UFOs and Astronauts

By Charles Lear

As one might expect, astronauts have come upon things in space that they were not able to readily identify. In fact, astronauts have not only reported seeing UFOs, but some, most notably Gordon Cooper and Dr. Edgar Mitchell, have gone so far as to publicly advocate for disclosure and an end to secrecy regarding the subject.

Gordon Cooper described having encounters with UFOs as an Air Force pilot prior to his involvement in the space program. In his 2000 memoir, “Leap of Faith: An Astronaut’s Journey Into the Unknown,” Gordon wrote that he chased saucer-shaped craft when he was stationed in Germany in the 1950s, and that objects flew over the base daily that were faster than known man-made machines. He also claimed to have been given film in 1957 of a saucer that landed at Edwards Air Force Base, which he sent off to the Pentagon and never saw again.

In spite of his alleged UFO encounters in Earth’s atmosphere, Cooper claimed that neither he nor any other astronauts had seen UFOs while in space. According to him, there was nothing to the well-known report that he saw a green glowing object approach his craft during his final orbit in May 1963 aboard Mercury Faith 7 while over Australia.

Cooper made a similar claim in a March 1980 interview in Omni conducted by long-time UFO researcher Lee Spiegel. In that interview, Cooper stated that of all the astronauts involved in the space program only James McDivitt “might” have seen a UFO. He also remarked that allegations of astronaut UFO sightings “got so bad that there were deliberately falsified tapes of communications with the astronauts, where UFO material was simply edited in.” A review of alleged astronaut encounters finds that there are, indeed, a lot of poorly supported claims out there.

James McDivitt’s sighting during Gemini 4 got a lot of attention from not only the UFO community, but also the Air Force. On the 20^th revolution of a four-day space flight from June 3, to June 7, 1965, McDivitt spotted and photographed a UFO. He described the episode in a June 29, 1999 interview as part of the NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project. According to him, fellow astronaut Ed White (who made the first American space-walk) was asleep, and the capsule was tumbling through space, as it had been shut down to save fuel.  McDivitt spotted an object that resembled a beer can with a pencil sticking out of it.  Thinking that he might be forced to maneuver around the object, McDivitt switched on the circuit breakers of the battery-powered craft to enable the engines.

There were two cameras floating in the capsule, and while he waited for the electronics to warm up, he took a picture of the object with each of them.  According to McDivitt, the pictures did not turn out. However, a reporter was waiting at NASA while photos from the mission were being printed out, and he was allowed to go through them. According to McDivitt, the reporter picked one that looked like a fleet of spaceships that was actually “a reflection of bolts in the windows.”

McDivitt stated that the object must have been in orbit with them, as he was able to see it, and was probably a piece of ice that had fallen off the ship.  The sighting is discussed in the Condon Report and the writer leaves it unresolved and includes it with cases, “not adequately explained.”

Another case in the Condon Report “not adequately explained” is the well-known incident involving James Lovell and Frank Borman during their fourteen day Gemini 7 flight from December 4, to December 18, 1965.  During the second orbit of the flight, Borman reported that they had “a Bogey at 10 o’clock high.”Capcom in Houston asked him to repeat and he did. Houston asked if it was the booster he was seeing or an actual sighting. Lovell replied that it was an actual sighting and that he had the booster in sight at his 2 o’clock position.

One of the more fantastic tales floating around is one that involves Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. According to the story, Armstrong and Aldrin were aboard Apollo 11 when they reported to NASA on a non-broadcast frequency that they were seeing huge spacecraft lined up on a crater watching them as they were landing.  This oft-repeated tale originated with “former NASA employee Otto Binder” who said that “unnamed radio hams” had picked up the broadcast on their equipment. A simple search will reveal that Otto Binder was a science fiction writer turned comic book writer turned UFO writer, and that he never worked for NASA.

In a November 14, 2002 article in Telepolis , astronaut Dr. Jerry Linenberger is quoted from a statement he gave “four years after his stay on MIR at the Bur Juman Retail Conference in the Emirate Towers Hotel in presence of journalists.” In response to being asked if he’d seen UFOs while in space, he said:

“I have been asked that question so many times. In five months in space, I have seen unidentified flying objects for sure. Sometimes I looked out of the window and I could see a metallic thing like a spoon flying methodically. The biggest problem in space is that it is very hard to judge distance. It could have been a spoon or a space ship thousands of miles away.  Let me tell you one thing, I have never heard someone knock at the door and say – Hey Jerry let me in!”

An additional quote from Linenberger sums up the position of many astronauts:

“I would also like to point out that most astronauts are very reluctant to even discuss UFO’s due to the great numbers of people who have indiscriminately sold fake stories and forged documents abusing their names and reputations without hesitation. Those few astronauts who have continued to have a participation in the UFO field have had to do so very cautiously.”

Two astronauts who were very outspoken, and perhaps less than cautious, were Gordon Cooper and Dr. Edgar Mitchell, who followed similar paths. On November 9, 1978, Cooper wrote a letter to Ambassador Griffith, Grenada’s ambassador to the U.N., with the following oft-repeated quote: “I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which are a little more technically advanced than we are here on Earth.” Grenada’s Prime Minister, Sir Eric Gairy, had been urging the U.N. since 1976 to set up an agency to gather and evaluate UFO related information. With the help of Lee Spiegel, a meeting was arranged to discuss an upcoming presentation to the U.N., with Gordon Cooper as one of the speakers. The meeting was held on July 14, 1978, and the presentation took place November 27, 1978.

Dr. Edgar Mitchell was the sixth man to walk on the moon as part of the Apollo 14 mission. During that mission he had an epiphany. According to him, “I realized that the molecules of my body and the molecules of the spacecraft had been manufactured in an ancient generation of stars.”  This had a profound effect on him and led him to establish the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which called for an examination of the universe by means other than religion or science.

Mitchell became an advocate for U.S. government disclosure regarding what was officially known about alien visitations. He appeared in James Fox’s groundbreaking 2003 documentary “Out of the Blue.” Cooper also appeared in the film.  In the film, it is acknowledged that Mitchell had no first-hand experience with extraterrestrials, but he stated that he had discussed the issue with people who had, in their official capacity “within two governments.”  Mitchell, towards the end of the film, expresses his concern that there is a clandestine group within the government investigating alien activity without high-level government oversight.

After Mitchell’s death on February 4, 2016, Wikileaks, in November of that year, released emails from the personal account of John Podesta, former counselor to President Barack Obama and campaign advisor to Hillary Clinton.  Among the thousands of emails there were two from Mitchell regarding a Skype presentation he was hoping to give for President Obama.  In the messages, Mitchell mentions ETI (Extraterrestrial Intelligences) that are helping to bring zero point energy to us here on Earth. Mitchell emphasized the need to ban weapons from space because “They will not tolerate any forms of military violence on Earth or in space.”  The Skype presentation never occurred.

The subject of astronaut UFO sightings begs for dramatic tales such as those found throughout UFO literature and the internet.  The truth seems to be less dramatic than seeing huge menacing ships on the moon, but some might argue that that’s just what we’re supposed to think.