the topic hasn't totally diminished. Scientists, engineers, former astronauts, militay personnel and just plain citizens would like to speak up and discuss what they know. The American public's attitude would turn from initial cynicism to enlightenment. Even if it means we are not on good terms with are alien visitors, or we are not the smartest or strongest intelligent power out there, we can handle it. So... I do hope you receive this e-mail and not just one of the many assistants answering letters for you. This letter can make a difference... and so can you Mr. President. It won't cost millions of dollars to conduct a hearing/investigation of potential huge benefits to so many. Best Regards, (b) (6) L:ATW:mtg:LA98-106f (b) (6) D car(b) (6) The White H ouse has forwarded to NASA for response your letter of March 16, 1998, in which you advocate Congressional H earings ora Presidential D iscussion regarding alien beings and their spacecraft. Enclosed is a NASA Fact Sheet entitled (he U.S. G overnment and Unidentified Flying Objects. This Fact Sheet gives a brief outline of NASA's research into UFO's and will give you other points of contact ondhe-s«bjeeUyou may wish to pursue We appreciate your interest in this matter. Sincerely, Edward H effernan (Acting) Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs Enclosure I Abstract: SEN SNOWE FWD S LTR FROM <6> WH O'S INTERESTED IN UFO'S SIG H TING S AND ABD UCTIONS. Comments: H elen spoke w/staffer referring him to Air Force; fwded fax sheet on UFOs. Enclosures: YES LT R R elated R ecords: H eadquarters Action Tracking System (H ATS) INCOMING CORRESPOND ENCE ACTION ID Number: L/1998-00415 Title: ROTH MAN/Sen Snowe fwds Itr from(b)(6) , who's interested in U.P.O.'s sightings and abductions Info Offices: L/Heffernan, L/Heninger, L/Kerwin R ecipient: L/Heffernan A uthor: S N O WE O rganization: S EN A T E Date Written: 05/13 /1998 D ate Received: D ate Concurred: D ate Submitted: 05/27/1998 D ate Signed: 05/27/1998 D ate Closed: 05/27/1998 Action Office: LD /Rothman:P »Current D ue D ate: Original D ue D ate: 06/17/1998« Status: Closed Signature Office: L/H effernan Keywords: (b) (6) U.F.O. SIG H TING S ABD UCTION File Plan: 13 20.4 Analyst: BMoore 05/27/1998 Page 1 of 1 To: ^\QuP Date: ^h^h^ Time:_^o^_____ Phone#:________________ Fax# : ^l| - \9q ^ From: Helen Rothman Director, Congressional Inquiries Division Office of Legislative Affairs Voice#: (202) 358-1943 Fax#: (202) 358-4343 Message: ^ £ - N u m ber of Pages in clu din g cover NASA Facts National Aeronautics and Space Administration N A S A Headquarters Public Affairs Office Code P 3 00 E Street SW Washington D C 20546 FS-1997-01-017-H Q The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects N o branch of the United States Government is currently in­ volved with or responsible for investigations into the possi­ bility of alien life on other planets or for investigating Uni­ dentified F ly ing Objects (UF O’s). The US Air F orce (USAF ) and the N ational Aeronautics and Space Administration (N ASA) have had intermittent, independent investigations of the possibility of alien life on other planets; however, none of these has produced factual evidence that life exists on other planets, nor that UF O’s are related to aliens. F rom 1947 to 1969, the Air F orce investigated UF O’s; then in 1977, N ASA was asked to examine the possibility of resuming UF O investigations. After studying all of the facts avail­ able, it was determined that nothing would be gained by further investigation, since there was an absence of tangible evidence. In October 1992, N ASA was directed by Congress to begin a detailed search for artificial radio signals from other civi­ lizations under the N ASA Towards Other Planetary Systems (TOPS)/H igh Resolution Microwave Survey (H RMS) pro­ gram (also known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelli­ gence project). Congress directed N ASA to end this project in October 1993, citing pressures on the US F ederal budget The H RMS did not detect any confirmed signal before it was stopped. H owever, similar work will continue in a more limited manner through efforts of private groups and through academic institutions. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intel­ ligence Institute (SETI Institute) in Mountain View, CA, effectively replaced the Government project, borrowing the signal processing system from N ASA. The SETI Institute is a nonprofit corporation conducting research in a number of fields including all science and technology aspects of as­ tronomy and planetary sciences, chemical evolution, the ori­ gin of life, biological evolution, and cultural evolution. D uring several space missions, N ASA astronauts have re­ ported phenomena not immediately explainable; however, in every instance N ASA determined that the observations could not be termed “abnormal” in the space environment. The 1947 to 1969 USAF investigations studied UF O’s un­ der Project B lue B ook. The project, headquartered at W right- Patterson Air F orce B ase, Ohio, was terminated D ecember 17,1969. Of the total of 12,618 sightings reported to Project B lue B ook, 701 remain “unidentified.” The decision to discontinue UF O investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, “Scientific Study of Unidentified F lying Objects;” a review of the University of Colorado’s report by the N ational Academy of Sciences; previous UF O studies; and Air F orce experience investigating UF O reports during the 1940’s, ‘50’s and ‘60’s. As a result of experience, inves­ tigations, and studies since 1948, the conclusions of Project B lue B ook were: (1) no UF O reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air F orce was ever a threat to our national security; (2) there was no evidence submitted to, or discov­ ered by, the Air F orce that sightings categorized as “uniden­ tified” represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge; and (3) there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as “unidentified” were extraterrestrial vehicles. W ith tire termination of Project B lue B ook, the USAF regu­ lation establislung and controlling the program for investi­ gating and analyzing UF O’s was rescinded. D ocumentation regarding the former Project B lue B ook investigation was permanently transferred to the Modern Military B ranch, N ational Archives and Records Service, in W ashington, D C 20408, and is available for public review and analysis. Since the termination of Project B lue B ook, nothing has oc­ curred that would support a resumption of UF O investiga­ tions by the USAF or N ASA. Given the current environ­ ment of steadily decreasing defense and space budgets, it is unlikely that the Air F orce or N ASA will become involved in this type of costly project in the foreseeable future. Since neither N ASA nor the Air F orce is engaged in day-to- day UF O research, neitherone reviews UF O-related articles intended for publication, evaluates UF O-type spacecraft drawings, or accepts accounts of UF O sightings or applica­ tions for employment in the field of aerial phenomena inves­ tigation. UFO Points of Contact 1. F or further information on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, please contact the SET! Institute, 2035 Land­ ings D rive, Mountain View, CA 94043, (415) 960-4530. 2. N ews media requiring Project B lue B ook files should con­ tact the N ational Archives Public Affairs Office, (202) 501- 5525. Public queries should be addressed to the Project B lue B ook archivist at (202) 501-5385. F or queries not related to Project B lue B ook, contact the N ational Ar­ chives receptionist at (202) 501-5400. D ocumentation is available from: Modern Military B ranch, N ational Ar­ chives and Records Service, Eighth Street and Pennsyl­ vania Avenue, N W , W ashington, D C 20408. 3. The Air F orce publication, “The Roswell Report: F act vs. F iction in the N ew Mexico D esert,” a lengthy docu­ ment providing all of the details available from the Air F orce on the Roswell incident, is available for $52 from the US Government Printing Office, Superintendent of D ocuments, Mail Stop: SSOP, W ashington, D C 20402- 9328. 4. There are a number of universities and professional sci­ entific organizations that have considered UF O phenom­ ena during periodic meetings and seminars. A list of pri­ vate organizations interested in aerial phenomena may be found in Gale's Encyclopedia of Associations. 5. Persons wishing to report UF O sightings are advised to contact law enforcement agencies. 2 < CONFIRMATION REPORT > 05-27-1998(W ED ) 13:57 [ TRANSMIT J 3 0’01’31” NO. D ATE TIME D ESTINATION PG . D URATION MOD E RESULT 18529 5-27 13:55 202 224 1946 3 0’01’31" N ORM.E OK < CONFIRMATION REPORT > 05-27-1998(W ED ) 13:57 C TRANSMIT J NO. D ATE TIME D ESTINATION PG . D URATION MOD E RESULT 18529 5-27 13:55 202 224 1946 3 0’01’31" N ORM.E OK 3 0’01’31" ’ OLYMPIA J. SNOWE M A IN E Co u n sel to the Assistan t Majo rity Leader 250 Ru ssell Sen ate Office Bu ildin g (202)224-5344 C O M M IT T EES .: United States Renate WASHING TON, D C 20510-1903 May 13, 1998 A R M ED S ER VIC ES B UDG ET C O M M ER C E, S C IEN C E, A N D T R A N S PO R T A T IO N CH AIR OF OCEAN S AN D F ISH ERIES SUB COMMITTEE S M A LL B US IN ES S Mr. Lawrence E. Medway D irector, Congressional Inquiries D ivision N ational Aeronautic and Space Administration 300 E. Street, SW W ashington, D .C. 20546 D ear Mr. Medway: (b) (6)I am writing to you regarding the concerns of my constituent, Portland, Maine. ' M ; is interested in U.F .O. sightings and abductions. I have enclosed a copy of his correspondence for your review. Any information you could provide which would help me answer his questions would be appreciated. Thank you for your time and attention. OJS:mjb T DD 1-9 55-3323 Au bu rn T w o G reat Falls Plaza Su ite 7B Au bu rn . M E 04210 (207)786 2451 Au gu sta Ban go r Bido efo rd Po rtlan d Presq u e Isle 68 Sew all Street, Su ite 101C On e Cu mberlan d Place, Su ite 306 231 Main Street, Su ite 2 3 Can al Plaza, Su ite 601 169 Academy Street. Su ite 3 Au gu sta, M E 04330 Ban co b, M E 04401 Bio defo ro , M E 04006 P.O . B ox 188 Presq u e Isle. M E 04769 <207)622-829 2 (207)9 45 0432 (207)282-4144 Po rtlan d, M E 04112 (207)764-5124 (207) 874-0883 Main e Relay Service IN M A IN E C A LL T O LL-FR EE 1-800-432-189 9 PRIN TED ON RECYCLED PAPER FEBUARY 22 1998 D ear Senitor Olyimpia Snow, My name is <6> A PR 0 z 19 9 8 TIME- 9:11am I'm from Portland, Maine. I’m 12 years old. (b)(6) . I heard about the fredom of information act. I would be so grateful it you could get any or all government documents released on the Roswell crash. I'm a U.F.O. researcher. I have heard about the following U.F.O. sightings and abductions: 1. LAS LUNAS, NEW MEXICO LATE JUNE1977 11:3 0A.M. 2. SH IROYAMA, KAWANOE CITY JAPAN FEB/2/75 16:00 MILITARY TIME 3 . WAIKIKI BEACH , H ONOLULU, H AWAII MARCH/1 5/93 1 2:00 P.M. 4. COLFAX, WISCONSIN APRIL/1 9/78 13 :3 0 MILITARY TIME 5. D ENVER, COLAROD O MAY/1991 AFTERNOON 6. BARCELONA, SPAIN JUNE/1978 SUND OWN 7. MONTEMORELOS, NUEVA LEON, MEXICO SUMMER OF 1994 AFTERNOON 8. VANCOUVER, B.C. CANAD A OCTOBER/17/1992 9. G ULF BREEZ, FLORAD A SEPTEMBER/24/1994 18:50 MILITARY TIME 10. ZACATELCO, TLAXCALA, MEXICO OCTOBER/31/1991 11. VIBORG , JUTLAND , D ENMARK NOVEMBER/17/74 9:00 A.M. 1 2. COCOYOC, MORELOS, MEXICO NOVEMBER/3/73 9:00 A.M. 13 . BELJUM MID NIG HT 14. MT. KID TARD IN, MAINE MID NIG H T 3 CAMPERS WERE ABD UCTED 1 5. G ROOM LAKE NEVAD A AREA 51 FREQUNTLY As you have read Ido know alot aboout U.P.O'S. I also knoew in RIG H T PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OH IO TH ERE KEEPING ALIENS AND CRAFT IN H ANG ER 1 8. TH ERE IS ALSO A G OVERNMENT AG ENCY CALLED M.J.12. I know that U.F.O'S visit america frequntly and our government knows about it. Soon every political persons are going to get a pitition from a high school in New H ampshire to have information on the Roswell crash released to the public. I have heard roomers that at H ULAMAN AIR FORCE BASE A U.F.O. LAND ED AND TH E H IG H RANKING PERSON AT TH E BASE TALKED TO TH E ALIEN. The government made a big mistake by letting Aliens into the country and can do nothing about it. sincerly, (b) (6) P.S. I'm including my address, phone number, and P.O. box. H eadquarters Action Tracking System (H ATS) INCOMING CORRESPOND ENCE ACTION ID Number: L/1998-00415 Title: ROTHMAN/Sen Snowe fwds Itr from (b) (6) who's interested in U.F.O.'s sightings and abductions Recipient: UH effernan Author: SNOWE Organization: SENATE D ate Written: 05/13 /1998 D ate Received: 05/27/1998 D ate Concurred: D ate Submitted: D ate Signed: D ate Closed: Action Office: LD /Rothman:P »Current D ue D ate: 06/17/1998« Original D ue D ate: Status: Open Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices: UH effernan, UH eninger, UKerwin C om m ents: Abstract: SEN SNOWE FWD S LTR FROM'0 ' ' ABD UCTIONS. WH O'S INTERESTED IN UFO'S SIG H TING S AND Enclosures: Related Records: YES LTR Keywords: (b) (6) U.F.O. SIG HTING S ABD UCTION File Plan: Analyst: BMoore 05/27/1998 Page 1 of 1