Out of This World: The Puzzling Accounts of UFOs by Astronauts
In the last century, astronauts have reported strange sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). From Neil Armstrong’s experience with a “light out of the corner of his eye” in 1969 to other stunning accounts, the question of bizarre aerial encounters continues to baffle the general public. Astronauts’ puzzling accounts of UFOs offer intriguing possibilities of contact with extraterrestrial life.
Astronaut John Glenn
One of the first reports of strange UFO activity in space comes from astronaut John Glenn. A man of many accomplishments, he was the third American in space, the first to orbit the earth, and the longest-lived person in orbit. He also became the oldest person to fly in space when he flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-95 mission at the age of 77. During his 1962 Friendship 7 mission, Glenn reported seeing “fireflies” or “luminescent” particles buzzing around and orbiting his capsule. He described them as being “brilliantly lit up” and “swirling” around the capsule. Glenn’s credibility as a witness is further reinforced by his numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, Congressional Space Medal of Honor, and induction into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame.
At first, Mission Control was concerned that what astronaut John Glenn was observing was debris from the capsule’s heat shield, but further investigation revealed that was not the case, and none of the objects ever came into contact with the craft. It is speculated that the “fireflies” may have been illuminated frost flakes falling away from the capsule. Later in 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter reported the same phenomenon on a flight in the same capsule. The exact nature of these sightings remains unknown.
Astronaut Gordon Cooper
Another space flight pioneer, Leroy Gordon “Gordo” Cooper Jr. had an encounter in space that is even harder to explain. In 1963, Cooper was on a solo mission to fly the longest and last Mercury spaceflight, Mercury-Atlas 9, which lasted 22 days. During his final orbit, he reported seeing a glowing, greenish object approaching his capsule, which was also picked up on radar at the tracking station in Muchea, Australia. Cooper also claimed other UFO sightings, including ones in 1951 as a test pilot flying over Europe and in 1957, when he saw a “strange-looking, saucer-like” aircraft that made no sound while landing or taking off at a dry lake bed near Edwards Air Force Base. He also claimed that the object at Edwards was seen by other personnel and had landed on a tripod-like landing gear. In yet another encounter, he claims to have seen alien beings, stating that he saw a defined area of ground being consumed by flames, with four indentations left by a flying object and evidence of beings having collected soil samples before returning to their craft and disappearing at an enormous speed. He added that authorities had tried to keep the incident from the press and TV, to avoid a panic reaction from the public.
When he filed a report about his sighting at the Edwards Air Force Base, the Pentagon confiscated the photographs he had taken, preventing them from being publicized. He also stated that although astronauts and military pilots frequently saw UFOs, they were discouraged from reporting them and that there were constant efforts to keep word of strange sightings in the sky from reaching the public. He believed that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews were visiting Earth from other planets, and that the reason for the secrecy was to avoid causing panic among the public. He wrote about his experiences and conspiracy theories in his autobiography Leap of Faith.
Astronauts Ed White and James McDivitt
In June 1965, astronauts Ed White and James McDivitt were on the Gemini 4 mission, when they saw something unusual during their orbit over Hawaii. They described it as a metallic object with long “arms” sticking out of it. McDivitt stated that he could not identify the object and had taken pictures of it, but it disappeared as the sun shone on the window. They checked with NORAD and found no other objects on radar in close proximity to their spacecraft.
Interestingly, the photos that McDivitt had taken during his sighting were released, but did not show the object he had described, leading him to believe that the photos had been tampered with. There was speculation as to what he might have seen, including the possibility that it was a secret Soviet satellite or debris from the Gemini 4 launch. However, McDivitt denied that he had misidentified debris. James Oberg, a former space engineer and rocket scientist, suggested that McDivitt’s degraded eyesight and different viewing angle at the time of the sighting may have contributed to his misidentification of the object.
Astronauts Tom Stafford and Walter Schirra
In the same year, veteran NASA astronaut Walter “Wally” Schirra and his copilot Thomas Stafford reported a “bogey at 10 o’clock” while engaged in the rendezvous of the Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 spacecraft in December, the first ever manned orbital rendezvous in history. Mission Control initially thought it might be the booster, but the astronauts claimed that the booster was still in sight and that they could see a fast-moving object at that position. They later joked that they had seen Santa Claus.
The Crew of Apollo 11
The most famous and controversial astronaut sighting of a UFO is said to have occurred during Neil Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin’s moon landing in July 1969 on Apollo 11. According to James W. Christophe in his book Fire In the Sky, Armstrong “noticed a solitary glowing light out of the corner of his eye.” Armstrong and fellow astronaut Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin reported the light “remained a couple of minutes, too long for a meteor, too short for a satellite,” leaving them both confused. Although there were no official records of their conversation with Mission Control, later on, unnamed radio enthusiasts with their own VHF receiving apparatus claimed they had evaded NASA’s security monitoring and obtained the true dialogue. Allegedly, some of the transcript was, “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 along the far side of the crater edge. They’re on the Moon watching us!”
Armstrong refused to speak about the incident when confronted about it which gave it added mystery. In 1979, Maurice Chatelain, a former chief of NASA Communications Systems, agreed Armstrong had seen the crafts and that “the encounter was common knowledge in NASA” and astronaut reports like it were commonly made. Scott Carpenter, another astronaut, stated, “at no time, when the astronauts were in space were they unaccompanied; there was a constant surveillance by UFOs.”
Cosmonaut Pavel Popovich
Pavel Popovich, a cosmonaut, had a UFO sighting in 1978 while aboard a flight from Washington to Moscow. As the plane flew at an altitude of 10,500 meters, Popovich, who was sitting by the window, noticed a white, triangular object that was about 1.5 kilometers away and 10 degrees higher than the plane. He immediately alerted the crew, who also observed the object and estimated its side to be about 100 meters. Despite the onboard radar not picking up any indication of the object and it not being registered on the ground, the object was seen moving at a much faster speed than the plane, easily overtaking it and disappearing out of sight within a minute. Despite being experienced professionals, the crew was unable to identify the object. Interestingly, Popovich had attended the international Gagarin Readings conference in Pittsburgh, where other academicians had also reported observing the strange object.
The Tweet From Space Read Around The World
Other astronauts have reported more recent sightings of UFOs, some with more tangible evidence. In 2018, astronaut Scott Kelly, who holds the record for the longest space mission (340 days) in American history, tweeted pictures of a strange object as he looked out from a Blue Origin rocket. Scott’s brother, Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, followed up with a tweet of his own, adding to the conversation with the caption, “Any idea what it could be?”
Final Thoughts
The notion of deep space exploration and contact with unknown beings has long captivated the imagination of humans. With the ever-growing number of puzzling accounts, the possibilities of extraterrestrial life seem more and more apparent. For now, we can only speculate what accounts of UFOs seen by astronauts may mean and whether or not mysterious UFOs are indeed signs of contact with life on other worlds.