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AS T RON AUT S & UFOs

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E. Obrg Jamea Editor Associate "Spee Wortd" magazine


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'h b t" ,,,,.r,. -t'.,i u",t ',re"or,-s J'rc."c', / 1'''r "1 '?,trth ttill bc urcountcred n is inetitdbletut 'rcL' itr-steries oft there 'r*tnt obscrt'ercbelierc, e intelLilcnt yetics lritll Sonreu'here Earth Petlktps technolopical cit'ili:,1tio11\ fur nore adwttctl thdn tltdt of thcy ,ne'scnditry rrs r.rdio siqrr,ls u'c h,u'c rtot recogni:ul I'erhaps ltev lmtt<: lcfi ,rtifacts u7 p*t ui'it' 1;, us to Jinl Perlups tlL.-i e crert ttoL'lteePiq the carth turlcr surtcill,tLcc tf tlky,lrc out t:rcrc, somcthJucoill 1n'\'tt|rc' As illusttdte'lin s':k'tcc litti "t.tl,i "t, r '"trill y'oLablt'"'"riu 1't'c ,ilreu,tyoccwr.\l? Il,tt'edstrotbuts'rtttl cosntotlauts Hdue such ,t"eiitt,qs 'Ilk) U|o litcrLlt tc is full ol talcs of "tpaat aheatl\ seer dien $,dcecrdltl tlF{.|s". ,tte any oJ ihe,, ,,alkl't lrtlut cu,, u,,urcJiL stuc$ rttteul?
mrsslons t o r c o o p e r a l i o n sa . nd space inlo ihis mighi gile me Dewinsights I was nol most puzzlingsericsof cascs. lvero rcsults mY and disappoinld, rtarilinS. The basrc truths behirrd these lately io havegai.hrcd sightingsseems cRaggeranon, ol ,n accleiion conlusion. and oulrighl ficiion The 1968 "Condon Report" on UFOS (c.nduclcd by ihe Unilc6iiY of colorado for lhe U.S. Air Force) lound itself unable to penelratethree specific cases,which lhe aDalvsilcli *ere a "challenge' to anv serious investigator. Siories later began circulaiing about sightings of lunar and ihe surface lights and strucLures, moon, on ihe of artifacis discovcry about near approachesof struciured objects, and aboui aiiempts ai radio and coniact between Apollo capsuLes UFOS. Receni books on UFOS give lists of asironauLsighiingswhich are out of numric sequence.misdated' mispeiled, and other$he dhiorted' My research has levealed a lcw examplesof deiibente photo ibrgenes by UFO buffs or opportunhiic authors Mv investigaiions in i.he NASA

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ardly a UFO book or movie is t'f complol.e withoui the siandard ll assertion ihat "astronauiishale seen Ul'os too". While cdtics may attack the charactcr oi inieuigencoof many UFO wiheses, they caDrroiusc these taciics on Americanand Rusian space can be pilots. WhoreU!'O phoiograpbs accuscd of distorlion and iorgery. phol.ographs laken b) aslronautsand procesed by NASA musl be ol tht highcsl irusiworthiicss. Hence. mGl UFO s.holaF consider the famil]" of aslronaul UFO sightingslo b one ot ihe sftongestbodiesofevidencein the include The best of ihese ca-ses asironaut JamesMcDiliit s sighiing oi ol an "unidonlified spacccrafi" nelr his Gemiri.4 spacecapsuleir 19ii5, a curious phoio of a pair of UFOSrvlth glowing propulsionfields iaker by lhe repo$ of nearby Gemini-? asiroDauis, objecls from X-15 and Mercury space$afi,talcsof how ihe 1968'1969 Apollo moon shots were tollowed bY UFOS on their way to the moon, and reports and photographs of objects seenby crewmenon the Skylab sPace station. Last year, ihe National Inves .1

tigations Commill.ee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) solected the "McDivitt UFO" phoio as one ol i.he four besi UFO Photos eler tahen. Tho "alhonaut UFO" sightings musl appcal io many soridus tof a utrber oi reasons. reseafuhcrs a!r' The wi{rresesand ihe photographs unnnpoachablc as io honesiY arrd s1 l h e a u t b e n t i c i l ! . T h c o n d i l . i o Do { aDd s p a c em i s s i o n s c a n b e c a l . u l a ld recorded. and elery obl.cl near the spac$aft can bp determinedb! con sulling rh gi8nl spae rada6 or lhe Defense North American Air Command (NORAD). headquartered insidechetenne Moun tain in colorado. Extensive crew debrienDgs and on board taperecordertlanscriptshay be available io obtain direct eye With all ihesefactsand assunpiions in mind, and mindful of ihe numerous 'unsolved'cases which might tell much about the UFO phenoneno , I began a special research program inio this pariicular body of evidence-As an aerospacewriter. hisi.orlan, and re' searcher, I feli ihat my crper'ence $'iib asironauiics, computers, Arr

archives has revealed cases wherc UFO rcscarcheBwithheld ceriain informa. tion iieely given thn by NASA ofiicials, information irhich would have clearly explained many cascs which the auihors ivahted ro appe& mysterious.So the time has come to take a ncw look at thh whole phenomenon-lYhat is thc !ruth about ''astronautUFOS"? The il.st step ih any research mighr be with the Condon rcportj rhoughr tly many to harc beDcommissioned as a 'whiiervash'i of the UFO phnoncnoD. UFO nihusiasls are accustomedto hearinghash crticim of almost all aspects ol this siudy, bui my own oblect'ons to ihc ,.astronaut UFO" seclion is from { novet angl. My own .scarcbsuggesis thai the Condon invesligator, iar fronl beiDg the best man lor the job, was clearty u n q u a l i f i e di o e v a l u a i , e ihc diificutt cases.He was not fanriliar rvith rtre teminology of spac-oflighr or rh basicsof orbital night l.rajcck{j.:j,as I aDr. As a resuli, h igDorod possibtc oxplanntions whilc i n c o f r e cy d i m i n a t i n g o t h e r p o s s i b l ca n s w e s . In othef x'ords, far fronr being a coverup, this chapter ot iho Condo r e p o f ! r s s u p c r t i c i a i .I r i s e n i i r e t , lvoftnless As au ndoNemont ol rho u n e x p l a i t r ea dn d u n p x p l a i n a b n le arure o f s e v e r aa l stroraur sighijngs i v h i c hi w i l l d i s c u s sI. c a | p f o l c t h l s n , n r a r k . a b l c a s s e r t i o Dt o r D y i n v ( , s r i g ! t o r scrloLrs e ) r o u g ht o c d l l s i d e ra | t h f e v r d c n c cr .11uch ol \hich has Delrr b e b r o b e e rp u b l i s | f d . Tho Cordon rrport docs gjlr some detarls abou! ihe cnlironmenr ot a s l r o n a us t ightjDgs b,u l . . v e n h e . ed o e s i r o t g o r a r . n o u g h .t l o r e s r r e s n . e d s 10 be put or rhe lisuat and phor{} graphiclinitatioDs ot spaccflight: ihe windows a r ef a rs m a l l e t r h a np o p u l a r t y r o a l i z e d( a b o u t h a l f i h r s i z e o f r h h open magazmeal arnis lensih)j and fof many ycas wr subjeci. to obscurationard smudgingby seepag. or sealant and bv conl.aminarionbv rocket fuel. Ai various p o j n t si n t h e flighi, the spacecrafi. \{as $rrounded by clouds of debris (tcakiDg fuel, dumped ivai.er, chipping paint. fraying i n s u l a t l o n , e j e c i c d e q u i p m e n r .a n d nore)j while ih"" insld-"ot rhe weight ress cabrn rvd usuau] plagucd with floaiing particles ot dusr and dobrls which often pa$ed jn frort of camcras pointing out windoivs. Oiher salc its should havc been lisibtc, slncc few people rcalize thai. on any cleaf night

D.ati ". 'hp. Dpt.tstp!,' .unor, nl s,rtpt soa,. pi,,u,ej, ott phntae'oph, tohc4 b) \45.1 i,, .r,." dr",r /4p tbbtr dnnotn That 6 any Ptcture t4hen b! on ast.anout ot an eorth rcsaurces sotettite is auoilable to onrone uho tlonts to Do\.fot it '1h.rc ore fout tiers of phobs;oih aLailabirit:_ but tu o ore reserN.d lot neusm.n otrL!. The stfucturc is 6 folloa.s: 1 T1". no! Dnputot \Dotr photogtophs tdhen orc htho|rcph.d Iol B . n P r u t . I r , p d ^ t \ t r a L r c n t o o n r o n o a h o a s h sf o . t h e h S c t . r o l d o ? . h 4pL Dhotoerap4s or. addod t. tht.tist e,prJ y?ot aost rotrrA 5d ',IASA Pu\tia tntw.natia4 OUi..s at uoaous ccntei and aL . B rh. 4.ot1q,uort,.n ptints plo{! pha,aEroDlts |)t t,netr neus stnars lal dtsthbutton to thp 4ous dr.t,a. Hu4dh,d, al tl6p photoprophs orr .:E^|.d. ypot. but onlr ,.rtitipd a.u.mea fon T-oiup th.m :@\ 1., tre,.,t A.J a.\Ent.unL?'s ruch as 72H.391,i..., to72 aa t e3g..1l ( nrr4v rnuulorJs u.l ather ph.taenph\ ard d.out?Ss aor b" ot x tprett tu thp nrus npdia ond ..o thprt.r. tilpd ot p"hlii tnfo;nat,"; acturt ptrta tob utde4, uhnlt cu.,. N.4sa obo,r .nf do ot p;l

,B,or -.D. Any .,tt.r uho u onts aopip\ of any photogrcrh tt,trd ih ert it. but it i enti.ety h 6unb1p tur \ASA lo .^oe.t 1 , , ' n t o p o y l o t i l . N p b . b u r c a up h a L o p r o p h , o . ton!,,,h ou o,apt itEhl pl" l.Ctophr 'lills ond 1rd A ao4 bp.t.t.rcd l.o,r Bor, Stud,"s, iu. Da' ,.6. FkdchhutE. M D 207 t n. Thp cast ol;aJ ph"tog,oph o;d;.t;j F spt erct dot|qt. opipcp A4r atos\ .. t, .c4rine ul rfscdrcti A ut otsa.ost moief. ' , a n . t r c q n d p h o t a E " o p l t so 1 a r l r c \ o u t d c . i d e 4 t r . o u l o l l , f - , a r d aro 4.1 .clcas.btc[u, pLbhrct,o" Ua .t,c,ol o , t 4 t 4 t l t E l l t t . d p i c i o l o h o l u g r o p h t ae x p . t i t n e r B , c h , u t d , t t o \ 1 4 t t h ' u o t ) b u t t h t : . i a u o k , d s p c c i a t ! a B ! . d r o n d a ^ - t u , i t , 1 , r Jt.v ttl y'!1,.i l*rlti;,,t:: rpitha ca.c.u..dtd it be p.d6th1,t" r,,, ",,t,t.at n r p h u t e t t t o t u ! o p h o l a g t u p h sl t o h t h c p u b l i . p\rthp.oph.oa t\dtx,,t bro..tt, utti tt-p,.,h..J"., lto4out t,r.,)t.i 4 ond lron. aatnt..,. Si6-t21n7, t",.",t,aDt, t-..\.r\.\ ,i a , / r . . . . . . r t / \ a . p o t f p t t , , t . t o t : , a i t l n" la^r t.t,l ^,tt\Ll,autt\ .tpatr,. -po.. Dh.'1.,. r-r, tt1, \4f.\.,! \t,t, . ,,t.\rn, c,t.!. ..lt ' : d t . t r' t t : , t h M 'tunt\ | '., ith,t t.p,.trd ur totr, rtc4 \\ t.n rtor,pt,..ls/j /.,\ 1r.n,. \L !Jt!\,,n thc :\pt,]h 16 l|i1:ht,. r'it,h th.. tt)stlt r)tl ol 01( :\p.nb pr.\ttt flitht iil,n )i;Lit fil; ts t'ut.t..t p.r Dktlta:,r, n,ith snnibt runtb.^ 1 , t ,t , r h , t , r r J p l t r t . r t . l i i a b ! . l a . 4 . a n o r l n , " d ! r s 1 , . \ ' . t S t , , . D n L u I h t 4 0 r 6s t u J h , t o a . t . o n b " , , b t o t a r d b \ an!un. u hnl t^ Do\ t'.r th t ttdt.a utu, pt d!.. !?.fpl r.lsn I iO ih,n,,s,.ph:; ui,;i h.J ctotm.de b.int ^tddcn lron the -im.ti.an puhh. an d;rC o em_ dt*nt...to ode ot thc no6t .p.n oad .oop?re!i.. pubh nIo,,,;trcn utttc.t ot an\ federcl oAen.\.

an observeron Eartb can soea numbef of orbiiihg objeci,swiih only half an effort. Out ofthis "backgroundnoho',, can rve separate ihe .\ignal,' which will indl.ala the axistencoof UFOS? Thaseproblemsall are ofinterest to space ortlcials, and numerous srudies have ben made_ Fragments mighr rmply a struclural fajlure (a rescue ship wasalDost sent to Skylab-sbecause of ttrc crew\ obsen'aiion of reakingful dfoplets)- Debrh inside i,he cabin crn trrtalc eyesand daaagethe elechonic gear behind ihe instrument panels. Other sateltites might be dangerous due i.o the porentiat of collision or they night be of inteuigence jnterestif they are from son other nation. Thercfore, any nyste.ious space sighl.ingnrighi as easity be vitat for

N A S A i o k n o w a b o u ta s i i m i e h t b e a true UFO. Careful invesiiaai.i;nsare Whai are some of the most famous casesr and what are the facis?Inierprelatrons may diflr, bui produciive l,hlDlingcan only be dore when aUihe utbruation is at hand. Some of ir is hald io find or understand; oihef rnlormatron, avaitabie to some resea.cheN. may have been detiberaiely withheld. Some classical cases may consist of madeup fantasies. You can soonjudgefor youbelt Has ihere beFn anj attempt ro ''cover !p space s i S h h r j grs a( o m m o n prea wnen no cvidence js available, eren in ihis age of sielelike governnenr secrccy)?Are astronauts "muzzled" aboui UFOS?r]as fifieen

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uncovercd spaceflighi yeatsof manned rny evidenceat all which even that Earth is being remotelysuggests bY advanced ob6erved and visited from another$,orld?Lelt spaceships look at the evidence On Juneg, 1965,rookieastronauis Jim McDiviit and Ed Whiie blasted off ftom CapeKennedy(now again into iheir Equezed CapeCanaveral), The two youngest_ Cemini.4capsule. were co ever American spacemen spendfour daysln otbit, tripling the previousUS record.TheYwould be lo the li$t Ame can sprcecrewmen onc in space, havtime io sightsee like a booster major experiments werc and a walk in space rcndezvous

NASA announcedihai the objeci hrd beenidentified, had been mote than a But Pegasus thousand miles away, and McDiviti clearly sav an object much closer' much more deiailed, and in an orbil very close to his own ("lollhion couNe'r io a Piloi means that the relative angle of sighf is unchanging' which would not be the casefo! any McDivilt's orbil) The satellitecrossing objet bcame a UFO when nobgdy could ideniify it. Ii has rcmained a UFO up until iodaY, but noi any Longer. McDivllt'S hasw attempt to tahe a photograph of the obieci through his window was apparcntlyftuif smeared ihe object's motion since less, Approximatelyl.hi Y hou$ into combined with ihe slow stabilization carriedit into the the flight (while Whlie was ssleep), spin of ihe spaceship 30 seconds. he had seen 6n afier aboui ihat gla$ ofihesun McDivittreported cepsule The astronautlaier recountedhow he nearhis space objoctin space wiih "an io be cylindrical weni ihrough all the films ol the flighi Ii appeared (every roll of film is accountd ror on arm slicking out"i Posibly on a NASA Interesled a flight manifest, so lhey do not collision cou$e. officiols in HoustonaskedNORID disappear) and found mary over' werenear exposed or blank. This mission had sateltites which othet space Gemid"4ai the iime of ihe sighting, been the fitst flieht in which space photography wd a major axperimeni' and NORAD cameuP rvith a list of about a dozenobjects.All of thern and the glanng sunlight of spacehad were piecesof tiny debrisor small invalidated many pre_fligbtexposure settings. McDiviti did noi find anvseientific satellitesexcept one: the satellite' ihing which looked like "his UFO"giani, "winged" meteor descrip_ fit the What was it he saw? WhY has it io ti seemed Pegasus-2. so McDilitt, such a prominent UFO case? bY become down Edioed tion

And if ih plciuresdid noi iurn oul' wheredid NICAP get ih "top fouf" photograph (which Ehows'-not. .o bloDlr bui a smeared cylihder, winged questions at last these Wecananswer The firsthini asto the irueideniiiy of this spaceUFO can b found in ai a press McDivitl'sown words,given a week rfier the flight confercnce when his mmory was frcah: "li of a lookeda lot like an upperstage have a booster does Gemini booster". jusi like li, {nd McDiviit had been near il earlvin out mancu!n carrying the flight. WhY didn't ihe lhi from booster NORADincludetha Gemini-4 NOIiAD had been tracking ine objects. but NASA had noi asked andits own associated aboutGemini.4 debrisit had askedabout Cemini'4 and any other srl,er saielliies. Anyone familiar with comPuierized informaiion systems (one of mY professioml ipecialliies) can guess what hsppened:the compuier was given a "query" \i/hich told it to compara Gemini-4 with the other The computerne\'erknew saielliies. wherc the Gemini boosterwasrelauve it hadnot been since to ihe spacecraft, had been visualy McDivitt asked. trackingthe thirty foot long cvlindat at a mngeof otrly 75 milesa few hous earlier,bui this lalge satellitenever made tho "NORAD lht" because

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nobody i.houghl to ask aboui ii.l Tht Whar ivc do kno$i ftonr thc roDrplfli, Gfhinj-.1 rrans.riprs ( i r . l u d i D t ji h . o , D . ! r r l 1 l p . ' 1 l o r d , { !s rvell rs rpr.. |o itourd Ljrk:t. ii lhrt tho Ul0 appe!rrdrr rhf srnif p o i D t i D l h e O e m l D io r b j l s h r r c t h e b o o s t o rl ' ! d b e o n r e p e r i e d h s p o t l e d in rlx. fljgh1.I'lcDi!iu l r a do f . c 0ann,r d e s c r i b e ds e e i n g h l s b o o s t e r v i t h fbh it. FuflhenDorc. sfaps hatrgihg oD at leasl orc occasionon thc iirsl d a y , M c D i ! 1 t th a d a i l i r s { . b e e nu h a b l e to recognizeihe boosl.er whcn he saw 1 t b e c a u s ie t v a s c l o R ,1 . o lhc gLar'of l h e s u n l T h i s h a d b f e r a l a r a n g fo f Yer another imp.riant iacior u n k D o i v nt o t h e C o n d o nr e p . r i w a s l h a t \ 1 . D i | i t l i v a sc o m p l a l n l n t g o the ilight lugeoD about his eleslght d u r i n gt h i sp h d e o l i h e f l i g h l .I l i s e v e s

wor{' f0d aDd ltirlj due io a reachon r v i r h i h e c ^ b h a l r r o s P h f r ( 'a r d a n urnre spilL. I didnl r ! c i d r n r a lm ! s i i i v e goirg nr b. rbL. lo h!ck thirrkI rvNs i 1 . l l ( D i v l l l L a r 0 rh r d n d L . t d L , ) liinh.
I f'(l cx!! r!1)$ [Li i!n]i{L bf{ onrer thr( of a pilo( r Lrh\trrl . t! .!!s c!rchidg sLLhrr)1 !r oblLfl L. parall(,1 orbir. an obliat !hich hf had al!-"ad! inisidcirifird N !.\' hour\ .. L!!es a r l i c r , I s t o t h e p h ( ) t i ) g r a p ha flln of g o a l l l h c m u s t l h r o u g h iigator the ilighl lo realize holv corrrnon such (olerexPosl'r.s. light ol blobs reilections. glare. etc.) lvefe. Bolh N,^S,\ and NlcDiviti hare !grud ihat ih. sequencc of movie llames are a ! i e N o u t .r h r . { i n d o F . s h o i v l ! g s u D i i g h i r . n c c i i D g o f f a b o l l a g a n i s tl h e d L r t ! glass. NIOAP lhliks {indoiv becausc of the back ol its diff(tenil! copJ of ihe pholo is a haDdNrilicn 'l

Doie (Dobodv kDorvn by ivhonr) s i r i . 1 ! gl h n t N ' l . D i ! i r l{ D o b o d ! k . o i v s ivhe!) h!d .onrnrrDlcr||d (Dobody brovr howl th. h.r t]rri rh! picture n'.\ed hir ti|O. ilhis wrs m.de .lrt br r lfl.phone .onresrlion b , r s ( i , r h r x r l l i , t r a n d J a ,k ] \ c u f f o f \ l ( . \ P , ) , U a n ' hi , . r i l l t i . \\'h\ has ths .!se a.hleled such n o t o r j e r ] ? I t p r o b a b l ! r e $ ' l t e df i o m ihe eDthusl|sn of UfO beli!e6. the nailc opfnnc\s ol \ASr\ public r.laliurs ofiicials. and ihc publicii.y. ol $h. of ihr s t c k i D go p p o l l u n i s n r Ift.Di!iii hltnsell did 11i.tl-" ro d-"ar the case up, instead uslng i t a sa t l c h e t o n l o n a i i . D a lT Y t a l k J r o [ l a n d n e N s intervie{s his lespcially alier r e t i r e m e h ti n 1 9 6 9 J . l b ! d d t o t h e nrlstery, the lormer spa.emanassefisl _I hale n*'er been abl-"to idebtilt ii. and I don t think antone evisill.

On a recent .,UFO recoritinq,, releasedby Columbia, called ,.UFOsl The Credibility Facior,', McDjvitt clearly shows how his memorieshave changed or been changedto enhance tne mystery of his expedence:,.Thev (NASA) checked NoRAD. . .to se; what they had up oD tadar and there wasn't anything within very close rangeof Lts." Readers can measure r.he crcdibiljty of tbis statemeni aEainsr the facts. If McDivitt was fooled by his ovn booster ten yoars ago, is it too much to expect him to admit ii nov? What would thai do to atl of hjs public assertionsof mystery? There is an easier way out, and McDivltt took it when I sent him an advancecopy of my manuscript.After keeping ii two months, he wrote back. '.I was nof able io read it very ihorcughly and I canrot offer any extensive comments. I do not forcseethe oppodunity for mo io provlde any further revie1v.,' There weren,i any enors in mv analysis,he ihplied, but ii would b; beiter kept quiet. NASA never had any real doubis. "We beiieveit to be a rocket tank or s p e n ts e c o n d siage ofa locket,,,wrote a higtr spaceofficiat on July 1. 1965. NORAD officiats,confronied with my ,,youl scenaro, endo$ed itr colnmentson the NORAD role relaied rc ine case appear to b logical,,' wrote NORAD pubiic Infor;arion O f f i c e r D . W . K i n d s c h io n F b . 2 3 . 1976. So the "McDiviii case" is closed. The bestspaceUFO casehss now been identified. Do not expect to see any change in the UFO pres!, however. Such resultr are simpty ignored. rhotographs made in space shov negative effects,such as ihe .,McDivjrt UFO" aura,. often. Spacecnft and astronauts may be engu)fed in a s*ange aula caused by ovelexposure to sunlight bdghter than everseenon Eath. Blowups of phoioglaphs of known spac objects show rb.h appeal'ng as "blobs" due to the enlargement process anit io the courseness ot the grain. ordinary space prcturs are full of ctouds of debris, constellations of man-made starlike points fluttering through space. . The Condon report was fascinated wiih the McDiviti case,and few UFO enthusiastshave noi hedd of it. But neither ihe Condon.esearche8 nor the averagereader had ever had all the facts. Now peopte can make up their

own minds. I have no iloubt that McDvjtt was seeing his own Titan Dr. Roach w?s also fascinated vith anoiher McDivitt sighting, that of a point of light crossingthe sky. The oblect sounded just like the apPearance ot an aJiificial earth satellite, and thar is exacfly what McDivitt thought it vas. There is Do intormation to suggest ii was anythi.s elsc. Another Condon favorite is a Gemini-7case.The report of sighiings ot a cloud of debris right at the moment of booster separation(these particlesincluded frozen fuei droDleis. the booster ihelf, assorred insu[rio; and structural ftagmenis from where the explosive bolrs were fired, and other smaller objecis never idenrified and never cared aboui) h not verv ihpressive. The crer,,, on iheir firsi spare rnission.!!w a few pieces they nad not expected (the piloi guessed_ wrongynhat ihey ,,were in Dolar orblt'). Onty a pafiisan diggin; for ev'dence.and desperateio f:nd such evidence, would make huch of this But a sign of desperailon is indeed

found in conn{tion with the Cemini /^ut(J case. It js not the desperation or govemmentofficiatstrlinr to cover up rhe truth about UFOS. Rather,it is rnc desperaiion of some outsider rry'n8 to manufadure counrerfert --asrionaut UFO.' evideuce, an activrtv vrw evrdcnce qere as petsuarry ae sm a n y t h i n k . It involves a photograph showine rwo very shange glowing objech. Each Is nexagonatin shape. viewed at an angle. and supported by a dazzljna -'lorce Uetd. below rt. A cloud: covered earth rs seen in the , This phoro$aph has appearcd in . Dooks, magazines, hewspape$. and pamphleh. It js part of the hflveltins

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eNe\rnere.I have heard it described as _showihga rypical UFO force fietd propulsion and .!jmilar to ^system!'! vuref u!u photogaph kken oh larln le sameyear. , The.-pioioS:aph is a forgery. It is a , noax, what the anonymous counter. terrer did (I have reason to suspct a

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New Jersey UFO group) was take an ordinary photographof Earth made tuom the Cemint-? spaceship on December4, 19tj5. Ihe nose of the spaccrafi. filh lh lo\rer palt ot ihe l | a m e , a n d o n t h c n o s e .c a i c h i n g ihe glare ol ihe sun, is a pair of roll .ontlol rocket thrusiF usedio adiust the aititude and spiD rate of the (imini. The original ph.ro TNASA 5 6 5 . 6 3 ? 2 2 .w h i c h I h a l c p e B o r a l l y

etamined) was then retouchedby the unscrupulous hoaxler to elin1iDar-a thc edge of ihe nosc from view, so the dark surfaceol ihe spaceship merged ihto the dark Earfh beneath.This ttt lhe two now bysterious lights scemingly suspendedin space, as jr lvero. A normal spaco rourisi photo was turned irto convincing UFO cvidence. and ihousands of people

Amencan spacemen are not the only ones rcporting UFOS,according to ihe popular press. Si.ries thai allegedly com from Moscow Lel aboui UFOS lollowing Soviei manned space.raftiI 1.he vosrok and vosl<hod seriesten yeas ago. Bur such secrecy sunounds the !tirc Soviet space eftort ihat thcse stories cannot be Tha! vry secfecy. howver,is irsctf 11

\'lanned Spac-"cralt CeDtrl near a lolverfui arguNent against the Houston. UndcFlood is an erperi !a1idit1 ol ihe iumo$ so manl \!no nas space enccd phoioinldprld aboul the Soviti ordinar,! LhiDgs pnson singlc ererr Photograph (and Lolg examined program are secrcl cven brought back lfoD ofbii and belond, terms aNait anyorl sho can il thal and his incredible ironor! datal such dilulges accidorialL! pholograph, old ideni.if! ^ decadf is jncredible that so sensil'irand s'g go u l d describe thc siiLlalio!. and lind lh' n i l l c a n ia l a c i a sr U F O s i g b ( i Dc Fithin h a d a t h i n g i,riheoid re.otdbooks s u c h ciial.ion i l ler leakoui, elen phologra' i l r i s o f l i c e , ) f T h e u l D l t e s . haPPned reallY 'Iho r!|l0s of evidencf luve Dten nreilj. engin.ti is tuIl ol liackld iiln U I O b ! c a n si.i g h l l a b l e s\.f o r l d r n d l o c a lt n a p s , sireiched and broko! - prolc i.o rne lo up rnd pils oi letter! lrortr .\'a'"r.roDauis Dot lt i! parihans. sl i k f . nrlef looK pracc a n d o d i r a r y c i l i z e r ra ihai then 'qishtiugs I t a sh c l i P n a f l L f o s l L i r d l n ' o o d N o b o d yh $ a s v e t n c D a n ! ' r i d | ( e 'nrfi oi fJLt arslvercd ncter lhat lrilh r 5lrjilu: I',ve r p a r t l r o m J \ n r PI s f r i q ll that L i I r i i 0 s 1 d \ r f o u n d a l I t h i r g P i . t L r r .s r / r J \ L L n 8 \ l l c c r ' t h , lhJr A k i n d or r r I n r and ptrzzled iDofor loDg. ' Dcn rr r d c D c$ b f h a p p ! i o c o D s i d ce n ' r r rbll \ f o u k l b f I i disappoiDted a!ailab1e. becoDres erami ' mor( ot lncsf lri\ exciiirg io fiDdfvidetcf lor lrnotrl ' ! , o s m o n a u lL l E O s " .I r l j l r o s ' t ' ' ' rlsr'\ spa(slri!: \!hrf I l'(l \rilds ')l5A .orfruP' (luitoirr, Ul"O rhc hint br()adlx vb(ri a ll.11irrl The It'rn aD or "sFr. ad Dour (rsoahif . ther rre 01lpcusit qLl1)rc maqazinc .$.iiial1r crllit! 1)lck Undcn!ood obiocl scen bY holh Vosl'ok5 and aril his ()llr,agtfs a pu.k ol lLrrs voslok.6. N ll4t ol diskslrn lrv 'lirrDre 'vli|drrs rD a n d I)isl(trlroD ritd withl!tditg of lhc voskhod'1. foln'd p'rlir!lh l,) lliddivood'$ ivfrc a s irangrr i s n o l lvhi.h l r u l h sPac. rn.l had no rPorlurrs' \(ur Dr (n'mrrra v o \ k h o d . l . V o r l i h o d2 . d n r l blau'd b ' r I e v r n h r v f r\n.:). iltros (r )l llrf V()skl!(nl2 f.r th. trraliuri.lior run)pil01. As I hrvr sri(|. llrfi' ''rrporls r! lrrLrrll (. r r ' l Q f .\ ( l r r r f
b . l r r n r ( n ' r a s i l l r i l L r r l i ! ( ! r 1 1 1L r r j j Sun'l\ (,ri.,'l thf in.sL!lntL'iLLi 51{tlfs r n d g h o u L i n r " s 1 ) i r r L : 1O d c a h r v i l l , l h f S r , ) _ ! 71 l i l r g h i . ' n l whi.lr ih. .ftsn,fD Pcnsh!d duritg ihoir fuiLrnrlo Eafur' tlllo ll||raiurc ^ fi(uLriit'g has lecontly bf.D ''lrans.!ipl" betwe.D lhf cosmrtrarrs l'ht crcwncD !Dd gn Dd .orlrol. dcscribe se!efrl glorvjirgrod i)bjerts llilhr wiih {hrm di{us rnd !njoDe ianiliu \filh ll'pr.NL g r r D r d c o r n n u n r ( d l r o n s ,l I i r space.to '1rarlscript" is paiertly t!url.fr0'i i'nagi'rar'oD viuid Soheon.'s emboldcDed by th knowledgf ilul ihe meD wctc dead and could nol arguc. murl have creal.1 the enrrre W i t h o u i f u r t h c r e l i d c n c e .i h c e n t u . cla$ of "cosmonaut tlFos" musi be Deliberatc aitempl.s t') rejclfd. ''rDuddy 1.o abd waieN" lhe nanufaci,urc hntasies ar. commot in ihis UFO gennr. as nr oures inlestigaiing In Pholographrc Uf0 sightjngs b! evldence of A m e r i c a n a s i r o n a u i s .I { o r k e d c l o s e \ {ilh Ri.hard Lind.nvood at thf \.^SA ihe Johnson Spac! CeDrer llor$dl) 'L'o

offlce. howevcr. trlhn a IjFO rescarchernamcd AIan Stndler ilas \lorting on a book and a molie l r . s e n l a n d F u i . u r ! " ,i o ("UFos: Past. bc adlertised a! a "docLlmeniary"l he lisited Undenvoods ofiicc and lookd l.hroughdozdE ol rolls ol lilm, wdiing clown ordcs id prlnts.f an,v{h1'19 thar looked intere.ting. I his i'' a siandards({!ice provided b,vNAS,\ to Sandle( r h o s ea s c i o l P h o l o g r a p h s lor lris mo!i. Pholographs \!hich onh hln Probablr Undc$oodadlised droNd dusl particlesin frrDt oi l.he o u l s i d 0t h c s p a c e c u l t . . a m c r a .. i e b r i s or glar, of the x'ind,rws(urrs\as ras,v e n o u g hi o p r o l r b I l . o k i ' l 9 r l p . r h ' r c s aheadof dDd b.hind thf sh()lsur q u c s l i o D ) . T $ o p h o l r ) g r a p h sl v e r e particularh'rP!'1ig r. Thel both sM$rd a hlrcli back o j l i c l t l si n l l ! ' grornd wi{h r slrirre of ih. !l)olo!rapl)lr lhf b(Dli nriddle i{ilh ihf srDn' rllhouglr \Lrill.rr bv rr.i,hd !ullior. n ( n r . r l l i m ! n f t ! . r l r h r l w r ) s h o l sn n

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a Russian cosmic lay labomtory catled Proion-3. According to Air Force computeF, it vould have crossed Gemini's orbii severarhundred miles behind tle spaecraft. Yet rhis objecr sas in a different direction and ws muctr too dce. It iras a UFOI Despib tnese objecuons, NORAD was right tor &e rrong reslons. The obJect vrs inded hotor-3, even though the Aeriar lheromenon Research OBanization (A?ROI and ils researchdirec|or, Dr. JamesHardet ha.s nade nuch of ihe discrepancyand consideE this the besr cemini UFO Few researcheF have noticed, and none had recognizedthe significance of the fact, that the Proton-3 satellire was only hours away flom buning up in thc atmosphere. A! its orbit decayed toward a fiery doom, it circled Earth fasterand faster,running ahead of the schedule predicred by NORAD. lhe simple tluth, ottn ignored or diltorld by mrny nrilers, is ihat NORAD doesnoa "tract verythingin space" like lhe radlr scren! of some air iraffic conEot cenier. Instead, objecis which passthrough the bans of a hancltul of woddwtde radar sites (at a rangof a thousandmllesor less) are obsrved and caialogued, and their orbits are calculated. Thse caicula. tions are then projecied forward in time (the mathematical tetm is ,,extts. polated") to ploi where the spacecraft should bo if ilr orbii hasn,i been dlanged. Gemini'! orbit had beenchangd by a rendezvousrocket fidng. protont orbii wa! changed by its decay. I ordered nicrofllm copies of the last few NORAD pred:ciions froh the TrackingReportsSectjonat the NASA Goddard Space Center in creenbeli. Maryland, and assoon as I read then I The predictionswere off by several huhdred miles par dayl Each new projection made a correction ro ihe pfevjous one. Using a combinahon of thesetigures,a new altiiude diffelence between Gemini and Proton could easily be computed. It was entirely close enough to coincide with the asironauts' sighting. Furthermore, the asironaurs haal made a dsual aswell as a phorographic record. Their eyewitnes testjmony describesa satellite that look like Proton-3 looked, as shown bv exhibits in Russian nruseums: a siubbt cylinder

"Said t6 bs rans n9

reproduced wiih the captionr .,Shot during Gemini XtI on November 13, 1 9 6 6 , s n d s a i d t o b e A s e n aR a n g i n g r,rghts prior to docking.,. The erroneous imptication of thesetwkied words is thai ihis ir another NASA excuse for sohe remarkable UFO phoiogaphs. Satd to be langjnglights, indeed,sneers the bookt "Thqt'! e*actly what they were!,' Underwoodtold me plaintively.,,They are part of the complete sequonce of twenty photoguphs showjng the Agena as it noves from the sunlii side of Earth inro the shadow". As Uhderwood and I stood in.ttle photo laboratory insidebuildingNo. 8 at ihe historic Housron spacecenier, ine sequencewas right there in fronr of our eyes on rhe glowing viewing board. How did the "UFO tesearchpr" ieact io this explahation, I asked.

He continued io explain: ,,I tootr he whole sequence with me to Hollywood along with other filrns which NASA was providing.I showed the sequenceio Sandler. He wasn,t intefested. Unfortunately he vreni ahead .nd used the photographs anyway". Thousandr mo$ people The ilighi of Gemini-11 began a long battle beiweenastronautCharles "Pete" Connd and UFO beliele$. The asrlonautshad take! ihlee even more remarLable photographs. {.Pete', Conrad had sponed a moving object outside his window and had snapped oft a few franes of fitm, varying the exposureon each shot in an atiempl to gef at least one good view which rvouldshow something. Por a requestfrom NASA, NORAD soon reporled thai rhe object had been

13

with four large triangularcanted solar panels.(Conradcomparedihe sight to the silap-on boostrs ol a Tiian 3 rocket.) Even ihe photographsshow this when sLudiedwith real Proton-3 photographs closeai hand. Astronaui Conrad and the UFO people clashed again over his next space missio!, Apollo-12. Accord'ng Dirctor of APRO, Dr. io the Research Hader, Conrad rcported that he was being followed by a UFO on th way to the moon. Oonradclaimsthal it rvas jusi a joke aboui thlargepanels wbich enclose the lunar bodule during launch bui, are jel.thohcd later in lhe flight and whiah iumble through space a few mils from th Apollo all ihe way to ihe moon. Harder says thai Conrad, undcr prcssuretuom a sccrct government agencytis lying. Thes ar Conrad's wordsl "They'vc boen after me tor years because wc werc lollowed by a UFO on the way i.o the moon. 'lhai, of course,wasuntrue. The guy who came up with ii was going by our transcript where we salv debrh from our own rocket and we were joking with the ground crew about it. He took this oui of conlxt. . .I called the ground and said, 'hey, gang,we're beiig follo$'ed, ihr'ssomeflashingobject ouNihe!'. S o m o s c a n d a ls h e c t t o o k i h a t a n d
F.asmsnr n rocli at rnso ol 3 t o 5 r s 6 i - s r n d r o r c a r r st "!nidsniifiatr0", a.d Meran

mado a hellu!.asiory our of it. Bui it was nothing liko anyihing I ivas connecied with". Conud has left NASA and livcsin Denver,presumably beyond ihe reach of any NASA censors.He descrjbes a phenomenon common to all Apollo moon flighrsj the ciaih that he law a UfO is also common, but hardiy asvalid. Conradconfirmed theseqlroiations in a leti,erto me datedApril 12, 19?6. "I hope your paperis widely printed," he added. Referringto Earder\ claim oI coverup,Couad could only sayr "I ihink you havc more than your share

( a r o w ) a n d o x r r o m oc n a r s o m e n i 01 imsqe UFO maeazines

Leit take a momeni io look ai.iha Apollo-12 ilight more careiuliy. It probably raies as one of the mosi. flighis evermade. "U!'O'ridden" space and probably did more than any Apollo mjsio! io encourage the of UFOS. sto es of asironautsightings Wha! lies behindall thesstories?Who started them'l What is the "official" NASAposiiion? Apollo.12 was launched on N o v c m b e r1 4 , 1 9 6 9 , o n t h c s e c o n d moon landing nlssio!. The crerv consistcd of Gcminill lcterans " l c t . " C o n t a da n d R i c h a r dG o r d o n , and spacc Krckie Alan Bean (Conrad

had also flown into space on Gemini 5.) Taking olt during a thund.rstorm, iho crafl wrs lwice hii by lighining which threatened i.o Instead, ihe flighl proceedcd su.c$fully to the filst pinpoini tnoor landing four days latr. Ashonauis Conmd and Bean new their Luhar Nlodul in to a precision iorchdoivh near the Surleyor 3 au|omaiic 'noon pfobe. During a scheduled moon walk. ihe men Etrieved samplestuom the roboi crafi. The relurn on Daith was "rouiine", if fllghts to the moon can everbe consider-ad rouiine-

O h t h e o u t b o u n dl g , C o n r a dh a d mdio-Ad i.o Earih thal. th Apollo lvas "being fouoved". Thk hossage, irahs. t l i t t e d o v e f t h e o p e nr a d i o l i n k j w a s hcad by hundrodsof newsmon and by millions of Americans.li lmlnediately gaverisr io nw UFO stori-as. According to l,hc rccount best thown to UFO believers (publishedin Sdgo magazine, May 19?0, cDrltled "Apollo 12's MysternnN hrcourter rvirh Flying Saucds". wfiflcn by T.c. Ucckleyard H. Salkin),the asirohauts rvatchedtlvo flashinglighi.snear ihcir Com'nald Modul aboui. 150,000 miles out from Earth. At firsf. ihe 15

a p o i r o - 1 1u F o , 1 e 6 e .o b j c t

of obvious !pacecrafl insutation

ground thought it was their SIV-B booster roclet but quicklycalculated thai it wouldhavebeenin a different diteciion. Next, they suggested that tbe lighis could havebeenpieces of the Lunar Module "garage",called which are quite larye "SLA Panels", and highly reflectivd. Conrad, so ihe UFO siory goes,lemarkedihai ihis was unlikely slncone of them hed suddenly tekenoff at a highveloclty, someihlng fhat a piee of space debris simply could noi do. Finally, th

astronautsdecided to ignore the "estronaui UFO sightings".Besides apparently haimlessescort and carry ihe three astronauts,millions of on with their mtssion. Ameucans saw the TV imags and In lunrr o$it, new (or peftapsihe heard the voices of the crewmen sane) UFOS doggedthe spacemen. wondering what the objectrcouldbe. During the descent to the lunar They were obviously unideniifled, surface, millionsof television watchers they {,ere flying in space, and they on Earih saw bright objects crossing wereobjects ofsomesort.Hence, they ihe lield of view of the Apollo TV wer uro6. cameras. Simlld objects were saen Th "FawcettList" of space UFOg rtaid a UFO dudngihe launchfrom the rnoonand Eays that the asironauts during ihe final approach lo Earth. accomprniedthem all the way to Here. then, is a major casefor wiihln 132,000 milesof the moon,

6 3 . S m e a G . n d s a r a sc h a n q e r t " u f o n a u l r , ( 1 9 ? 6 ) a s i q n s o b j e c rr o J o h n c e n n t f i i s h r , i

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prc.edrrg drem all the {!\ " The ongL! of thal nrileage ljgureh obsc!re. bur ii lends uDnaranied authenticit! Obsonalorl.s in Eui)pc llso \ r a r c l k d L h r | 1 r o U F O S ,o l l ' e f d N r c s ( i . a l . E ' n b r l L i s h i l gr h . s t o r ! . a n o t h e r UFO lource .lains ihat Ne\i da), th. 15ih. at 21 1; hous. one bright

r!!ol!irg I'ghi appfoa.hed dre Ap,,Llo 12 tpacecraft. la{.elt. nol 1{) bf ouidoD.. xLo cL:rih! ihat the lre Ul0 (or aslronautp s h o t o g r a p h erd LlF 0s). Ore of tbe louden proponent\ of ihe Apollo 12 LilO is APftt) r'(,n,arch d i r c l t o r D r . J r m e sH l r d ( ' . , \ i a L F O sj n,p,)siu'n !r lh( UrLr.sill ol

( r r l i l o r n h! t S a r i r a (iuz o! ^"oreDrb0l clainred thai otrf Ir-Fo 8. 19i5, Hardcr ''lollo\rfd ,\pollo 12 on lhrcf orbiis a!)u.d lhe moon' Fu'1hfr. N-\S-{ \ u p p r e s e dr h r U F O i n . i d e r i s i o r I r l r ot prnic', bur Harderwas able n) rt lvas bc.ause dis.ov.rrhe sightincs dinl,)sfd bt a rneDbfr ol rhe sPace t e d n ' i h o h e r e i L s e dl o i d l l r i i l r . l7

Since all the material }larder used to "prove" the cxistenceof lhe incidents rverepublic information (Hrrder could have read it in Sdga,which is hardly a top secret govemment leport)i his relerence io a coveNp rnd to secret inside infornation vere cleady oniy gimmicks to impressthe news media with ihe value of his "information". NASA, meanwhile, says that no such UFO even! iook place.The lights, accor.ling to Dale Mye$ (Associaie Administuior for Manned Space Fligh[; quoted in a letter datad Feb. 5, 1973 to Mr. Donald Raischof APRO), were spacecraftftagmentsr"During all of our Apoilo lunar missions,objecrs have bcen sighted by the various crows. Subsoquent io the crew sightings, thc flight conrrolters dtermincd the observations were probably ciiher the SJVB booster,the spacecnfi lunar adapter (SLA) panels, or smaller objech such as mylar foil particlec. Becauscof thejl large size and highly reflecill]e surfaces, the S.M and SLA panek should be vhible al $eat dhtancesin l.he space Ashonaut Conrad, as qLroied earlier, claimedthal ihe flashinglighis were obviouslySLA panelsbui tbat he was joking wiih lhe ground. ite denouncod the Saga slory cxpli.itly and gavehh opinrctriha! Hardcr wasa "kook". Ashomut Cordon has publicly slaied ihat he hasneverseena UFO on any spaceilight. Alar Bean, t h r o n l y o n e o f t h c i h r e es i i l l o n a c i i v e N^SA duiy, issueda sraiemcnt soon attef Hardcfs latest charges went oui, over the news hedia late in 19?5, In a UPI dispatch: "Asl,ronaui Alan Bean.. .said thar at no time duling hh mission did he evef see an unidoniifid objeci. Baan said thal {here were some moiallic parts which floak'd behind rheir space. craft aficr the Apollo-12lunar modute litted off liom the moon. He said these small piec$ were visible uniil ihcy (the astronauis)madc an eogine burn. The hetallic objects were parts of th{} insulai,ionwhich came off rhe lunar module durjng the launch phase and Iunar orbital phasc. ,AL no time did we sce anything which was nor of our spacccraft, oither during lunar orbit or during the loyage to and from the moon, Beanstated.'. 'fo Hrrder and his ,,NASA coverup j ihese sialenents are jusi, more lies designed io corfusc the A m e r i c a np u b l i c .S o l e t t g o b a c k r o t8

the fiey Apollo-l2 Ul-O encounierand its posiiion at a "higb rate of speed,', jusl, who is coDfused. an impossibility,unless try to ctetermine it really was a Late on Novenbr 15th, 1969, maneureEblespacecmftof some sort. about 150,000 statute miles from Bul where does one find a Earth, the Apouo crew was talking to naneuverable spacecrafi nearly capsule communicator altronaut 150,000 miles fron Irhe eaih? The Gemld CarI about some lights they answen (exceptingApollo 12 itseu) in were wal,ching oui their window. Novemberof 1969 there \r.eren'rany. Apollo: The object is very bdght The conclusion is inescapable:One and it is obliously somethingihai is (possibly iwo) naneuvenbte tumbling. It is tumbling (at) one and spacecrafi rol of man-made origin on halr rev(olution)sper scond!or ai were tbllowing our Apollo 12 on iedt it is flashingat us (at) abour rhar N o l e m b e r1 4 a n d 1 5 , 1 9 6 9 . , , To anyone familiar with the flight CAPCOM: Roger. We plan of an Apollo moon flight, C o n r a d \ $ o r d s i m p l ) n o t h i n go f t h e 0APCOM: (Apollo) 1 2 , ( t h i s i s ) s o r i . T $ o i a c t \ m u s t b e b r o u g h lt .o mind. First, Apollo and [he Capcom Apollor Go ahead. were discussing the presentpositjon of CAPCOM: As best we can tell, ihe SLA panelsbascdupon thcir initial looking ai things down here! on those seprration lelocities trom the spnt SLA panels, we assumethey weren,i S.IVB rockei stage.Second,rhe SLA imparfed wiih any great amount of panelsbreakfree after ihe Apo o puUs delia.V (velociiy change)-like off from lhe boosterj ihe ashonauts anything mor than one or so feet per then pedorln a maneuvercalted the second when they separaied "turharound" the Cohmand Module (thiriv.ihree hou6 ago). Your SLA reiurns lo the boosier to dock wiih paneh would probably be only about the Dow exposed Lunar Module, 3 0 0 ( n a u t i c a l ) h i l e s ( 3 4 5 s i a i u r before pulljng the LM freo from iir miles) away fron you right now. "garage". 'k*** The fouowing reply by Siriking the UFOIogisi,spunctuaConrad has been claimd by UFO tion and clarifying words from the boliovers lo indicate thai the lighh c o m m u n i c a i i o n !a n d p u t i i n g i i i n (lhc so'called "SLA panels") hale proper perspcctive,whai conrad was suddenly pulled away from lhe Apollo, something that a rDmbling Apollo: That could be true (ihai piece ot debris could noi do, To the SLA panelswere lying off ar one clarify ihe meaning, punctuationand a or so feef per secord), but, gee whizr few exila parenthetical wo4ls have when I turned alound (righr aft0r they beenaddedby the UFOjogists: flew frcc, thirty-three hou$ ago) I saw Apollo: Thai,could be true, but 6ee ohe of ihos SLA panels leaving the whiz, wher I (jusi) iurnad around I area (of tho LM ,,garag,') ar a high saw one ol those"SLA panels,'lcaving raie o{ speed,and ii looked to m thai ihe areaat d high rate ofspaed, aDdit it was leaving us pretiy.. .at a prrty looked to lne like it was lcaving us rapid clip, like ii, gor a loi more rhana prcity (faso-at a preii.y rapid clip, foot par secondor so. liLe ii got a lot more than a fooi pcr The UFO betioveN'rrdsoning-and th enlire basis for Hardefs and for CAPCOM: Well. since ve don'i the Saga a(iclet Apotlo-12 UFO really haveany ided hov they lefi. or sighting-is phony. 'l'he mosi genercus whal their traje.lory could be, tk descriptionof it would bc a mistake,a kind of tougb really to say just whai misreading of thc transcriprk mcaning ihe heck that could be_ m a n a t r e m p tt o . . p r o ! e , , a U F O Apollo: Okay. We'll assunreiL\ incidcnt that never roatly happened tuiendlyanyway, OK? outside of the feriilc imaginaiionsol The UFO rcasonirg. as worded by certain UFO believeB. Conrad\ APRO member Brad Spatks, goesas statemeni,Gordont siatement!Bea!,s Iouows: "After the SLA panels statement,aDd the NASA lefter musL sepamtedard the S.IVB'Sianks were stand validaiedon ihis case:Apolo_12 empiiod (on Nov. 14) they could nor was noi tbllowed by a UFO on fts change their velocity simply because lhey had no fonl of propulsion ro do But how aboui on ihe way bact? ''A lighl so. Bui Conrad saw one of the ..SLA of ind'stinct shape,'was panels" (on Nov. 75fir)suddenlyleave spotid just prior to re entry.

i[}ral

.-

f1

heserwo UFOs wr

according to UFO sources. Soga reports fhat '!...ai 11:47 a.m. on Novcmbet 241ih, tbe spokesman for Apollo 12 repoded in a siadled voice ths! they were all watching a brighi rad objcct nashing bfilliantly against the eafth." This incident wascaretully analyzedby il|ad Sparks of APRO (l am indebfed to hh leiter to Sago of August 28, 19?0, a lctter Sagddilor never botherad io answer), who objecis ihai "the astronautsdid noi report that the objeci thay vcre seeing was rad; and l,hcy slated spcifically t h a t ' i t t a s i e a d yl i g h i ' , n o l ,f l a s h i n g . " It wassnbetweenthem and tbc dark earth, somewhere off the coasi, of lndia by a guess of i,h crevmen. Prhaps it was a ship's searchlighf, perhaps a fire, perhaps a v'olent lighining storn. . .iherc is no rcasonto suspect that it was a craf! in spacc. The astronauis lost sighi of iho lighi as they t'1med the Apollo to iakc a selies of photographs of the sunrhe. The rvild faniasiespinted in Sagd do not end hre. Beckley and Saltin claim that the astronauts had been '\iarilod by unaccouniable sehmic dhturbancos on the luDar suface." This eveni neveroccurrcdj there were no such earLhquakes duing their visii. Beckley and Salkin refer io "a mysteriousblue halo encirclingone of our spacemen." spaYks of APRo considersthis to have bean lunar dust kicked up while the crewmen werc walking around. Photo analyst Dick Undervood sLrggested that it is a defect in the developmcni of th phoio causedby the vivid solar glare off of a highly reflective su acei UndeNood quickly located half a dozen similar "haloes" oh other space 20

phoios taken duing the 1960s. Whateverit was, this "halo" appeared only in th phoio, and was neither seen nor remarked on by the Houston radio commentaior and U!'O enthusiastFrank Haley has his own iheory about why the Apollo-l2 TV cameradid not work on the moon (NASA saysBeanaccidentally pointed it ioward th sun). Says Haley, "The camera was inieniionally shui off io avoid showingsomefhingon the moon ihai disiurbod lhc asironauls" ("llaley's Comment" nelvsleiter,Mar. 2 2 , 1 9 ? 6 ) .I i i s o n l y a m a l i c r o f i i m e before ihh nonsense h absorbedinto the lole of ihe "Apollo.12 UFOS". But lpollo 12 did see some unideniifi0d flying objecl,s, and NASA engineers wele justifiably concerned that they could hav beendebft from important spaccrafi,sysiems which might indicate unexpectdfailures,or which might interfere wiih other spacecrafi equipment. Honce, the Manred Spacocuft Center in Housion (now the JohnsonSpaceCeniar) gave a contract io Lockheed to study ihe objectsseenon ihe TV pi.tures and on Th. Lockheed rcport was quietly issuedon March 18, 1970, about the sameiime that iho sensai,ionalized and ficiionalized Sagd siory was being p ntad. Titled "Unidentified Visual Phenomena Associaied with Space Flight" (NASA Contra.t NAS 9-5191, L E C / H A S D N o . 6 ? 1 - 8 0 . 0 1 3 ) ,t h e repo$ docunents the "moon pigeonJ' (a l.erln"coined by NASA engineeN io describe unexpected objecis seen in operational phoiogaphy lhalr defy posilile 'dentincation") of Apollo 12.

Contraet engineeF wele F.D. Beaity and J.C- Baron. "Unidentified lisual phenomena associated with space flight were rather common operaiionally," reveal the authors," but. - . "little or no documentationot p6t elents hasbeen made." Before UFO believe$jurnp up and down with contirmation of a whole naw family of "ashonaul sightings of UFOS", the autho$ intention of their denonstrating that "such eventswerc spacecnft debris asociated with an earlierpyrotechnicalopetation, or ice, or windov refleciions. Cases for each of these theorieshave loen prerented and exhibiis of similaroc included. Positive identification was not possible... The quality of the imagery precludesa precisedefinition o f N h eo b j e c t u n d e r q u e s i i o n . . . I n general, it tales much more information to ideniify an object that it doesio detect it." Sixteen millimeier color magazine 1165M, exposedon Apollo.12, shows ihree objects, called "A", "B", and "C". The objects lippearedduring the LM jeltison maneuverin lunar orbii. "A" is believedto be e small segmeni of the docking channcl; "8" was idenl,ifiedby engineers as a poriion of the docking ring, possibly ihe fiberglass sealt "C" was probably part of the eleciricalhamess. All werenear the spacecraft and werc tumbling. From this and othe! examinations, Beatty and Baron concluded that 'lmosl '!moon pigeons' have as theil rowce a plogrammed pyrotechnic event and are ihe normal dbris associated with suchan incideni. They ar often spectacular. , . Tbe main thing to be learnedfrom this study is that ihe eveni (in question)was,in au probability, a normal resuli ofrouiine spacecnft operaiions.. . These daia wiU undoubiably be of use to the engineering, scieniific, and public relations communities." The closing referenceclea y indicatesthat Beatty and Baron weF awareof ihe "Apollo_ 12 UFOS" controve6y and telt ihai their siudy would be useiul in demolishing any UFO buffs' wild Unfortunaiely,ihe "moon pigeons" repolt seemsio have been iiled away Baron,who siiU in the NASA archives. works at the Johnson Space Center, iold me eady i. 19?6 that he never got any fedbackon his reporti elen though ii was fun doing it ard it had

Trrs photowas.snappa.t ontymomenrs ertetAtdtrn's oth.,tapotto 11 shot. Hercthe two uFos nave begun thahsepantion enda heto-lthl totce tieu betweei the twi i-s;;"rj;J;;r'., ,
pretty obvious implications for UFO reports. NASA apparenily decided to lei the UFO rvdieB spread their rumou, hoping thai the storieswould fade away ifignored. Whai had happened,ihough, was a new shot in the arm for "astlonaut UFO cases". The explarations could nevercai.chup with the misinterpretaiions and wrong imple$ions elgendercd by the o!.rheard conve^atiohsahd viewed imagesfrom Apollo 12- Milliohs of Americans were practically eyewitnesses to a "space UFO". and were suitably impressedWhen presenied with the Soad siory and wiih APRot (and MUFON,S) accounl or the "nahouverirg alien spacecrafi at 150,000 miles fron larth", the arelagecitizon could only assume that ii mighr indeedbe irue. lf NASA was denying ii. welt ihen, i.he governmenihas bcen known to lie to It is a lain hope to inagine ihai. the truth will ever catch up to ihe Apotlo12 and oiher UFOS.A9 detailedhere, the Apouol2 UFO never existed. Somehow, millions of peoplc believc that it did. Therc is sufficienr blame

" E x c i u s i v eN A S A P h o t o { , a n d N A s a

r h e m o o n ( a d . i n t u r n a d l h e c a m s r ao n b v accidentwhiecheck ns equ pmenr,)

27

for this del sion to be generously ilistributed to UFO buffs, NASA pubLic affairs office6, sensationseekingne\s medja, and lazv readen. And the "asironaui UFO" genreis noi ]et complete Let\ return to some Another examPle of seleciive omhsion of facis occu$ in th

( (

22

Anoin.r vlM ol S.ndl.r'rAl.n. r.ntlne llehs on Omlnl12,

i NAaAphoro(rrchr) sL3nla-2140 od vlrl.tlon! (blow) pubttrh.d


with .roh.ou. c.ptlon.,

"rFawcett tist" of astrcn.ut sightings. tracking practice.The balloon did not qeorge Fawoeti h a respctedand inflate but dpunin a limp oblongsack. ldrl.haded UFO rcsearcher in Tho flight schdulo and the voics Maiden, .No h Crtolina. But an transnlbsionsconfltm this unexcitlng . gxdhple of his work givesa dllferent xplanation---andconfltm Fawcett's impredslon: fentssizing, "GeminlXII: Jim LovellandEdwin An example of the difficulty of Aldrin 3.w four UFOS linked in a rcw. "disproving" an "ashon&ut UFO Boih sFcemen sald the objech were sighting" is the l\ilercury:g case in not stArs" (quoted ftom The Edgeof 1968. Well est&bliBhed in the UFO Reollty, Hynek & Vallee,19?5,page lote, the stoly claims that on the 15ih 64). orbit, over Muchea,Ausiralla, the ... Fiom the GT.12 Asironaui ashonaut (Gordon Cooper) saw a page Debriefing K/3,4, Lovellrelatesi greenobject.More ihan onehunclred in "Duringthe lastEVA we discarded, peopleat the tracking stationsswihe eddition to fhe ELSE (life suppot bogie on a !a&.I scren (thh wasn't system), threeba$. About 2, maybe 3 or possibly 4, orbitslaterst sundse snnrdr.lig S*y L.b ttl eocond .nnrd Sty Lsb cohditipn,we looked out againsnd pll{Nr! 26lld! ot 1973-1?,{{t Zrrl! Trrnr. 3aw 4 objechlined up in a row and ITIASA itsl&lrA-ztrola 3tolsr.k rt PhoLo they rweren't star6 I know.Theymust Li'r6d a3lnrd.nulbd obj6cror 3lrellil. by |lA6A Pl1olo havebsen these3am6thingswe toGsed tvrrua on L5b, . The orignal dbtortion ot this enttely ordinaly elent, accordlngto \. 'the opndon Rport, is the rsponsibility of UFO wdter, John . Iftel; Fawcett took It andembellished it. Another of Fawceit's favodtes is Meru!y.?: "Scott Carpente!rcpoJted th8t he had what looked like a good shot of a sau4er," Elsewhele h dalmed' .that Caryenter "took a photograih of a classical saucei-shaped UF'O with done that followed his In fact, ihe photogaphs show an entirely ordinary object: a spnce balloo! ejected ftom the capsulefor 23

enoughfor ficiional "fact" sensational writer Frek Edwards: he had turo hundred people actually 6 the object). The source of the story seemsto have been an NBC newsman in io be Australia.But the problem seems that Cooper has neverheard of it. He has been otft of the spaceprogram for seven yean, and talks freety aboui UFOS to rcporiers, to the columbia "UFO recording"., to Mike Douglas, Somehov he to friends and associates. knows nothing about "his" spacc UFO-nd he has no reason to be silnt. ,!Iis space UFO never existed Co.fronted by thh evidence, Fawcett (letter of May 10, 1976) of insistslhal "I sincerelybelievesome the ashonaut sighii4gs are bonafide, based on sone of my sources or infonnation," John Keei, loo, recalls (letier of l&rch 26, 19?6) that "ex havetold me all kindg NASA engineers UFo !6les..." Always of fascinating '\ecret l,hese wr ers fall back on reporls" and "privaie informaiion" vhen ihir publishedreporh and open articles disiniegraiein the fae of the On October 18, 19?3, the famoug Msnsfield, Ohio UFO sighting occurrd,for which Capiainl,6wrene Coyne and his helicopir crew later were io receile the 'Best UFO Case of the Year" award (and check) from a pn a n e l 'o l w e e k l yt a b l o i d ' s ' b l u e - r i b b o UFO experts. A few months laier, Coyne said he was lold by ihe panel chairman, J. Allen Hyiek, (the head of the Cenler for UFO rspected Studies) thai Skylab astronauis had photographed ihe same UFO from space.(llynek ultimaiely denied this.) repuiable magazine, "Army A Reserve"published the story wiih an int guing photogmph it bad received fron NASA an? which it labeled "NASAT Skylab", clady indicating that this was ihe asironautphotognph which had buzzedCoyne. Ii would have been a neat tlick for l,he Skylab asironautsto have phoiographed anything on October 18th, since they weren'i even on board the space station. The previouscrev/ had rcturned io Earih a month bofote and their relief clew was nol scheduledto blast off for another ihree weeks.fhe photograph printed in the maguine was cleady labeled on iis backside as take! by Scott Carpenteron Mercury? more than ten yea6 before. It showed a limp balloon Carperter had 24

ejected from his spacecnft in e aitempt to get visual tracking praciice (ihis photo is often referred to as the "classical domed UFO" shoi). UFO researchers and nagazine ediiors had cleady not made even a minimum of effort to verify ihese transparent erors and mistakes, but insteadpassed on the false data to the public. Thousan.ls more werc deceived.

Late i! 1973, a sirange object did appear in Skylab space photoguphs. Taken on Conrad's skylab flight in June, the object was not noticed by UFO researcheN but by goverrment Rather than 'tweep the UFo under the ru9", the officials took the other tack: it might be a mysteriousSovict Satelliteand could be of greatvalueto

o b j e c ti s a d l a r y 3 n 3 n * r i p rhe eronqared r n r h e B r a z i i a n j u n o l e s - E n a r s e m n io i N A s a p h o t o s L 2 1 6 1 0 9 .

'n'litar! i'rrelligen.(. A ph)!rpi and ener.pfltc iD!cs{igarion iras hunchcd. 'lhe object looked like a ong crlrnder 11ith hro square taddles rennntilg solar panetsat pach end. Ilt nx,asuring its angutar size on the negaofe. anatJsis 1!ere abte to dete.nine that 1! $as about 20 iet loDg a mllc a{a\ or 2000 fecl long i h u ! d r c d m i l e sa v a ! . A carrful irrrrisrigaiion rrfcated ihc surprring anrlrr ihe uFo l{as r.tuaih thoIslnds ot fcer itr lengrh. bul. its alti de nas Tcrot It ivls all drrliip iD lhc Braziljan jLrrstcst F!rther checjrifg shond rhat lhe ol)t(.ctd lpparld rt r"ircsajnc spol id Sltllab photoslak.n noiths talei: lhf alrileld Nas rlso ii)ur.t ,)f an i,rrcr rahoDal a\ialio r chari. Rfceri 1:fO hook5 aDn r i.l,,r lrr!e !,n,ri.(rfd thf \ 1a,,ttifi tnr.,, s i s l r r i n go if filrffr r.ri!.q,). ILris tjrf pr rfn,.l LhI N,\Sr\ itr,xdrtrrrrifrj hiblLC \|lni$ Oii.,, r(i n,is{r. r t)r'orr)irrphlr(.f bt r t)fti! ran)frr o1 rlr( tprrr( rrll rt rir I rrl df (,l ah,,LI 1 i l )r n i l f s 0 r h o l ( ) r - l t l l I r t l r l hrhlls[..] n,p(rt! slIati r)1 ..1]r,,ir ( ) r ' I r l , O ; r r r r r r i r . ( ) r ' : t 0l i t 1 l . i ) ) lli. \lii l l L r Lf r r r r , r i r r t r r i t , r 1{iiirar\ lrnrlirril\ rfillr ji)rrr.r!li '\ilfinr nLll ro!./f lh( f t,(t l.tr qhri Li rrr: "lir. l!,r" t,ris is r s.0ir by rLxir! Nj.rd,r\. 1'l'"','".".,, ! ( i s 1 ( ) k .r i r . l l r L l r , r s t ) r ( 1 , n 1 ! rr .s 1tr!,ks r ) l t ) a r i i . . l i l ) l r { o l i L t j rj l ) r ( r ! h l t O r lir \ 15.rt $as II.(li\ r)l rr,,rjrtrj! l,) i.hrl . i q u L d( ' \ ! g r n 1 , r r t s .I l j f i, r) (lfs.rihfs thf ,lfrfl\ fjr(1s r llLj]r , l o s f r . , : i l l , t , r n r h l i | r .0 r d n r i i l j n B r ong \filh rir !rhnl1, ihr(nrrh rtr0 (rojrsiderjh! thfn, (jrs.s rLr I h,vf 1l.i.rib.d dur (rnd i.ll,.(, rr.,)rhfr l,\n,r on!s \rhi.h I hrv. al!) tnv.sti. q r l r d 1 . 1 )1 | c c . s s J i r l conclu\io.l, !!lrat .xrr $e )r0$, silv rbr!rt iulhor! \fh. prr'serrr, $ch .!iden.. oi ''!!lrurrul LrIOs.t lrhrLr ]p.akirg om,nousl) rboul r \ASA ..|crup:rid .' se.rel lger'ofs rhjch nruzztfspar._ hen. lheie sanr! rc;eafche$ tist 5u(h

John

Yourgr

.Odds

!r., lt1..Os

E d g a r I i i . h r t L r , ' \ l r ea l t k n r r f U f O s Eug.ne Cerian: ..t beiele IfOs ofrong to sohreoiie eln,!nd ihai Ijev ah lronr sonie odrer cirili/ari.n,. Gordon Cooper: i beljf!e rlj!i UFOs, undef inre tigerl .ofrro1. h!\e

',,i

2;

visiied ouf planei for thouslnds oi N o n e o l i h e s em r n c l a i m t o h a l c seenUFOSin space.By nov 1t shoul.l be oblious i,o openrhinded invesi.iga_ ios that no other asl.bnaut claims io tiat. hav seenany eithor. Suggestions they have rcallY don so are either or mirepresenl.aliohs. misconceptions, frauds on ihe paft of UFO $titers Yei anoiher casein poht has jusi. and it dealswith the John been gi{-q1, 26

Youbg quoiation. Young, in Seatilein lveregood 19?3, said ihai ihe chances that them were inielljgeni civilizalions ( A P ,N o v . 2 ? , 1 9 7 3 ) . on othel planets The newsmansta{ed the ariicle wiih the lcad. "John YouDg says thal the odds are ihai U dcniified Flying O b i e c t sd o e x i s t " , e l e n t h o u g hn o n e of Young\ quoted ivords lndicaled ihat at all- Beibre You could saY "UFO llap", the UFO wiiters had a

John Young says,"Odds arc UFOS It seeus clcar that aslrotrautsas a ctas ol the populaiion do noi, posess any special knowledge aboul UFOS which they may hate gained irom They arc about thcir own erperinces. as well informed (or more huthfullv, as badly misjnformed) as ihe average citizen. To quote th.m as above with the suggestionthat the,v are special auihoriLies on UFOS is a tnislcading

t--.

and iniellectually dishonest tactic. Threeijne space vetenn Wally Schira, who according io UFologists saw ''glowingmasses", actuallylightninglit clouds, over the Indian Ocean) has written, "I do not know enoughabout this subjeet to render an opinion of any kind. The only information I have is that which has beenrcleased to the public lhrough the years by the various news media". UFO wrilers would have us believeihat this is palt of a vari conspiracyoftios which onty

September15, 19?6, cordon vroie: "I vividly recall the incident rvhich occuned when a light of indistinct shape and size w6 spoited on our rctum to earth. . . (it) did appearro be in the lndian Ocea!. In our discussions and debrielings that occuned later, Rusty Schweikait provided the answer. He simply said, 'how aboui the moon's reflection?'and,of couFe, that is whai it was.. . How often those of us in aviation hrve seenthe moon's \ reflection on the waier in ihe coune of a nomal flight. lve simply did not The actual answerto ihc "shapele$ put it togeiher in retuming ftorn lunar li6ht" that wasseenon Apollo-12 itlusdistance, vherc we had the black back. tmtes the way NASA facesreal space ground of space,the dark night of thc mysteries. The crewwas puzzlodby the earth, and ihe moon behind us_" sightingbut reporieditto space officials other spacemen havebeenaskedto 1lAo made no effort to conced the inanswer these questions.. Thev have cident, 1/ NASA were irying to cover been fori,hright in their denials: "I up actual UFO sighiings by asironauts, never have persomlly seonanything I this wasa good candidatefor one-and could identify as a UFO", says John it would neverhavebeenpublicized. Glenn, now a Senai,or from Ohio. Asironaui Dick Gordon revealed to Ashonauts Grissom and Young said, me ihe unpubllcized soluiion to the "We hrve never seen any UFO8". publicized mystery. In a letter dated Richsrd Gordon, who was wiih a c o m m os no u f co r ! p . c 6 . n d orh.ruF06
3rhown h.r.. Th..ura and iho tBn+lh.p.d NAsA pholo sL3-113-2177. skv.b,

Conrad on Genini-11 ard Apouo-12, wii,es that "I never saw a UFO". AsFonaut "Deke" Slayton claimsthat "I don'i recollect anyone reporting any Ul'Os on any of our flights". "Buzz" Aldrin went to the moon on Apollo,11, on which the UFO pressI'sts at leasi ihree separate UFO incidents. There \rere Do UFOS: "Therc are people who say rheret a government conspiracyto coverup the existenco of llyirg sauce6," Alilrih told a Reuiers reporrer in 1973, "That's a lot ofhogwash.,' The LM pilot on the nert flight, Apollo-l2, was Alan Bean.FoUowinga new pre$ conterencein 1975 when Janec Harder repeated his stories of Apollo.11 and Apolio.12 UFOS,Bean told UPI thai at no time during his missiondid he everseean unidehdned objcci. "At no time did we see anything \xhich was not of oul spacecuft, eiiher during lunaf orbii or during ihe voyage io and liom i,he rnoon," Beansiaicd.

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Th APRO Bulleiin (Feb. 19761 coniinud to generai.e new astronaui UFO fliry tales viih ihe anonymous fevelaiion from "Mr. X", vho heard the Apollo,11 astronauh descdbe "thre discahapedshadowsihat werc pacing them acrossthe su ace of th moon-" The best answer lo this iirbdcation is in a leiter from NASA AssjstantAdministrator for Legislative Affairs Roberl F. Allnutt, to Congiesman Bob Casey, dated JaDuary 29, 1970: "Conv.sal,ion betveen tbe Apirllo 11 crcrv and Mission Oonhol were releuscd lire duing ihe enlire Apotlo 11 nissioD. There wcfe betwen 1000 and 1500 representativesoi the hNS mcdia presenl.at th Hou(on Ne$s C.nter l i s i e n i n ga n { t o b s e n ' i r g , brt not onl has suggcsted l.hatNlsr\ ivithheld any n e w so r ( o n v l s a t i o D os l thisnahue.i' Tb{ flidenc is (lcar. l'hcre is, out o f a l l 1 h f d o r e d s o f " r c p o r i - so I a s t r o n a u tU F O s i g h t i n g s "n , o residue oi authentlc canl,j.no 21tt ot 't)i ol e v e n0 . 0 1 7 .o f " | n r e U F O r i "b o h i n d all . I yn , s c a r c ih ihc '.noise"N scompdling in ils conclusionraflef littf.n yean ol manned space v o y a g eis r c l u d i n gs p a c s t a t i o n sa n d l a n d i n g o r t h c m o o n , eprtcomen h a v r b r o u g h rb a ( k n o t I slrred of evid.n(c lcrbal, phot() graphrc. of olh.rwie -ir lhr 0xisienc( olf f x t r r l r r $ l r i r l s p . . f c t r i l . (Ul'O$i or . T l r a i c v i d o D c . ,i l i l . x i s t s a t a t t , musl bc soughi clnvhrc. The peribrmancf and si,andards ol conducl o f t h c U F Og r o u p s a n do l t j f o w f i i c r s c a n n o l b e c a u s f o r o p t i m i s m i h a t sucb al'ldence! if it erisis, wi be recognized and corfecily .!aluaied. The lessoDof lhe "asi.ronautUFOS',, thn, t{,acIesus norhing about U!.Os, bui a lol. about U['O invsijgatos.

Scientisis at lvork". we fiId lhe phony Fawceti list. List has incorcci dates and many ilightr oui of squnce. On July 1, 1976, Dr. J. Allen Hynek revieved m! vidnce and endorsed it, and repudiatedihc Fawcettlist, vhich he rclo(ed ihat hc included 1n hh book as a curiosiiy onlr. That is, just becauseh! preseDtedir as faci to ihousrnds of rladels Nas iro reasonfor a D l o n et o c o r c t u d h e t h o u g h ii i v a s true. This appallinglr iresponsibl. attitude knrards n'les ol evidence seems to intuctthe vhoLr llFO field. ;_j!.lltrgs b-y :6 ..lslr.ndxlr (ir'rirni {j,.Os Spredon 5tr'1dDs (si.) lranJ Oiher.Spocc Snols UFOs Watch Ev.n Nlole N^SA liakes, Say As[onauts Who WreTailed on Space Shot, "Nationnl Tattlai', March 17, 1 9 ? 4 .T h h h a n e m b e l l i s h 0v d rsion of lbe same Fawcel,t iantasies. Weekly l,abloid neivspapr"confom0d io the highcsl standards of moden reporling. Tattler and its slalf are dedictiied to { . o t a l ,t r u t h l u l c o v e r a g e . . . ' ) In fact, tfaifer Robert Abborino made no oliort to chcck any of tawcortt

and February 19?6 and others. This llying saucer club newslttr best typifies the disregard for impartial inrestigaiion of evidence ivhich proridcd the climai,e in which the myth of "astronaui UFOS"could grow

scientific Stud! of lltli.t.nlifie.l Fl!inq Objects (can.tan tiepo'l), B a n t a m E d i t i o n , 1 9 6 9 . C h a p t e r6 : Visual Observations Made brr Astronaul.s/!rankl1nE. Roach. pag0s 176.209, lviih bibliography ihrough 196?. Cood bdckground marerial i n c l u d i n gu n p u b l i s h e d !alid solutions io a number oi cascs, Incorrect solulioD to cnini XI Inadequate analysis and unjustified endoBementof Gemini IV case. l he E.Jgeaf Realit!,,by Hynk and Valle. H.nry Regnery & Co., 19?5. P a g c6 3 . 6 , 11 n a s e c i i o nc a l l e d . . T h e

?&e Stdr, March 2, 19?6. page 7. Squencof headlines:On ihe fron! pagr, "Astronauls Sa]: We Saw UFOS in Space". On page 7. "'fop AstroDairtsConfirnr ile spotted two UFOS". /n /ie orllcl, I'lcDiliti ialks oi his UFO, and Coopr discusesh's lxpcrierccs {s a lighter piloi in Grmanv ard makes nr mcntion of ihe spac Ut'O a$ociated ivith his name. The headlines, as can b expected in such a n.wspaper, arc deliberatem lyisleading. SAGA agazine, Nlay 1970: Cldssifie.l I'AP SECllllT Apollo Ash-onauLs Repotlati Tuo UFO S.g/rftrgs, by Bckleyand Satkin,p. 13 ff. Compl0testory of -qpollo.12UFOS, plus enough false iiformai.ion io ''ditcredit" lhe tru0 explanation. expori Quol.cs "$pa( Cary IIende|son", anothr acii!'c spreader of lh0 myth. Rcfn to long discredited UFO| rasl, Prcscnldnd FrLure. by Itobdi Fimcnggcr. rcsearchby Alan slodcs of "secret d.ad Russian $ n d ) c f . l l a l h r ! i r { , , l 9 r - , 1C . l h a p i e1 r 5 , cosmonauis" probably created by ' ' N . s a " . p a g c s I 0 0 . 1 0 6 . l l x l . . n s i v . F r a n kE d v a r d s . H o u s l l ) rl , o s t ,N o ! . 3 0 , 1 9 7 5 ,p a g e ifunnripls ol spr(c conllrrni.rlio)ls .ov.r up ihf tacl lhir! Sahdlcf lll: "Just Onc Asrronaut Claims c a n r l L r l ls y d l o . l 0 df ! i d c r c o a D d n r u s i S e e i n gU l - O ' , b y J i m N ' l a l o n c y T.h i s hav{r knoiviDgly omilled inionnal.ior s l D s i b l e a n d s a n e i r v e s i i g a t i o n w h i c h w o u l d h a v e e x p l a i n e dm a n y ( M c D i v i t i s i u c k i o h i s s t o r y ) c l e a d y cdscs. An cxcellent photo seciion is did not excite the nationalnowsmdia and rvasrclegated io ihe obscufiiv of a Iilto lleport, People ?rcss, 1975. "NASA lliding LIFOsFro'n You", by Scincednd ,rlrecna,rics, June 1969. Robeft l). Bauy, pages 4-10. Bary is Coler Siory: "This UFO ivas aso.iaiod rvilh Cail Mclntyre\ p h o l o g r a p h eb dy a s i r o h a u(li o r d o no n l u n d a n c n r r l i sC i . h r l s i . i ag nf o u p ,a n d i s 0 e m n i i 1 1 f l i g h t " ( i h e c o v o r p h o t o o D r o t 0 r o $ i l d o r t i F O w r i i e r s .l l e n shoivsr trmerdously cnlrrged oui ot thc mas nedi! hrs lcafnfd lo fo.us iinage oi a piecc of insulation d i v e g a r dI ' i s i c l i o n a l d o s c l i p t l o Do si floating a f.v inches in front of the DoD efents. lleff, I'c c\plainJ $lr! c a m e ! a )P . a g f4 4 . L l o y d M a l l a n :" A r e \ A S A c a l l e di n l h e C I . \ r o k e e pi h e s e UFO Space Crews Spying on our p h o t o s s e c r e ! " . \ f j r h o u i e s p h i n i n g Astronauts?" Desciption of the late how. in that case, hc got.opies. Ile L. Mallant interviews on cenini-11, uses the lofged Gomini 7 photo provides sohe Derv inlormation bui cements sohe old nisconcepiions. F U n q S a u c e t sr t . r c o n d N a ' , ! , b r Aho mbellkhes Condon Repori Frank Edwards. Lyle Stuari, Noiv York. 1967. Astrolaut laniasics Lockheed.NASA Contract NAS rvholly or in par! cnaied in the fe4ile 9 - 5 1 S 1 ( M a r c h 1 9 ? 0 ) , " T e c h n i c a l (and unlimited by reality) mind of Report: Unidentiiied Visual 'newsha!' Frank ldlvards are found lhenonena Associatcd wiih Space on pages 1 3 , 1 8 0 . a n d 1 9 7 . T h r o u g h Flighi", F. Beatiy and J. Bamn. such entries a journalism siudeni can Discu$es the fragmerl.s seen ab{l trace the actual growih of ihe myth. phoiogaaphed on Apollo-12. and APRO BuUetin, Nlarch-April 1970 haces lhem to spacecralt effech.

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