USG-UAP-D001, Congressional, White House, UFO-related Constituent Correspondence, 1998
- Date of account
- 1998
- Source
- uap_archive
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
This collection of documents, primarily from 1998, contains draft and final correspondence from the White House and the offices of members of Congress responding to constituent inquiries about Unidentified Flying Objects, or “UFOs.” These inquiries cover a diverse range of topics, including alleged UFO sightings by NASA astronauts, questions regarding the authenticity of photos collected during U.S. missions to Mars, alleged improper withholding of information by the U.S. Government, questions regarding the appropriateness of “UFO-related” governmental spending, and calls for congressional hearings regarding the nature and existence of “UFOs.” The official responses consistently state that, circa 1998, the U.S. Government is not aware of evidence supporting the existence of extraterrestrial technology, and that NASA does not actively investigate “UFOs.” The collection includes references to materials of both confirmed and unconfirmed authenticity, as provided by constituents, as well as references to historical, scientific literature addressing specific “UFO” sighting claims.
Published source text
Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.
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Source text · mention only1320 .4 Aeronautics:UFO
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Source text · mention onlyHeadquarte rs Action Tracking System (HATS) INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Number: L11998-00407 . (b) (6) Title: WARD/Sen Snowe fwds ltr from U.F.O. and the recent Mars photo who's interested in Recipient : UHeffernan Author : Organization : SNOWE SENATE Date Written: Date Received: Date Concurred: 05/18/1998 05/26/1998 Action Office: Status: UWard:S Closed Date Submitted: Date Signed: Date Closed: >>Current Due Date: Original Due Date: 06/24/1998 06/24/1998 06/18/1998<< Signature Office: UHeffernan Info offices: UHeffernan, UHeninger, L/Kerwin Abstract : SEN SNOWE FWDS LTR FROM (b) (6) OF STOCKINGTON, MAINE, WHO'S INTE:RESTED IN U.FO.'S AND THE RECENT PHOTOS OF MARS WHICH WERE RECENTLY RELEASED. Comments: Enclosures: NO Related Records : Keywords: (b) (5) MAINE U.F.O. MARS File Plan: 1320.4 Analyst: BMoore 06/24/1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention onlyHeadquarter s Action Tracking System (HATS) INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Number: L/1998-00729 Title: Rothman/UFO_Sightings by Astronauts Recipient: UHeffernan Author: Grassley Organization : Senate Date Written: 08/03/1998 Date Received: 08/31/1998 Date Concurred: Date Submitted: Date Signed: 09/04/1998 Date Closed: 09/10/1998 Action Office: LD/Rothman:P >>Current Due Date: 08/22/1998<< Original Due Date: 08/22/1998 Status: Closed Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices: UHeffernan, UHeninger , UKerwin Abstract: Senator Grassley forwards letter from (ts) (S) who is requesting information on UFO sightings by Astronauts. -- Comments: Enclosures: letter Related Records: Keywords: (6J (o) UFO,astronauts ,sightings File Plan: 1320.4 Analyst: JMassey 09/10/ 1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention only--- yeAtoGU SEP - 4 1998 L:HR:mtg:L/1998-729f The Honorable Charles E. Grassley United States Senate Washington , DC 2051 0 Dear Senator Grassley: Thank you for your letter of August 3, 1998 , on behalf of(b <5) who is requesting information about the possible sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (U FOs) 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) (6) )nformation. 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(b) 6) inquiry. Sincerely, Edward Heffernan Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs Enclosures
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Source text · mention only+ bee: Z/Roger Launius (with incoming) ; provided info Sent to Sherry Kuntz in the Hill office
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Source text · mention onlyS,ncc tho ··auron.iut UFO" genre is one of rhe m13in pillolrs o f VFO ovidcr1ce . thi5 study c lafml ng ! hat the ent ire set of C .)Scs i1 inv .,..lid W 1if 0U 1110 U 5iy CC fCCl.? 1"18<J t..Vlth 15eeptic. ism and cr i tic ism from UFO buffs. Aat ion~I objections and arguments wiH bo printed and answered in a subseQuent is'5ue of this magazina. Critics are urged to raise specific points not address°'d in tho study. or to cite and docum.ant facts which might modify or invalidate conclusions in the study. James E. Oberg Associate Editor " Space World" magazine Story! SGM{q~ f'\~9 ~\?-j ,1{ WiN T~R 1<;46 ( 1H~~ ij,J?_'lJ P/\LM~ fvBL\CA'11ou s f\ l''\1-\~ f\<;T.) l-Ji ~c... S~Y OG Su\1\e C.1.1f7 pr:c~ ._f1,25' Space flight has opened many mysteries. True, scie11tists prefer to list tlie puzzles solved and u11knoums discovered, but as men venture beyond the earth it is inevitable that new mysteries will be encountered . Somewhere out there, many obsen:ers believe, are intelligent species with technological civilizations · far more advanced tha,z that of Earth. Perhaps they are send ing 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 lite!ature is full of tales of "space UFOs". Are any ofthem valid? What can a careful study reveal? H ardly a UFO book or movie is complete without the standard assertion that "astronauts have seen UFOs too". While critics may attack the character or intelligence of many UFO witnesses, they cannot use these tactics on American and Russian space pilots. Where UFO photographs can be accused of distortion and forgery, phot ographs taken by astronauts and processed by NASA must be of the highest trustworthiness. Hence, most UFO scholars consider the family of astronaut UFO sightings to be one of the strongest bodi~s of evidence in the past thirty years. The best of these cases include astronaut James McOivitt's sighting of o( an "unidentified spacecraft" near his Gemini-4 space capsule in 1965, a curious photo of a pair of UFOs with glowing propulsion fields taken by the Gemini-7 astronauts. reports of nearby objects from X-15 and Mercury spacecraft. tales of how ~he 1968-1969 Apollo moon shots were followed by U.FOs on their way to the moon, and reports and pbutographs of objects seen by crewmen on the Skylab space station. Last year, the National Inves- tigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) selected the "McDivitt UFO" photo as one of the four best photographs ever taken. The "astronaut UFO" sightings must appeal to many seriou:i researchers for a number of reasons. The witnesses and the photographs are unimpeachable as to honesty and authe nticity. 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 North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), headquartered inside Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado . Extensive crew debriefings and on-boar d tape recorder transcripts may be available to obtain direct eye witness test imony. With all these facts and assumptions in mind, and mindful of the numerous 'unsolved' cases which might tell much about the lJFO 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 Force operations, and space miss:ons 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 UFOs (conducted by the University of Colorado for the U.S. Air Force) 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 UFOs. Recent books on UFOs give lists of astronaut sightings which are out of numeric sequence, misdated, mispeUed, and otherwise distorted. My research has revealed a few examples of deliberate photo forger ies by UFO buffs or opportunistic authors. My investigations in the NASA 38
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Source text · mention only~ -·-· - ·-· ----- -- -- .----- - .. ------ - ... ---- ---·- -·- -· _,. _ __ - " - · - --- ---- - arch,n •s has fl'\"l•aled ca..~es whcrl' UFO rt•~c:irchrr; withheld Cl•rtain info rma tion frl'cly gi,·1•n them by N:\SA officials. infori:tation which would have clearly explained m;my cases which the auth ors want t•d to appear mysterious. So the time has come to take a ne\\' look at this whote phenomenon. What is the truth about "astronaut li rOs "? The first ste p in any research might be with the Condon report. t:-iought by many to have been commissioned as a "whitewash" of the UFO phenome non . UFO enthusiasts are accustome d to hearing harsh criticism of almost all aspects of this study. but my own objections to the "astron aut UFO" section is from a novel angle. My own research suggests that the Condon investigato r, far fro m being the best man for the job, was clearly unq ualified to evaluate the diffi cult cases. He was not familiar with the term inology of space flight or the basics of orbital flight trajectories, as I am. As aresul t, he ignored possible explanations while incorrecUy eliminating other possible answers. In other words, far from being a coverup, this cha pter of the Condon report is superficial. It is entirely worthless as an endorsement of the unexplaine d and unexp lainable 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 publi shed. The Condon report does give some deta ils about the environme nt of astronaut sighti ngs, but even here does not go far enough. More stress needs to be pu t on the visual and ph oto graphic limitations of space flight : t he 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 o( sealant and by contaminatio n by rock et fuel. At various p_oints in the flight, the spacecraft was surrounded by clouds of d~bris (leaking fuel, dum ped water, chippi ng paint, fraying insulati on, 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 camt!ras point ing out window s. Other satellites should have been visible, since few people realize that on any clear night ·-•-- • ~ - -+s _ _ ,., - ,e-- ....... ,., ,+- ............ ,., _ all for ,., • .., .... ...... -«• Dc:sµitc the pt!r.~istl'11t rum o rs of '.,;ccrct space p ict'"rcs •. ph o /nJ!rupl1s tahl'll by .V,\S.-\ i11 space arc i11 tlie publ ic domui11. That is. any p ict ure tuhc:,: by 1.111 astro11a111 or 011 earth resource, satellite is ai:ailabl r. to anyo11c who wants to pay fur i t. There are foi: r tiers of plwto,;:-:iph Ji·cilcbil ity. but two a:-e rescri:ed for 11ewsme11 only The ~/ructurc is us folluws: A . The most p opular space photographs /alien arc lithographed for general free di.,;tributi CJ11 to anyone who asr.s for them . Seueral dozen new pho tographs are added to this list eucry year. Cost to .VAS,\ is a few ce11ts per print. 8 . The N.-lS.-l Public Information Offices at uarious centers and at headquarters prints gfossy photo graphs of t imely news stories distribution tu the news media . Hundreds of these photographs are released euery year. but only crrtified newsmen can recei ue them for ~~ . C. .\!any thousands of othe r photographs and drawi11gs may be of interest to the news media and arc therefore fifad at public i11formatio11 offices. but stock cop ies are not kept. Each reque st must be filled by actual photo lab orders. which co:;ts NASA abo ut one dollar per photograph. D. A,1y citizen who wants copies of any photograph listed in 'B' or 'C' aboue con get it, but it is entirely reasonable for NASA to expect him t o pay for it. News bureau photographs. along with all other (light photography-stills and mouies-ca n be ordered from Bara Studios, P.O. Box 486, Bladensburg, MD 20710. The cost of any photograph ordered by stock number is seueral dollars apiece. A ny cross-referencing or researching will also cost money. . • Some ground photographs of astronaut accidents, au topsies, and medical examinations are not releasable for publication. On seueral Gemini {lights, special photographic experiments were und ertaken for the DoD, but these inuolued special cameras and exclusiuely ear th surface targe{s . In neither case would it be possible to withhold any hypoth etical 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 wi th Apollo, space photos were also indexed w ith a mission code, roll number and frame num ber (neithe r of which were repeated on later {lights). For examp le, ASJ 6·108-13005 u•as taken on the Apollo-16 {light, with the 108th roll of the Apollo project (liglit film. Mouie film is indexed per magazine with similar numbers. Euery photograph euer taken by American astronauts for N ASA is on file w ith Bara Studios and can be obtained by anyone wifling 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 disseruice to one of the most open and cooperatiue public informa t ion offices of any federal agency. an o bserver on Earth can see a number of orbiting objects with only half an effort. Out or this "backg?ound noise", can we separate the "signal" which will indicate the existence of UFOs? These problems all are of interest to space officials, and nume rous studies have b een made. Fragments might imply a structural failure (a rescue ship was almost sent to Skylab-3 because of the crew's observation of leaking fuel droplets). Debris inside t!1e cabin can irritate eyes and dama ge the elect ronic 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 frcm somt! oth er nation . Therefo re, any mysteriou s space sighting might as easily be vital for 39 ♦ --- NASA to know about as it migh t be a true UFO: Careful invest igations are called for. What 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 informatio n is at hand. Some o( It is hard to find or understan d; other information, available to some researchers , may have been deliberate ly withheld . ·some classical cases may consist of made -up fanta sies. You can soon judge for yourself. Has there been any attempt to "cover up" space sightin gs (a common plea when no t!Vidence is available, even in this age of sieve-like government secrecy)? Are astronauts "muzzled" about UFOs? Has fifteen -■ ----
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Source text · mention only,,..~ 1.~~ -·••·---.'",....:"-r-•': ·""'" ,. f ' I i ! t 1-~f ' . ~ • ~ ..... : • · ~'{~,;t't( ✓"~•'·-:..,........,:-.,:-, ::,"?\~-."':,~~""t".:~..-~~,.-,r-•r ·,r•..,-~~• ·,~-•l"""'-..,.,, .: ;,_<..-:::~~-' . ~~ The "McOivitt UFO", pr ize-winning astronaut photograph taken on Gemini-4. Actually, McOivitt_axplained later after tho flight that the sun was coming across the window as the_ spacecraft rolled, the sun rays struck a metal bolt, caus ing the'Ci lares in the camera lens''. NASA 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 spaces liips from anot her w orld? Let's look at the evidence. On June 3, 1965, rookie astronauts Jim McDivitt and Ed White blasted of( 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 rend ezvous and a walk in space were completed . Approximately thir ty hours into the flight ( while White was asleep) , McDivitt report ed 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 . Intere sted N AS.-\ officials in Houston asked NORAD which other space sate llites were near Cemini--1 at the time of the sighting, and NORAD came up with a list of about a dozen objects. All of them were pieces of tiny debris or small scicntit"ic satellites exc ept one: the giant, " winged " mete or satC'llitc, Pegasus-2. It seemed to iit the descrip tion radioed down by McDivitt, so NASA announc ed that the object had been identified. But Pegasus had been more than a thousand miles away, and McDivitt clearly saw an obj ect much closer, much more detailed, and in an orbit very close to his own ("Collis ion course" to a pilot means that the relative angle of sight is unchanging, which would not be the case for any satellite crossing McDivitt's orbit). The object became a UFO when nobody could identify it. It has remained a UFO up until today, but not any longer. McDivitt's hasty attempt to take a photograph of the object thrqugh his smeared window was apparently fruit• less, since the object's motion combin ed with the slow stabilization spin of the space ship carried it into the glare of the sun after about 30 seconds. The astronau t later recounted how he went through all the films of the flight (every roll of film is accounted for on a flight manif est, so they do not disappear) and found many over exp osed or blank. This mission had bee n the first night in which space photography was a major experiment, and the glaring sunlight of space had invalidat ed many pre-flight expo sure settings. :\lcDivit t did not find any- • thing which looked like ""his UFO". What was it he ,aw? Why has it becom e s uch a promin l•nt UFO case? And if the pictu res did not turn out, where did NICAP get its "top four" photogr aph (which shows, not a winged cylinder, but a smeared blob)? We can answer these question s at last. The first hint as to the true identity of this space UFO can be found in McDivitt's own word s, given at a press conference a week after the flight when his memory was fresh: "It looked a lot like an upper staie of a booster". Gemini does have a booster just like it, and McDivitt had been carrying out maneuvers near it earl y in the flight. Why didn't the -list from NORAD include the Gemini-4 boos ter rocket? NORAD had been tracking the objects, but NASA had not asked about Gemini-4 and its own associated debris - it had asked about Gemini--! and any oth er earlier satelli tes. Anyone familiar with computerized information systems (one of my professional specialities) can guess what happened : the computer was given a "query" which tol d it to compare Gemini--t with the othe r satellit es. The computer never knew where the Gemini booste r was relat i\•e to the spacecraft, since it had not been asked. :\lcDivitt had been visually tracking the thirty foot long cylind 1r at a range of onl y 75 miles a few hours earlie r, but this large satell ite never mad e the "NORAD list" because 40
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Source text · mention onlyArti1t', ronrlit ion o t thu ,ntro n,,u1s· t> --.,.-~r..-~ •r·~ ~ .-: ---•' ... •• •"t'"':•~·r-n- ·'"-]l • . . . .vlow o f 1ho ro ndo.r 0 0 u <J ovat v a: ion pod after it hai boon jotti1oncd from the Gemini adaptor ioc t iun. Gorn,n i r;,dar locked o n to evaluation pod. Scott Carpenter took th is photo of a subsatelli t e balloon jettis oned by h is ( . ' ' . i . . , • • .. -· .. .., . . cJ . • : ., .....--..:- _,..Js...:'11, . :.l• • ' ...-"... t· --.,-.. . ', ' ·,· ... ., . - £' . . ance and even make it look like two objects. The potato -shaped grey b lob is the pod's in sulat ion blanket. T h i • sequence of p ictures illustrate • the problem o f Identi fying photographs of objects in tho glare o f spa ce. 41
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Source text · mention only~ --' ·-·. -•-,,- - • C ~ - ~=- ,.....,--.,•·-•~ ----.··.•-c-,,.--~··o,•:·,1 ... . .. .. .-J --.1 . -~1 . ! I •' ;.· ; ~1• ' . . .,- + ' •.. ..,., ~ . . .;, 1 · 1 ......- ~:· 1•;) .i. . ...'-I .,. t r t·· nobody thought to ask about it! The list was incomplete! What 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 UFO appeared at the same point in the Gemini orbit where the booste r had been rept-3tedly spott ed earlier in the flight. '.\fcDi\•itt had once described seeing his booster with straps h~nglng from it. Furthermore, on at least one occasion on the first day, McDivitt had at first been unable to recognize the booster when he ·saw il because it was close to the glare of· the sun! Thi5 had been :it a range of less than ten mile s. Yet another iniport:int factor unknown to t!1e Cr1nciL•11 report w:i, that '.\leDivin •.•::t.; C\J1:1p!:iini:1i;: ro thl-'· ni ~ht surgt:on abou 1. his t'Yl'$ight duri1\g this pho ~c of th :) tli~ht. Hi:; eyes were red and teary due to a reaction with the cabin atmosphere and an accid ental massive urine spill. "I didn't think I was going to be able t~ hack it", McDivitt lat er had radioed to Earth. This famous UFO case now becomes that of a pilot with watering eves catching sight of an object in p~rallel orbft, 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 night to realize how common such . blobs- of light (o\·ere.'<posures, r~tl cct i0m. glare. etc. ) ll'erc. Both NAS.-l. and ;\lc:Di\·itt han• agrel.'d that tl-ie sc,qucnCI.' ot' mo\·ie irames are a ,iew out t!u: winc.uw. showit\~ sunlii::ht r~tl~·cti 11~ off a br\t. a~ain :;~ the dirty window ~la~s. '.~!C..\F' think s dii'forently b,:c:tu~e <)t t!ll' b:!tk of its cop,· of th<! ph,Ho is a handwritten -. . ,.·... ~.. note (nobody known by whom) stating that McDivitt {nobody• knows when) had communicated .{nobody knows how) the fact that the picture showed "his UFO". (This was made clear by a telephone conversation between the autho r and Jack Acuff of NICAP on March 5, 1976). Why has this case achie\'ed such notoriety'? It probably resulted from the enthusiasm of UFO believers. the naive openness of NASA public relations officials, and the publicity seeking opportunism of some of the principals . \lcDivitt him self did little to clear the case up. instead using it as a ticket onto natil•nal TV talk sho ws and news interviews (especially after his rr.tirement in 19~. To add to the mystPry. th~ former spaceman assl'rts. "I have never bcrn ablt- to it.:entify it, and I don't think anyone ever will." 42
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Source text · mention only. ·--:a:.::-.; On a rece nt "U FO rncorcli:ig'' rrll-asrd by Columbia, calt.:d "UFOs: The Credibility Factor", :VlcDi\·itt clrarl y shows how his mcmorirs have ch:u1ged or bc,m cl1a11g(•d to enhance the mystery ot' hi3 C'Xpcricnce: "They (NAS.-\) chcck,'d :'iOR..\D ... to sec what they had up on radar ancf there w:isn't anything within very close range of us." Read ers can measure the credibility of this statcm~nt against . the facts . If McOivitt was fooled by his own booster ten years ago, is it too much to expect him to admit it now? What would that do to all of his public assertions of mys tery? There is an easier way out, and i'vlcOivitt took it when I sent him an advance copy of my manuscript. After keeping it two months, he wrote back, "[ was not able to read it very thoroughly and I cannot offer any ext~nsive comments. I do not fores ee the opportunity for me to provide any further re~w ." There weren 't any errors in my ana lysis, he implied, but it woulc! be better kept quiet. NASA never had any real doubts. "We believe it to be a rocket tank or spent second stage of a rocket," wrote a high space official on July 1, 1965. NORAD officials, confronted with my scenario, endorsed it: "Your comments on the NORAD role rela ted to the case appear to pe logical," wrote NORAD Public Inform ation Officer D .W. Kindschi on Feo. 23, 1976. So the "~lcDivitt case" is closed. The best space UFO case has now been identified. Do not expect to see any change in the UFO press, howev er. Such results are simp ly ignored. Photographs made in space sho w negative effects , such as the "McDivitt UFO" aura, often. Spacecraft ·and astronau ts may be engulfed in a strange aura caused by overexposu re to sunlight brighter than ever seen on Earth . Blowups 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 th e ~lcOi\·itt cas<', and fe\\· UFO enthusiasts have not heard of it. But n,:itlwr the Condon r£>st)archers nor th e average reade r had ever had all the facts. Now people can m:ike up thei r own minds. I havl' ''" d ,iub~ th;,t ~lcl)i\"itl w:i~ ~<! l'i:1g his ow11 Til.::n tJCJostrr stage. Or. Roach wa~ also fasd n:•l•~cl wi t!t anoth er :,.1coi, itt si~foiti'.11}, tha t uf a point of light ::rc:,i:::·::; the ; k·: . The object sound r.,j j•.1.,l Iii-:<> th•! appearance of an artifici.!l ea rth satellite , and that is e~:actly wh:it \kDivitt th ought it \•:.:s. There is no information to suggest it w.:_s anything else. Another Condo n favorite is a Gemini -7 case. The report of sightings of a cloud of debris right at the moment of boostt•r sepa ration (these particle s includ ed frozen fuel droplets, the booster itself. assorted insulation and structural fragments from where the explosive bolts were fired, and other smaller objects never iden tifie d and never cared about) is not very impressive. The crew , on their first space mission , saw a few pieces they had nol expected (the pilot guessed wrongly -th at they "were in polar orbit"). Only a parti san digging for evidence, and desperate to find such evidence, would make much of this common event. But a sign of desperation is indeed . ....·. .·.;~~.: ~~ .\1" :,:;: 'f~~v·~•.~~-...,:.. ~·. - · • ·• ,) : :.: ····-. . ... ... ... . - .....-. ... . h /V◄ i ,•• • • ••• •• g ,Cla:: t ,an ,.. ,,, round in 1'1)1111:•ction l'.'isli Lill! t,;~mi!!i· I GFO ca~t'. It is not th~ clc::1wra•.i1a ~ 0f gtn·criun•_•nl oflici, I:; t~yi11!{ to c:ur••r up t.he trut h ahoul GfU:;. R;,hrr, it :s thr dl'spernlion of some outsider tryi :1~ t rJ m:t~:;f:-,.-:-tu:c1 couni .~rf,.i, "astrnnaut L:FO" <?videnc~. Jn acli·. ;r.\· which should not be nc>ce:s;a,y if th~ " rt'al" L: FO evidence w~rC' as persuasive as many thint . It involves :i photograph showing two very strange glowing ocjects . Each is he:,agona l in sha pe, ~·:ew!c'd at an angle, ~nd suppo rted by ;;. dazzling "force field" below it. A cloud covered earth is se.?n in the background. s~~ p\cd~ ~1 ~ :l.8 Thi s photo graph has appeared in books, magazines, newspap ers, and pamphlets. It is part of the travellina slide show of UFO lectur ~rs from th; Mutual UFO Network (i\!VFON) and elsewhere. I have heard it described as •\showi ng a typical UFO forc e field propulsion system", and "similar to other UFO photograph taken on Earth the same year". The photograph is a fo rgery. It is a hoax . What the anonymou s counter feiter did (I have reason to suspect a 43
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Source text · mention only·--·:® J The outhor .>nd NASA photo an.:ilvn R ichard l Undor wood show "•p~ce UFO" photos to Or. J. Allun Hynok, dirolctor o f the cent er for UFO n udios . July . 1976. t l vn4k -subsuquPn';'fy ,.,.,_ dorscd Ob0rLJ'S conclusions. Satu rn boon er S-IV -b and f our open "SL. A" pane ls. On moon fligh ts tho four "petals.'.' fly free and, together with the empty boo:<t •r. tum.ble throug h spac a a faw miles from the Apollo capsule. They were often seon as ·bright flashing lighn as they refl ected th o powerful sunligh t . On Apo llo-1 2 , astrona u t desc riptions of theH fra;imonts wore m i s Interpreted by UFO buffs and metamorph- ized Into alien spacecraft. ® "Mysteriou s" bulls aye object wen and photographed by Gam lnl-6 astronauts I n December, 1965. Unfortunately for flyi ng 1aucer buff~, It Is not• UFO; it Is an out of focus photo of the approach ing Gemlnl-7 spacesh ip, noH on. NASA photo S 0 65-65296. . . ·,·-···~.... ... - :~. ,,,_. ''--:· .. 44
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Source text · mention only~ : ~......1n~,~ r..c.•~1:-~-~ t~ t-.\~ :-·.-..:-~~ l::;...~~"-·•·.....· •~ •..;.Jl'ti. , .... , ..~., ';.••t••.;..•,'\:·~··• ·........•-.,'.:.+' .. •1 .... : . : .. ' . ·.:. . . .... . . ~ .._ ~: . . . • . . '• ·. ' .. :.; . . ' . . ·. ..- . , -:• • . ••' r ~ . l ·•(, .. , .. }il Photo of Gemlnl-7 from G..,mini-6, December 1965 . The brlghtnus aura is a common space photo effect and often makes point 1ourcH appear to be surrounded by a "force field" or an " exhaust i:rail". NASA photo S-65-65304. Japanese UFO organization) was take an ordinary photograph oC Earth made Crom the Gemini-7 spaceship on December 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 acijust the attitude and spin rate of the Gemini. The original photo (NASA 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 sp!lct-ship merged into the dark Earth beneath. This left the two now mysterious lights seemingly suspendt:d in space, as it were. A n ormal space touri.,t photo was turned into conrincing UFO evidence, and thousands of people were fool ed. 45 American spacemen are not the only ones report ing UFOs, accord ing to th e popular press. Stories that allegedly come from Moscow tell about UFOs followin g S oviet man ned spacecraft in the Vostok and Voskh od series t en years ago. But such secr ecy surround s the entir e Soviet space effor t t hat these stori es cann ot be check ed out. That very secrec y. however, is itself
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Source text · mention only!l pn\·: •·, ( ..I t11·;.:~1n1. 1i l ;i_! :~iu ,i ,;,.; vahdit:1 of th·! ru,:iu. •. Sn r,1.,n'.) or<!ir:JI'_' th:, :,:-; Jl,v11L lhc So·.ic~ s p:.;;,J pro1rJ1n a:.: Sl' Cr cl (and 1011g pri~on terms a,·. ;.it :i11yo11c who even :icc:idc 11l:ll!y ci n,l ;:es .-.uclr ,fatal thal it i,; inc:·l•ciit:1,· lh:tt ; o .,cn, tdr:: :i,1d .;i~ nit:ca•ll:, fa.:L as a (.;fl) , i,:htin;: rould erer lea k o u~. evcn if su.:h a thing had really har,p~ned. The rule,; of ~\·id,rncc hari? been Hret ched and brokt?n by I.JFO partisans. It i.; not up to me to " prn,;e" that these sightin gs n e\·er took place . Nobody has a.; y~ t s£:en any P.\'idcnce apart from a simp:c slat.?ment of fact that th.: .sigh tings did ta!,e place. I will be happy lo consider evidenc e when it becomes a\'ail ahl<!. Let's examin e more of cnese "cosmonaut UFO;;". Ir, UFOs From Behina The Iron Curtain, the UFO magazine 'Clypeus' is ouoted about an object seen by both Vostok-5 and Vostok -6, a fleet of disks seen by Voskhod-1, and "strail ge cylinders in space which were perfectl y formed and had no apertur es" seen by Voskhod-1, Voskhod-2, and Gemini-4 (sic!) . UFOs have even b een blamed for the malfunction of the Voskhod-2 autopilot. As I have sa id, these "reports" are hardly evide nce, and can be far more easily manufactured than refuted. SurE:ly one of the most specious and ghouli~h "space UFO " 3tories deals with the Soyuz -11 flight, on whi ch t h~ crewmen p erish ed during their retur., to Eal'th. UFO literature has recently been circulatin g a "tran script" betw een the cosmonauts and grc,und control. The crewmen describe se veral glowing re·d objects and discuss them with flight controlle:-s. To anyone familiar with typical spac e-to-ground communicati ons, this "transcript" is pat ently counterf eit. Some one's v ivict ima ginati on, embold,med by th·e knowledge that the men were dead and could not argue, must have creat £:d the enti re incid e11c. Without further evidenc t), the entir e cla.53 of "cosmonau t UFOs" must be rejected. D~libera te attc•mpt s to " mu ddy tht? waters'' Jn d to manuf..ct'..lr!:.' ia ncasies are com mon in this LiFO genre, :,.; in oth en;. In in\'e ~tigatiu~ pll1Ho~rat-1hic :.-..:nt.v i ~ p;, ..,•,·r.lfl C cnl,·r) 1i.-ar li, ,,i, t,, r,. U 11cl,•f\\' 111h 1 1s an cXfl'Jl'i• er.-:,•u pilo tuintrrp,cter v:hu h;,s c:,:iminl•d ,J\'cry s i11;:lc p holo1;r.1 ph bYuu;;ht b.:cl; from orbit :ind beyon d, a111.l h1;; incred ible memo ry c an iJL·1, ,: 1y a d :?rad,J old p:1otc.i:n1µh, dl·~cribe tr.l! si.:.uati on. and find t h~ citJLio;1 in :i,<' old recor d b oo ks within minutes. 'ril e o fli cc oi t his photogra mc-lric engir;c,el' is full of slack ed iilm i.:ans, light t.ibles, world and le.cal maps, and piles of lett e rs from ex-astronauts and ordi na ry cit izens alite. Has he ser: n any UFO,;? Underwood answered lhat with a smile: "I' ve nt?n!r fou nd anythin g in these p icture s t hat puzzled m e for long, and I'm kind of disappoint ed. It would be terribly exciting to find evidence for someone else's space ship!'' When UFO writers hint broadly about a "NASA coverup" or "space censorship », they are essentially calling Dick Underwood and his colleagues a pack of liars. Distortion and withholding of the truth is no t a strang e r to Unde rwood's oflic c, ho wever. Wht!n a li FO research er named Al;i 11 Sa ndler was w•irk in!l on a book a nd a m o\'ic ("lffOs : Past. l~csenl and F'ula rc". lo he ad·,ert1sed as ;i "doc um en tarv •') he \"isited Und erwood 's of[i r.c and loo ked through do7.ens of rolls of lilm . wriling down ordt!rs for pri nts of :inythi ng that looked interestin g. Th is is a standard service provided by NASA to journali sts. SanrllP.r rhose a set of phot ographs for his movie, pnoto graph s whi ch Underwood advised him probab ly only showt?d dust particles in fron t of the camera, de bris outside the spa cecrail , or glare on the window s (this was easy enough to prove by lookin g a t p ictures ahead of and behind the shots in question). Two photograph s were particularly upsetting. They both showed a b lack back• ground with a string of lights in the middle o( the photograph . In the book (with the same name as the mo\·ie. • although written by another author , Robert Emeneggar) the two shots are . ., ® ;>r,o ~~ ,:,r Ag,, t>.:• 12 f ro m Go-nlr,;. 12 . T h ;, ,, pan of a seQuenc: e o f photos w h ,ch ta~ ~• trio evid,Jn,:<' o f t ; FQ ~i;;htirt,;~ br A-;e n t1 fr~ m l1tJnt 11.tu d .lrk . Afte r o ..1rk , o n ly t h e r unn ing lighu are v•i•b le. One r e,oar chet Am~rican :i.;trnn.iu ts, I 11'.>ri,~d clu:icly h:,s w,ao rv pubh • hcd t h •S IJ 1tcr p ho to gr ap h as a " UF O" . .,, a ,d by N AS A te> be Agena trac:k • with Hich:ird Cndrrw, h)d at thL• NAS A ing 1;9h ts" . NASA p t,o to S 6 6 -63 101. Johnson Sp:ice c~•11t~r (forrn ,•rly rnc . · - - ·-- -- ---- · ·- -- .~ -·
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Source text · mention only. ~ . I . . . .. . .. ,;. • • , , -~,; . . ' .... . ; - . . ·• ·- ..• . ·=·. ~' . ' ·~·:. ;;:.,.... /~--.--: ~.-....~..:.:,·."~.;,./•-~ . .. "Said to be ranging lights" on Gemini-12, according to Sandler. Compare with earlier ph.:ito showing Agena in the sunlight. Deliberate slanting of e•1idence. ... . ' ..... ·:..~ ;f reproduced with the caption: "Shot during Gemi ni X II on Novamber 13, 1966, and said to be Agena Ranging Lights prior to docking". The erroneous implication of these twisted words is that this is another NASA excuse for some remarkable UFO 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 seq uence of twenty photographs showi11g the • Agena as it moves from the sunlit side of Earth inLo the shadow". As Underwood anJ l stood in the photo laboratory inside buildini,: No. 8 at th e histo ric Hou$ton sµac.:e center. the 1;equence was rii:ht thcrt) in fro11t of our eyes 011 the gluwin~ viewing board. How did the '·UFO rcscarc.:hcr" react to this expl:rnalion, [ asked°! He continue d to explain: " I took the whole sequence with me to Hollywoo d along with other films which NASA was providing. I showed the sequence to Sandler . He wasn't interested. Unfortunately he went ahead and used the phot_ographs anyway". Thousands more people v.-ere deceived. The flight of Gemini-11 h:5an a long battle between astronattt Ch:irles "Pete" Conrad and UFO belieVPI". The astronauts had tak en three even more remarkabl e photogr::iphs. "Pete" Conrad had spotted a morir.g ubj..-ct outside his ·sindow and had s.1appe d off a few frames of film, varyi ng the .:xpo:;ure on t•ach sh,H in an :.ittempt to get at leas t 011t) ~oud ,ic·v whic h w<rnld show ;omclhin ~. Pt-r a rcque,;t from NASA, NORAD soo n r eported th:it the object had b~en 47 :1 ;~;,._b;i:Ll t;4..., 111i,; r:t;, ::::) ,)i":lil•i':-· c•.:;;._.,J I'.'<.>tull .:;_ :\ci;()r:] ti,;_; LO .\iI° r\,, l"':: c:0111 pule t,. it ·sou l:I ha, ,~ .::; ,~-;,;.:(J Gemini's orhil s~v,.-ral l111 i1d;-_,J r,1;ks t,,-ilind Lh,• $p,,,:<;crart. Yet t itis c,bj..-.:! wa~ in .i diftc'<cnt di :c·<.:tinn ;i ,1d 1•. a., nt\l (' h l ;)O do•;C. It ','/a _; :I lir O'. Dt)spilc these, objc.::tio.1.,. NOR ..\D wJ,; right i;:ir the wro11g re:1.,cns. T ;:l' object w,:s indeed P1:otor.-3, Hen tJ1ot,6h tlt •J Aeri:tl Phe,:om,mo :': Research Organizatiu r, (A PRO) and it~ research direct o,·, Dr. James Harder, has made much of the cfocrepa,:cy and cons id1m th is the h\?st Gemini l =FO ever seen. c~(:_ plttf-5 11~1g~1q >1.'3,~\f') Few r esearchers hJ\"P. noticed. a;1d none had recogn iz,,d the sign ificacce of the fact, that the Proton-3 sate Iiite was only hours away from burning up in the atmosphere. As its orbit decayed toward a fiery doom, it circled Earth fastPr and fast er, run-r.ing ahead of the schedul e predicted by NORAD. The simple truth, oft2n ig11ored or distort ed by many writers, is that NORAD does not "track e\'erything in space" like the rada:.- screens of sor.1e air traffic control center. Inste:!d , objects which pass through tha beatt15 of a handful of worldwide radar sit<'s (at a range of a thousand miles or Jess) are observed and catalogu ed, a:id their orbits are calculat ed. These calcyl a tions are then proj ec te d for'.'.'ard in time (the math ematical term is ··ext ra polat ed") to plot where the spacecr:11t should be if its orbit hasn't been changed. Gemini's orbit had been changed by a rendezvous rocket firing . Prot on's orbit was changed by its decay. I ordered microfilm copi es of the la.;t few NORAD predicti ons from the Tracking Repo rts Section at the NAS A Goc!dard Spac e Center in Greenbe lt, M;u-yland, and as soon as I read them l knew the answer. The prediction s were off by Se\·eral hundred miles per da~: ! Each new proj ect ion made a correction to th e previous one. Using a combination of these figures, a new dtitude differ ence betwee n Gemini and Proton could easily be compul.:?d. It 11·:is entirdy close e nough to coincide with th . astron:.iuts' sightin g. Further more, t h.i astronaut~ r.ad made a visual :.is ·,1·1.'ll ;i~ a i:;hoto5rJ,1hic record. Their t• y c11 i1,·,.:-.;s lestin:,>ny dcscrib.:s a sat,)lliw t hat looks [;;.e Proton -3 look.-d. a.-; show n by exh ibit.; in Rus.,iail muse11111:;: a stubbv cyli.itkr
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Source text · mention only----- - . ••• • with four lar::e triantlular canted solar t...p.,nrb. (Conract compared lhc sight to Oul>ris from open the strap -on lwosters of a Titau•3 hatch on G omini• t 2. ...........rocket.) F:vcu the photo graphs show this when ~ludicd with real Proton-3 photographs close at hand. A~trn:::?:.:~ Co::~::d ~:-:d th:! l.iFO people clashed again ov~r his. next ;.. space mission. Apollo•12. According tlO the Research Director of A.PRO, Dr. ltn ~-··.Harder, Conrad reported that he was • f bei11g followed by a UFO 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. Harder 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 UFO 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. He took this out of context . . .I called the ground and said, 'hey, gang, we're being followed, there's · some flashing object out there'. Some scandal sheet took that a.,d Fragment in focus at range of 3 to 5 feet-Sandler calls it 0 unidentiflabJe'', and Malian and Barry also use It. ra?'\ e11lo.~z x..,1..t-0, 16) ~ t.:: ' .' "'.. ·:--- ... ..... ...... .....,• ...,,.,,.,, • wcc:r::a-.• ..,,,..y;..,·,._.,_,."',,..•..__._"..,.e..•...,•....:..J.•.r"-·- ·..,.....,..___:;,,•·...___~__._______ __... 48 ···-- ...- . . Blowups of Gemini-11 photos of Proton-3. Sun glare and el<treme magnification contribute to bizarre appearance, made a helluva story out of it. But it was nothing like anything I was connected with". Conrad has left NASA and lives in Denver, presumably beyond the reach of any NASA censors. He describes a phenom enon common to all Apollo moon flights; the claim that he saw a UFO is also common, but hardly as valid. Conrad confirmed these quotations in a letter to me dated April 12, 1976. "I hop e your paper is widely printed.·• he added. Ref,ming to Harder' s claim of coverup , Conrad could only say: "I think you have more than your share of Kooks."
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Source text · mention only, < l ; f 1 I . , . • . ' ..· :; :·.. r · .• ..... t, ' , ~ ~· ~--.·-,.·. ~ . ~ .:.\..®. Geminl-11 photo of Proton-3 (arrow) i nd extreme enlargement of image . UFO magaz ines often pront funv blobs without indicating that object w as h ighly magnified. f; llrn ertlf,icts cause "blobblne u". NASA photo S-66-5466 1. Let's take a moment to look at the Apollo--12 flight more ca·re(ully . It probably rates as one of the most "UFO-ridden" space flights ever made , and ·probably did more than any Apollo mission to encourage the stories o( astronaut sightings of UFOs. . What lies behind all these stories? Who started them? What is the "offic ial" NASA position? Apollo-12 was launched on November 1-l, 1969, on the second moon landing m1ss1on. The crew co;'ISisted o( Gcmini-11 veterans "Pete" Conrad and Richard Gordon , and space rookie Alan Dean (Conrad had also nown into space on Gemini-5.) Taking off during a thund erstorm, the craft was twice hit by lightning which threatened to abort the mission. · Instea d, the night proceed ed successfully to the first pinpoint moon landing fou r days later. Astronauts Conrad and Bean flew their Luna.r Modul e in to a precision touchd ow n near the Surveyor -3 automat ic moon probe . During a sche duled moon walk, the men retri eved samples from the robot crnft. The return on Eanh was "routine", if f?ights to the moon can ever be considered routine. 49 On the outbo und leg, Conrad had radio ed 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 million s of Americans. It im:nediately gave rise to new UFO stories. According to the account best known to UFO believers (p ublished in Saga magazine, May 1970, entit led " Apollo l 2's ~Jyste rious Encounter with Flying Sauct'rs", written by T.G. Beckley and H. Salkinl. the astronau~,; watched Lwo nashing lights near ch~ir Command Module about 150,0 00 miles out from Earth. At first, the
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Source text · mention only- ' A •' ' :-'_.:~--\~ ~ •• A poll o -I 1 U F O, 19G9. Obr oct hun bh.'\J p .1st win d o w im,n r.d i\Jt•jly altar A1Joll o p ull~<1 aw ay f rom Sa turn bo ost o r. Met amo rpho-si s of obvi ous sp ac:ec:r aft i nsul atlon l r~qrnon t i nto "odcl •shao od UFO " is c ourte sy of Bob Barry o f tho fri nge " 20th Century UFO Bureau " . Hon> Hotze,·, " Ulonoua" ( 1976 ) assigr,s o bj ect to Joh n Glen n's flight . i nvents f ictit ious c:om ment ory and con tin ues weavi ng myth• un lotterod by I ecu. ground thought it was their S-IV-8 astronaut s decided to ignore the ··astrcnuut UFO sightings". Besides booster rocket but quickly calculated apparently harmle ss escort and carry the three astronau ts, millions of that it would have been in a different on with their mission Ameri cans saw the TV images and direction. Next, they suggested that ln lunar orbit. new (or perhaps the heard the voices of the crewmen the lights could have been pieces of same ) UFOs dogged the spacem en. wondering what the objects could be. the Lunar Module "garage '', called During the descent to the lunar They were obviously unid entifi ed, "SLA Panels", which are quit e large surface , millions of television watchers they were flying in space , and they and highly reflec tive. Conrad, so the on Earth saw bright objects crossing were objects of some sort. Hence, they UFO story goes, remark ed that this the field o f view of the Apollo TV were UFOs. was unlikely since one of them had camera s. Simila .r objects were seen The "Fawcett List" of space UFOs suddenly taken off at a high velocit y, during the launch from the moon and says that the ast ronauts "said a UFO someth ing that a piece of space debris during the final app roach to Earth. accompani ed ~hem all the way to simp ly could not do. Finally, the . Here, then, is a major case for within 132,000 _ miles of the moon. . nf'~.,,.,.,"~ Ft.>.•:J ~~4":C-,! 6S'Jr,~1Jffe»%ffifl ~ ¾4'""~ }4:t¢. :7f~ -, • ., . t:o(';. \ I(' • • • • • •r. ";'" •••.:-.: •i ••,,; ~•·----~ •C\:--.••::-;•:~•·--•:t~; ~ ',?~•,~•~•'.:'• •·~~ :::\;•••'~ l • ·: ,· •. -·. •. ·- . • • :- ,... -·, •. .• .:· -_.,. -~ - :f ·-~ ! .·, - ·: ... - • · ·,: ".*# ,- -· -·· I • • .-·..•.. ~-:.. .~. .. ... :. M erc ury ,~. " (.',:,n -e..i ~•F O " on Sco u C·a,o en : ..,,, flight i n 19 6:3. S meors and gl aro, c hanQo from @) on-9 1r:ime l O ~he no"t r v1ti1h, a~tro nn:ct ""tl~ ~nappi ng p ic tures o f linip bllloo n sub •,atell ite . ::,tq, plirt,,. ?..)'3./ +, S 50 ____ .._.,.. __ - . -
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Source text · mention only. . . .. . ' :,,.;. I .. J ◄~-.,., . • ·/ 7 • JI ._!' ~. "'1 ,..,·.· .., ~ ,,;r.1_( J~; .•..,.- . . :.; ._ - .. ~. . • _•• / • • ~ (?-2) T wo obiecu drifting out of open hatch (lowe, r ight) of Geminl-12. Both spe_cks are out of focu s and hence are within sevoral feet of camera. -which h ad• very large depth of field. Object on right, in f ocus, i • a scrap of paper. NASA 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 watc:ied the two UFOs. ether sources re\'eal. Embellishing the story. anothe r UFO source claims that "Next day, the 15th, at 21.15 hours, one bright revohing light approached the Apo llo 12 spacecraft." Fawcett, not to be outdone, also claims that the astronauts photographed the UFO (or UFOs). One of the loudest proponents of the Apollo-12 UFO is APRO research director Or. James Harder . At a UFO symposium at the University of California at Santa Cruz on Novembe r 8, 1975, Harder claimed that one CFO "followed Apollo l'.! on three orbits around the moon". Further, "N,\SA suppressed the UFO incident~ for fonr of p,1nic", but Harder was ahle to discover the si~hting~ b"cau $e it " was disclo sed by a m embe r of the space team" who he refused to id1:ntif:: . 5 1
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Source text · mention only!.iinc:l' all thf" m:ill.'riill ll;m.lcr used to ..prove" the r xistcncc Qf the inddcnts werl.' public information ( Harder could have read it in Saga, which is hardlr a top scc;rrt )!O\'crnmcnt r:!port), his rdcrcnce to a co\·eruµ and to sr.cret inside informatiu,1 were clearly only gimmicks t\1 impre~r; the news, media with the value of his •'information" . NASA, meanwhil e, says that no such UFO event took place. The lights, according to Dale Myers (Associate Administrator for Manned Space flight: quoted in a lette r dated Feb. 5, 1973 to Mr. Donald Ratsch of APROj, were spacecraft fragments: "During 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 suc h as mylar foil particles. Because of their large size and highly reflective surfaces, the S-IVB and SLA panels should be visible at great distances in the space emironment ... " Astronaut Conrad, as quoted earlie r, claimed that the flashing lights were obviously SLA panels but that he was 'joking with the ground. He denounced the Saga story explicitly and gave his opinion that Harder was a "kook". Astronaut Gordon has publicly stated that he has never see n a UFO on any .;pace flight. Alan Bean, the only one of the three still on active NASA duty, issued a statement soon after Harder 's latest charges went out over the news media late in 1975 . In a UPI dispatch: "Ast ronaut Alan Bean...said that at no time during his mission did he ever see an unidentified objecL Bean said that there were some meta llic parts which floated behind their sp:>r.e craft after the Apollo-12 !Uf'l.?r module lifled off from t~•• r:~oon. He said these small p:.-<'::.; were visible until they (tht> ... •!:onauts ) made an engine burn 'f':c: metallic objects wer~ parts er <!",e insulation which came off the lunar module during the lau nch phase and lunar orbital phase. ' At no time •did we see anything which was not of our spacecraft, eithe r during lunar orbit or during the voyage to and from the moon,' Bean stated ." To Harder and his "N,\SA cuv~rup", these stat ement s are just more lies designed to confuse the American publi c. So let's go back lo the key r\pnll 11-l 2 LlFU c111:ountcr and try lo det ermin e just wh:1 is confu sed. Lale on No,.·emb cr 15th. 1969, about 150 ,000 statute mi!es from Earlh. the Apollo crew was talking to cilDSllle commu nicator astronaut Ger~rJ C:m about SQmc lights they were watchin g out their wir.dow. 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 seco nd, or at. least it is flashing at us (at) about that (rate) ... CAPCOM: Roger. We are standing by. CAPCOM: (Apollo) 12, (thi s is) Houston. Apollo: Go ahead. CAPCOM: As best we can tell, looking at th ings 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 fro m you right now. **** The following reply by Conrad has been claimed by UFO believers to indicate that the lights (the so-calle d "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 UFOiogists: 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 loo ked to me like it was leaving us pretty (fast)-at a pretty rapid clip, like it got a lot more than a foot per secon d or so. CAPCOM: Well, 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. We'll assume it's friendl y anyway, OK? The UFO reasoning, as worded by APRO memb er Srad Sparks. goes as follows: ''Aft er the SLA panels separated and the S-IVB's tanks were emptied (on No\·. U) they could not chan ge their ·,t>locity simply becau se they had no form of propulsion to do so. But Conrad saw one of th e "SLA pan els" (on Nov. 15th ) suddenly leave its position at a " high rat e of sµccd ... an i:11;,ossib1lity, unless it really was a m.lal!uvcrable spacecraf t of some ::-ort. nu t where docs one find a maneuverable spacecrait nearly 150,0 00 miles from the earth? Th e :inswer : (exceptin g ,\ pollo 12 itself) in November of 19C9 th~re weren't any . The conclusion is inescapable: One (possibly two) maneuverable spacecraft not of man-made origin were following our Apollo 12 on Novembe r 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 . First, 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 return s to the booster to dock with the now-exposed Lunar Module, before pulling the LM free from its "garage". Striking the UFOlogist's punctua tion and clarifying words from the communication, and putting it in prop er perspective, wha t Conrad was saying was: Apollo: That could be tru e (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 spee d, 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 UFO believers' reasoning-and the entir e basis for Harde r's and for the Saga article's Apollo-12 UFO 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 UFO incide nt that never really happened outside of the fertile imaginations of certain UFO believers. Conrad' s statement , Gordon' s stat ement. Bean ·s statement. and the NASA letter must sta nd validated on this case: Apollo -12 was not followed by a t;FO on its to the moon. But how about on the way back ? "A light of indistinct shape" was spotted just prior to re-en try, 52
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Source text · mention only- ~---__ )· _:-_·-····-··~ ~ ~ · -·· --•-..._,',. ,. -:·. 1 ......_____
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Source text · mention onlyl ··-.. . :- . ... • ... !"'... • •• •• .: . . ·• l·. ' . ... : >:,;;,_;; ~.~: : ..>ct-'. :'.:,·.'. _: \ . . .w~.:.~~:, . ~ -.....,-;;; ;~·,!<~-~--~ ~- :·,::: :~ J::.s:,:, .£.,.: ·,,·~~i«~-;c :+,21~-==.: .. , ;- "" Publisn ed n~wsp!per story on UFSs captions this p11oto:"Theso two UFOs wo , u photographed on July 19, 1969-the day before Apo:lo's historic: moon landing during Buzz Aldri n'• scheduled lunar photo session. Noto the simila rity to the •hot snapped throo years oarlier during Gcminl-12." according to UFO sources. Saga photos taken during the? 1960s. reports that " ...at 11:47 a.m. on Whatever it was, this "halo" appE'ared Novembe r 24th, the spokesman for only in the photo, and was n«?ither Apollo 12 rep orte d in a startled voice seen nor remarked on by the that they were all' watching a bright astronauts. red object flashing brilliantly against Houston radio commentator and the earth." This incident was carefully UFO enthusiast Frank Haley has his analyzed by Brad Sparks of APRO (I own theory about why the Apollo-12 am indebt£:ci to his letl er to Saga of TV camera did not work on the moon August 28, 19i0, a letter Saga editor (NASA says Bean accidentally pointed ne\'er bothered to answer), who it toward the sun). Says Haley, "The object s that "the astronauts did not i::amera was intent ionally shut off to report that the object. they were seeing avoid showing something on the moon was red, and they stated specifically that disturbed the astronauts" that 'it's a steady light', not flashing." ("Haley's Comment" newsletter, Mar. It was seen between th"'m and the dark 22, 1976). It is only a matter of time earth , somew here off the coast of before this nonsense is absorbed into India by a guess of the cr"'wmen. the lore of the "Apollo-12 UFOs''. Perha ps it was a ship's searchlight, But Apollo 12 did see some perhap s a fire, perhaps a violent unidentified flying objects, and NASA lightning storm ... there is no reason to engineers were justifiably concerned suspect that it was a craft in space. that they could have been debris from The astronauts lost sight of the light as important spacecraft systems which they turned the Apollo to take a series might indicate unexpected failures, or of photographs of the sunrise. which might interfere with other Th e wild fantasies printed in Saga spacec raft equipment. Hence, the dn not end here. Beckley and Salkin Mann ed Spacecraft Center in Housto n claim that the astronauts had been (now the Johnson Space Center) gave "startled by unaccountable seismic a contract to Lockhe£:d to study the disturbances on th.:- lunar sur face." objects seen on the TV picture s and on This event never occurred; the re were some movie film. no such earthquakes during their visit. The Lockhc-ed report was quietly Beck ley and Salkin refer to "a issued on March 18, 19i0, about the mysterious blue halo encircling one of same time that the sensa tion alized and ou r spacemen." Sparks of APRO fictionalized Saga story was being consicfors thi:; lo ha,·c bE't?ll lun3r dust print ed. Titled "linidcntifhid Visual •kicked up •.,·h1le thu crcwmt',l were Phenomena Associated with Space walkii;g arou nd . Photo analyst Dick Flight" (:-.iA$A Contract '.'i ..\S 9-5191. lind,,r·.rood sutgestect that it is a LEC; HASO No. 071-80 -013), the defect in the de nilopmeut of the report documents tlw "moon pigc:Qns" photo cuusE>d h,· thl' , l\'id solar i:larc (a term "coi11E:d by :'\.\S.-\ enl:{inc:t.'r.; lo oil' oi' a lii~hly ,Hl~ cti,·e s11 fi·ace: dcscribu UIH!Xpcctcci 1Jbjccls seen in Undt•rwood quil'kly located half a operational photo1:r:iphy that ddy do1.e11 ~imilar "ltalou5" on other space positive identification") of .-\polio• 12. l'o11f.r:1rl t.'lll!i111•1•r:; wen• F.D. Ul•att~ and ,I.G. !l:nrm . "Unidenli rkd \'bua! plwnon:C':1.1 as~oci:ilcd with space flight were rather common opc,,:tionally ." rcn,aJ lhe authors." but. ''. .little or no clo~u111clllJli1111 ll1 p,1,~ cvc11t.; has i,e..-11 macie." Rcfore UF'O bclle,·crs jump uµ and d1Jw11 with confim~a,ion of a whole new family of ''astronaut sigh tings of UFO3'', the authors announ ce? their intention of demonstrating that 1'such evenl~ were spacecraft debris associat ed with an earlier pyrotechnical operation, or ice, or window reflections. Cases for each of these theories have been presented and exhibits of similar occurenccs are included. Positive identifi~ation was not possible. . . The quality of tile imagery precludes a pre cise definition of the object under question. . . In general, it takes much more information to identify an object that if does to detect it." Sixteen millim ~ter color magazine 11651\1, exposed on Apollo-12. shows three objects, called "A", "B", and "C". The object s appeared during the Ll\·l jettison man«?uver in lunar orbit. "A" is believed to be a small segment of the docking channel; "B" was identified by engineers as a portion oi the docking ring, possib ly the fiberglass seal; "C" was probably part of the elect rical harness. All were near the spacecraft and were tumbling. From this and other examinations, Beatty and Baron concluded that "most 'moo n p igeons' 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 learn«?d 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 refer ence clearly indicates that Beatty and Baron were aware of the "Apollo• 12 UFOs" controversy and felt that their study would be useful in demolishini: any UFO buffs' wild n1mor;. unfortunately. tht? ·'moon pigeons" rrport seems to ha\·e been tiled a\\ ay in the :--i..\S.-\ archi, ·C's. Baron. who still wurks at the Joh 11,;011 Space Cerlll' r, told me early in H)i6 that ht! ne\ l!r got any feedback on his report, e,·t'n thoui:h it was fun doini,: it and it had 5.i
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Source text · mention only... · '· ~ - .. >}{ This photo was snapped only moment s 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 c/ea,/y shown. ~ p retty o bvious implic ations fo r UFO repor ts. NASA apparently decided to le t t he UFO writers sprea d thei r ;-umors, hoping tha t the stories wou ld fade away if ignore d. What had ha ppened. though. was a riew shot in the arm for ·'astronaut UFO cases". The explanations could never catch up with the mi~inlerpreta• tions and w1ong impressions engendered by the oni rlteard conversations and l'iewt'd i111a).(r~ (mm Apollo-12. :\lillions of ,\mer ic..ins were practically eyewitn esses to a "space UFO", and were suitably impre ssed. "E x clusive NASA Photos" and NASA cJ nsorship is another part of myth . Theso Apollo-11 spots are highly magnified window reflection, in Lunar Module dee ~ in ,pace (Aldrin turned the .:amer.> on by ac c ident w hile c hec k ing equ ipment ) . When presented with the Saga story and with APRO's (and MUFON's) account of the "maneu veri n g alien spacecraft at 150,00u miles from Earth", the a\·erage · citiz en could only assume that iL might ind t"' d be true. If N.-\SA was denyin g it, '.l'e!l th en, the governm ent has bcl'n kno\'/ ,1 to lie to us in the pa~t. It is a vai:i hop<! to im :.gine that the truth will ever .:.1tc:h up co the Apollo- 12 a11<l oth,•r C[· Os..-\ s clL-c:iilc<l here, th.:: Apollo •I:! C FD 1H•rcr e:-..istt!d. Somc,how, milliuns or pl•oplc beli£:Vc that il did . Th ere is s,1ffi<:icnt blam e 55
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Source text · mention only( . -r---· ,? ...,,, ;.-,. , -t,.~i '-· ~ -~. ~· ( . \ t t ~ LP,,r• ~ ··•(?; ' ~~ .....~ ··: • . z._...,.,, l' - . .. . . . ~•••' vn tu, ,#,.£+,. ·· ., Mi·+ r+::b· ~t- ~_.__,i,I,_ ~~~ Forgl!ry c.>n oo "'ttnr ,nt1t•J ,n 1r.•tt..t or c:oov roghl ,09ula11ons oecauso ,,.,,. ,s a N~SA photo, Evon ro\ouch ed, it cannot bv COPV"9hl8d. 56 for this delusion lo be :.ien( rously dislributed to UFO buffs, ~AS.-\ public affairs offic ers, sc1ii:ation sceking news media, and lal.y readers. And the "astronau t UFO" ge11r•: is not yet complrtc . Let's return to so me more exampl es. Anothe r example of selective omission of facts occurs in the Gemtn l-7 photo of sunl ight glinting oft roll thruster rockots on nose. Photo forgers airbrushed the nose /Ear th bound• ary out, making tt,e two lights appear t o be float ing in sp:ice. NASA phot o SGS -63722 . f H-1iO ALSO ~!:V2~ ~E'b QR) .. ·" ~-ip.,~P:&,~4!•_:-.~~ ' -♦ • : '.~ . ' . . : . ... ,.. . - -· .. .... - .- ·--·- - - - - -
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Source text · mention only.. ~ t S(t'if . J . ,_,.....f7.. ~~T-. ... I ··"'""11':",~'t.jv" ·.-- ·.'"1 ~,,...~ , -7 ! 'l 'I1 ~ -~j ! \ I I -; ..,,'~.<~';;~:~=~::.::~~~=~: .;'( .. and below) as published with erroneous captions. "Fawc:dt list" of astronaut sightings. Geori;e t·awcett is a respected and level-headed UFO researcher in Maiden, North Carolina. But an example of his work gives a different impression: "Gemini-XII: Jim Lovell and Edwin Aldrin saw four UFOs linked in a row. Both spacemen said the objects were not stars" (quoted from The Edge of Reality , Hynek & Vallee, 1975, page 64). From the GT-12 Astronaut Debriefing, page K/3.4, Lovell relates : "During 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 ro,v and they weren't stars I know. They must have been these same things we tossed overbo ard." The original distorti on of this entirely ordinary event, according to the Condon Report , is the responsibility of UFO wnter, John Keel, Fawcett took it and embellished it. Another of Fawcett 's favorites is M~rcury-7: "Scott Carpenter reported th<1t he had what looked like a good shot of a saucer." E!sPwhere he claimed that Carp,rnter "look a photograph of a classical sauce r-shaped UFO with dome tha t followed his capsule." ~(._ pla.t,;:, J,l In fact, the photograph s s!iow an entirr.ly ordinary object: a space balloon ejecte d 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 Fawcett 's fantasizing. An example of the difficulty of " disproving" an "astronaut UFO sighting" is the Mercury-9 case in 1963. Well established in the UFO 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 bogie on a radar screen (this wasn't Shot during Sky Lab Ill second manned Sky Lab Flighl 263 day of 1973-1645 Zulu Time . NASA Photo =sLJ- 118-2 140 (4 shots taken) Listed as unrden1,r.ed ob1ec t or satelli te by NASA Pho to E,·aluat,on Lab ;(f.!C,;ii!P.l!'f!';H!¥,""" , - •• ~ -, . :. • : · r · , " • i!\":i;-':. ~ -. ,.. '-' - ,. • < • · :.,. • • ,, ~ . ·.rt . I t lI . t -~L liio.t.'.1io-t.~ .....:..-~ .;...~-:::. ...~0 .:s.::·, : :...ii .,....,._...~~~....~ @ 57 . - ·•• 3A . · •-
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Source text · mention only. ' scn~:itinnal rn•.•'ll(h for rir:tion al •'far.t" ·,l"ril n Fr•111 ;.; Ed ·: ar-1;: hi) had two hundrf'rl peopll• ar.luatl)i me Lhc ohjt·ct.). The sou rce of th e story secll!S to have bren an NBC newsm:t!l in Aust ralia. But the prob:crn ~ecms tll b.: th:it Cooper has nc,.·er heard of it. He has b-:cn out of tile spat'e program for SP.Ven years. and talks freely about urus lo reporter s, to the Columbia "UFO recording·• .. to Mike Douglas, to friends and associates. Somehow he k:iow s nothing abou t. "his" space UFO -and he has no reason to be silent. His space UFO never existed. Confronted by this evidence, Fawcett (letter of May 10, 1976) insists that "I sincer<?ly believe some of the ashonaut sigh tings are bonafide, based on some of my sources of information." John Keel, too, recalls 0etter of .March 26, 19i6) that "ex• NASA engineers have told me all kinds of fascinating UFO tales .. ." Always these write~s 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 UFO sighting occurred, for which Captain Lawrence Coyne and his helicopter crew later were to receive the 'Best UFO Case of the Year" award (and check) from a weekly tabloid's 'blue-ribbon panel' of UFO experts. A few months later, Coyne said he was told by the panel chairman, J. Allen Hynek, (the resp ected head of the Center for UFO Studies) that Skylab astronauts had photographed the same UFO from space. (Hynek ultimately denied this.) A reputable ma~azine, "Army ReserYe" publi shed the story with an intriguing photograph it had received from NASA and which it labeled "NASA: Skylab", clt>arly indic;iting that this was the astron au t phot ogra ph which had buz zed Coyne. It would ha\'e 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 s tati on. The prc\'ious crew had ret urned to E:irth a 111011th before and th eir relie f ere·.\· was not sr.lwdu led to blast off for anothl·r thrPe weeks. The ph o tograph prin!rd in the rn:il(a7.ine was clearly labt•lt·rl rm its back sidl' as r.j,•('fNI frnm hi, spaf'(•cr;1rt in an :lll !.'lllpl Lo gl't. \"isual lrackilll'. pr:tcti c,: (11:is photo is often referr ed to :is the "cl:issical domed UFO" shnt). UfO re$c:Jrchers anrl ma i;azine edi tors had dearly not made Hen a minia1u111 of effort to verify thes•? t ransparent errors and mistakes. but instr:ad p.!ssed 011 the false data to the public. ThOU$ands more were dcceivr.d. Lall' in 197:J, ;i stran ge ob! c••:t did appNtr in Skylab sp,,Cl' photo graph, . Takrn on Conrad's S kylab fl igh t i11 Jun e, Lhe objcct was not 11oticE'rl bl· UFO researchers but bv govE>rnmcn·t photo analyst s. pl..t~ '33 • Rather than ·•swP.ep thc t;FO under the rug", the officials look the other tack: it might be a mysterious So,·it it SatP.llite and could be of great value to , . .:.:. •. ';'-,·. . -· . ,, . .. . .: .. .._'( ' ,. .-·~·· ,._ .. ... . .. ...... . ,, . .. .... j• • .; :·· • '• • /-"':":: . -.,"1-·/,-:;;.."..-':,....,(;-':.,.::,~,!~--~~i'-:i... -.., ... ~ ~Joi~~~---..:.6'~,(;A»~~~-® .:..~- .- ..--:, 6.::> "UFO .. -seen fro,n Skyl oh-2. Tho e1O,1901tcd ou ,~c t i, actually an air1:lrip ta krn hy S.:,>tl C:irp,.•u(,•r Oil .\ll'rcury- in the Bra :d,an 1un9,.,~. Enlargomont of NASA pho t o SL2- 16-1 09, 7 morn than t1•n years before . II c-fl,t~ . show,•d a limp ball non C:irp<'nter had ")..\ c..a-..."" ! 58
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Source text · mention only' sen ~Jlinnal l'll••'l~h for fii:tillnal "far.t" writ ,•r Fi ·1n;_ !~d·: ;wl ;: hr. had two hundrrri p<?oplt• ar.tually ree the ohjt-ct.). The sou rec c,f the ~tory seems to have bren an NBC newsman in J\t15tralia. But th,:, problem ,;eems to b.: that Cooper h:is nc•:er hc-ard of it. Hr. has b<:>cn out of ti1e spat•e program for SP.Ven yrars . and t;ilks freely about Ur us lo repo rters, to th e Columbia "UFO recording' '., t o ~.·Jike Douglas , to friends and associates. Somehow he know s nothing abo ut, "his" space UFO-and he has no reason to be silent. His space UFO never existed . Confronted by this evidence , Fawcett (letter of May 10, 1976) insists that " I sincerP.ly believe some of the ashon aut sightings are bonafide, based on some of my sources of inform ation." John Keel, too, recalls (letter of .March 26, 1976) that "ex NASA engineers have told me all kinds of fascinating UFO tales .. . " Always these writers fall back on "secret reports " and "private information" when their publi shed repo rts and open articl es disintegrate in the face of the truth. On October 18, 1973, the famous Mansfie!d, Ohio UFO sighting occurred, for which Captain Lawrence Coyne and his helicopter crew later were to receive the 'Best UFO Case of th e Year" award (and check) from a weekl y tabloid 's 'blue -ribbon panel' of UFO experts. A few months later, Coyne said he was told by the pa11el chairman, J. Allen Hyne k, (the respecte d head of th e Center for UFO Studi es) that Skylab astronauts had ph otographed the same UFO from space. (Hynek ultimately deni ed this.) A reputable ma~azine, " Army ReserYe" publi she d the sto ry with an intri guing photogr aph it had received from NASA and which it labeled "NASA: Skylab", clt>arly indic;1ting that thi s was the as tronaut photograph which had b1Jzzed Coy ne. It would ha\'e been a n eat trick for the Skylab astronauts to have photo• graph ed anyth ing on OC'tobcr 18th, since they weren't even on board the space station. The prerious crew had returne d to E:irth a 111011th bl'fore and their relie f crP.w was not schl'ouled to blast o ff for ano!h l•r thrre weeks. The photogr:iph prin!t·d in the magazine w<1s clt>arly labl'll·rl 1m its backsidl• as t<1hn hy S-:<itt <:.::iq.>ent<•r on ~lt>rcury- 7 morl' than tPn years befo re. It t-pl,{q_ r.ji•rl t•d fC'.lrn hi, spac·1·cr:ifl in a11 .1ttc111pt to g1·1 \·isual tr.ic:kin~! pr:1c:tic1? (!Lis photo is o ften referred to ;is the "cl.issica l domed UFO" sht>lJ. UFO resea rchers anri ma::azine edilors had dearly not made e\·en a minimum of effort to verify thew transparrn t errors and mistakes. but instead 1nssed 011 the false data to the public. Thou~ands more were decei\·rd. Late i11 197'.l, a str;i n~e objr,;t did aµpt'a r in Skrlab sµ,11:t' ph otog raph~ . Takl'n on Conrad's Skyl ab flight i11 June, lhe object was not 11oliced b\· UFO researchr1 s but by go\'ernm.:n·t photo :111alysts. pl,t._ '33 Rather than ·•swi?ep the lJFO unde r the rug", the officia ls look the other t.ick: it might be a myste rious So,·iet Satellite and could lie of great value to ... :. . . . . ,• •...' •: ... : ' ... •·. l r t -.- ..•· .,. i. ·.,. ,., ··., ·:--.· .• .. ;'-..:. ~:... ..-_,;_,,: _,;.._' • .,•.,,.,,:::.,~ ..,;~;.,_,,_/ ~ ~...;i~._~;,,..;.r, ..+.,_;.~~@-..:·-~- 33 ..UFO .. 1ee,n fro,n Skvlot,.:?. The '!tongat cd ou,"c t i1 actually an a ,rstrio . '" the 8r~:il,a" 1ur,91.i, . ElllMgomo"t of NASA photo SL2-16-109 . .. ! .. show,•d a limp balloon Carp<'nter had ')..\ "'a'';" ! 58
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Source text · mention only. .... ........:.. ....... . rn;lit:1ry i11t1·lli~cncc. /\ prompt and <?ncrg1•Lic investigation was launched. The object looked like a long cylinder with l\\'O squa re p:tddlcs rr.srmbliug sol:ir panels at each end . ily 11ac,,:-.u1i11~ its ,-tiigu:at 5i;:c on ~~o negative, analysts were able. to deter'.nine that it wa!> about 20 feet lon g a mile away or 2000 feet long a hundred milrs away. j r. A careful investigation revealed the surprising answer. the UFO was actually thousands of feet in length, but its altitude was zero! lt was an airstrip in the Brazilian jungles! Further 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 UFO books and articles h:ive resurrected the X-15 rocket plane sightings of fifteen years ago. This has .., prompted the NASA Headquarters 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). v\o:\-'!. 34 Published reports speak of "fleets of UFOs" at a range of 30 feet from the X:15. But even a casual reader with any familiarity with spacecraft systems will recogniz e 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 descri bed th em (and there arc other lesser ones which [ have also investi gated to a successful conclusion), what can we now say about authors who prese nt such evidence of :, "astronaut UFOs"? While speak ing f ominously about a NASA coverup and of sec ret agencies which muzzle space• men, these same researchers list such quotations as: John Young: '.'Odds are UFOs exist " . Edgar '.\-litchell: "\Ve all k'now UFOs are real". Eugene Ceman: "I believe UFOs belong to someone else and that they arc from some other civilization" . Cord on Cooper: " [ brlieve that UFOs, under i11telligcnt con trol , have ,;-.. ... _ . - .· . .. . ' :·. - . ·...." -,/ .. ,... .... : . .' ..... ·•. Flake of ice floatin g off of the X-15 rocket plane. Somo i nvcst i g:, 1or~ call thi• a " large UFO". NASA photo 76 -H- 139. 59
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Source text · mention only, ..-V--~~ ..,,......,,,.,,,,,,~~~ ..... ___ ~ _ • •· .. ,.~~to,~J,._<.,.Q.""' ..,... .._~,...,,, . .. f ► OJ, 11:'C ♦ l♦IJ ."!" "-~--:"1\i.,,,--:-__,_... -- . •""'"W.~ l , f • I J ,; ,. Clouds of debris su rrou nd the Saturn booster rocke t following Apollo ,opera t ion. Blow-up photos ot individual pieces ot debris inside and outside the cabin have been called "UFOs". NASA photo AS17 - 148-22687. visited our planet for thousand s of years". None of these me n claim to ha\·e see n UFOs in space. By no w it should be obvious to open-minded im·estiga tors that no othe r aHronaut claims to ha\·e seen any eithe r. Sugges tions that they ha ve rt>ally done so are either misconceptions. mi; repn•s1•ntalion s. or frauds on the part of L: FO writers. Yt>t anothe r cast: in poi!lt has just bt>en given, an d it deals with the John Young quotati on. Young , i n Seattle in 1973, said that the chances were goo d that th ere were in tell igen t civilizations on other planets (AP, Nov. 27, 1973). The news man started the article with the lead, "Joh n Y oung says that the odds are that unidentiii ed Flying Objects do exi$t'', even though none of Young's quot ed words indicated that at all. Beforr. you could say "UFO tlap·•. th~ l.iFO writers had a new authority : John Young says, " Odds are UFOs exist". It see ms clear that astronauts as a class or the population do not possess any specia l knowledge about CFO:; which they may have gained from their own experiences . They are about as well informed (or more truthfully. as badly misinformed) as the anirage citizen. To quote them as above with the sugiiestion tha t they are special authorit it>s on UFOs is a misleading 60 . • • w.--• --· -· ... - -- - - ~
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Source text · mention onlyand inll•llectually dishonest tact ic. Three ti lll l' space veteran Wally ::ichirra, who acco rding to lff Ologisls saw "glowing masses" ( actually lightning-lit clouds, over the Indian Ocean ) h os written. "I do not know enough about this subject to rend er an opinion of any kind . The o!lly information l ~ave is that which has been released to the public through the years by the various news media". UFO writers would ha,·e us belieH~ that this is part or a ,·ast conspiracy of lies which only they can penetrate . ,Accil~ t:l.,. The actual answi!r to the "shapeless light" mystery illustrates the wa~· NASA races real space mysteries . The crew was puzzled by the sighting but repor ted it to space officials who made • no effort to conceal the incident. If NASA were trying to co,·er up actual UFO sightings by astronauts, this was a good candidate for one-and it wou ld never have been publicized. Astronaut Dick Gordon revealed to me the unpublicized solution to the .., publicized mystery . In a letter dated Sep temhcr 15. 1976, Cordon wrote: " I ,•i\'idly re..:a!I the inciden t which oc.:11rrcd when a light of indis tinct shape and size was spo lled on our return to earth ... (it) did appear lo be in the Indian Ocea n. ln our discussion s and debriefings that occurred l:iter. Rusty Schwcikart provided the answer. He simply said, 'ho w about the moon's reflection?' and, of course, that is what it was... How often those of us in aviation have seen the moon 's refle ction on the water in the course of a nom1al flight. We 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 ha\'e personally seen anything I could identify as a UFO", says John Glenn, now a Senator Crom Ohio. Astronauts Grissom and Young said, "We have never seen any UFOs". Richard Gordon, who was with A common sourco of space and othor UFOs is shown hore. The aura and the lens-shaped disc Is actually a sunr ise photographed from Skylab. NASA photo SL3-118,2177. Conrad on Gcmini -11 and Apollo-12. writ es that " I never s:iw a l.Jf'O". Astronaut "Dcke" Sla}·tor, claims t!1at "[ don't recollect anyone u,porting any UFOs on any of ou r nights ''. "'Buzz" Ald rin went to the moon on Ai,ollo-11, on which the l.iFO press lists at least three sepa rat e UFO incld enls . There were no UFOs: "There are people who say there's a go\"ernment conspiracy to covu up the • existence of flying saucers ." Aldrin told a Reuters reporter in 1973, "That's a lot of hogwlsh." The L.M pilot on the next fligh~. Apollo-'12, was Alan Bean. Following a new press confe rence in 1975 when James Harder repeated his stories of Apollo -11 and Apollo-12 UFOs, Bean told UPI that at no time during his mission did he ever see an unidentifi ed 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," Bean stated. 61
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Source text · mention onlyTh :.: AH:CJ ll1dl ·t111 \ Fdi. l!J io J c:011li1n1c<l to g1•111•r,1t..: llt.:W ;JSlClJll;JUt (;Fl) f-1iry IJl cs with tile rinony111011s rcH•l;,tinn from "Mr. X", who hL·,.irtl th e Apt>II,>-I l ,htrn11:iuts d escrib e Hthre•: di::,· ::h:.!:J•.•\! s h:-u:l,:-i•.•:5 tl1;,t \.V' •n-• pac i11~ them ::ic r-i,:; th.: :;urfc1cc of the moon. '' The best answer l.'o thi.; f:tbrir.ltivn is in a I! tler from ;--:ASA Assistcnt Admini strator for Legislative Afiairs Rob(;rt F'. Allnutt, to Congr<)s;:nan Bob Casey, dated Januar y 29, 1970: ''Conversation between the Apollo 11 c,·ew :ind ~·Jission • Cont,ol were rel eased live during the entire Apollo 11 mission. There were betwel)n 1000 and 1500 rep resentati\·es of the news media present at the Houston News Cl)nter listen ing and observing, bu t not one has suggested that NASA withheld any news or conversations of this nature." The evidence is clear . There is, out of all the doz ens of "reports of astronaut UFO sightings", no residue of authentic cases, no 20:o or 5% or even 0.01 % of " true UFOs" behind all the "noise". My research is compelling in its conclusion: afler fifteen year3 of mann ed space voyages including space stations and landing on the moon, spacemen have brought back not a: shred of evidence-verbal, phpto• graphic, or otherwise-for the existenc e of extraterrestrial spacecraft, or "UFOs" . That" evid ence, if it exists at all , must be sought elsew here. The performance and standards of conduct of the UFO groups and of UFO writers cannot be cause for optim;sm that such evidence, if it exi;;ts. will bP. recognized and correctly ~valuated. The lesson of the "astronaut UFOs", then, teaches us nothing about UFOs, but a lot about UFO investigators. II Scientific Study nf Unidentified Fly ing Objects (Condo n Report}, Bant_am Edition, 1969, Chapter 6: Visual Observations :\lade bv Astronauts / Franklin E. Roach. Pag;s 176-209, with biblio graphy throu gh 1967. Good bal"k;;ro und m:itNial including unpubli sh<'d 1·alitl so lutinn s to a numb L'r of c;isrs. Inco rrec t solution to Gem ini -:--~ I case. ln ad..-4uat<- anal_.-~b and u1,j11stificd encinr,;l)nH•nt ot f:,,r,;i ni-1 ',- ca.,,·. Th i: £,!;;,: o/ Uc:ul,l_\', b} fl:,-n,·k and Vallee. Hl'nry H,•:,:1ll'ry & Co., 1975. Pa;:l· G:!,6-1 111 ::i S1.·ctit>11 cnllt·ci ..The Sl.'!,·nlbl~ :it \\',,.-1;". \,L• fi,id tl1c phony Fa1u·..tt li.,t. Li.; L l;a~ incorn:cl dales and 111a11y lli;.:hi.:; nul ,if ~•H1ur11cc. On J uly I, 1~7Li. lk J . .-\lk-11 Hyne k rc,:i,".\"£•d 111 y ,,,·it.lean, and cndors, ·d it, anrl n•p11:l'.11,·ci I hr. F'awcctt li, t. which he ;·L'port ,·d tl1,1t lw inr:lud ed in his book as a ru, i1.>sity Olily. That is, just beca u~e ht' pre,t' nted it a~ fact to thousand s ot' ro:adt'rs '.\·as no reason for anyone to concl11dl.! he thoug ht it was true. Thi s appallingly irresponsible att itude towards rules of e\·idcnce seems to in fer.t th e whole UFO field. Sightin gs by 26 Astronauts Co11iirm: UFOs Spied 011 Sl:ylabs (sic) Jla11y Other Space Shots -U FOs Watch Every tlo\'e NASA ;\Jakes, Say Astronauts Who Were Tailed on Space Shot, " National Tattler", March 17, 1974. This is an embellished version of the same Fawcett fantasies. Weekly tabloid newspaper "conformed to the highest standards of modern reporting. Tattler and its staff are dedi ca ted to total, truthful coverage ... " In fact, staffer Rob ert Abborino made no effort to check any of Fawcett's outrageous claims. UFOs Past, Prese11t and Future, by Robert Emenegger, research by Alan . Sandler. Ballant ine , 1974. Chapter 15, "Na:;a", pages 100-106 . Extensive transcripts of space communications cover up the fact that Sand ler carefuily selected evidence and must have knowin gly omitted information which would have explain ed . many cas es. An excellent photo section is included . UFO Report, People Press, 1975. "NASA Hiding UFOs From You", by Rob ert D. Barry , pages 4-10. Barry is associated with Carl Mcintyre's fundamentali st Christian group, and is one of the wilder UFO writers. Even the mass media has learned to disregar d his fictional descrip tions of non-event s. Here, he explains "why NASA called in the CIA to keep these photos secret", without exp laining how , in that case, he got copies . He uses the forg.cd Gemini-7 photo proudly. Flying Saucers-Here and ,Vow', by F'rank Edwa rd,,, Lyle Stuart . >iew York. 1967. Astruna~1t iar.ta~il's w h()lly ur in part creatrd in the forti le (and unlimil l)d b y w,il ily) mind o f ·11,-11-;man' l·'ra11l- Ed1\Jrd ,; :ire iound on p:1ge$ t :L l HO. an<1 l !l'i. Tltrnu i,:h s11d1 entr iL'$ :i j,>11rna lis111 stu d t"nl can trace thl· adua l i::r,,wth of the myt h. , \ /'l:U Hui/di n, :\l.1rd1-:\pril 1970 6:! and l-'dJru.iry 197:; a11<! nthc•,~- T l11, nyi11g saucer club llt'w.,;let tL•r b·,l t:. pifit s the dlsn•gard for i1:1p,,.·ti:tl i11ws1i;,:atio11 o f cvid~•nc~ whid 1 prtH·id1)d th e clima tr in wh:ch the mylh ot' --astronaut liFOs " co11IJ g-101\· and tluu nsh. Th e Star, :Vfan.:h ~- 197 6. pa;:,• 7. Sequence or headline s: On the front page, ''Astronauts Say: We Saw L:FOs in Space". On pai::e 7, --Tc-iJ Astronauts Con firm: We spotted l\\'O UFOs". lll the article, ;\!cDi·:itt ta!k5 oi his UFO, and Coope r discusses his exper:ences as a fighter pilot in Germany-and makes 110 mention of the space UFO assoc iated with his name. The headlin es, as can be expected in such a newspaper, are deliberately misleading. SAGA magazine, May 197 0: Classified TOP SECRET-Apollo Astronaut s Report ed Two UFO Sightings, by Beckley and Salkin, p. 13 rr: Complete story of Apollo-12 UFO;. plus enough false information to "discredit" the true explanation. Quotes "space expert Gary Henderson", another active spreader of the myth. Refers to long-discredit ed stories of "secret dead Russian cosmonauts" probably created by Ftank Ed wards . Houstvn Post, Nov. 30, 1975. page 1D: "Just One Astronaut Cla ims Seeing UFO ", by Jim ;\laloney. 1his sensible and sane investigation (i\lcDi vitt stuc k to his story ) clea rly did not excite the national news media and was relegated to the obscu rity of a local newspaper. Science and .\lechanics, June 1969. Cover Story: "This UFO was photographed by astronaut Gordon on Gemini 11 flight" (the co\·er photo shows a tremendously enlarged out of focus image of a piece of insul atio n floating a f.:w inch es in fron t of the camera ). Page -1-1, Llo yd '.\.lallan: ··.-\re liFO Space Crews Spying on ou r Astronauts?" Descripti o n of the late L. ~lallan's inter\'iews on Ge mini -l ;. provides some new informaLion but cements some old misconc e pti rrns. Also embellishes Condon Report "unknowns" . Lock hce d-~.-\S.-\ Contract ;\ .-\ S 9 -5 191 (.\larch 19 70), ·'T1:ch:1kal Report : L'nid1.•11tified Vi,;uJI Ph1.•11<1mena ...\ssoc; ated wilh Sp:icl' fli:,:ht''. F. HL•atty and J. R:.iron. Di s<.:tb :ic•s the fr,1i,:1ne11ts ~<',· 11 :111d photographt'd on ,\ pol!•J· 12, and trac es them t,> spacc,cr:ift effct·r;;.
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Source text · mention only------------ ~ REPL,Y To: REPLY To; 0 135 HART SENATE OfFICE 8UtLOlNG Q 103 FEDERAL COURTHOUSE BUILDING WASHINGTON , 0C 20510-150 1 3206THSTREET (2021 224-3744 Sioux CITY, IA 5 1101- 124A 0 TTY : (2021 224-44 79 e-mail:ehucLgrassley@g rassley.senate.gov 721 FEDERAL BUILDING tlnitEd ~totes ~rnotr Q (71 21 233-1860 210 WATERLOO B UILDING 531 COMMER CIAL STRE ET 210 W ALNUT $',-REET DES M OINES. IA 50309 - 2140 CHARLES E. GRASS LEY WATERLOO, IA 50701-5497 (319 1232-6657 (5151284-4890 0 206 FEDERAL BUILDING WASH INGTON , DC 205 10-1501 0 116 FEDERAL BUILDING 131 E. 41H S TREET 101 1S1 STREET SE. CEDAR RAP10S. IA 52401 - 1227 (319) 363--6832 August 3, 1998 DAVENPORT, IA 52801 - 15 13 (3191322-4 331 0 307 Fl!DEHAL B UILDING 8 SOUTH 6TH STREET COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA 51501-4204 Ms . Mary D. Kerwin (7121322-7103 Deputy Assoc. For Legislative Affairs National Aeronautics & Space Administration 300 E Street, S . W. Two Independence Square, Room 9L33 Washington , DC 20546 Dear Ms . Kerwin: Enclosed please find a communication from (6) (6) regarding several concerns about the space program . I wou l d appreciate any assistance you could provide pertaining to this matter. Please mark your return corr e spondence to the attention of Sherry Kuntz when responding to my office . Thank you for your attention to my request . D Charles E. Grassley United St ates Senator CEG/sk Enc los ure Committee Assignments : FINANCE AGRICULTURE CHAIRM AN, JUDICIARY BUDGET SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON AGING PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
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Source text · mention only. ( Author: (b)(o) <(b) (6) ~ at internet Dat_e~ 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 i nf ormation conce t"oing letters T hovo previ~unJy writte n to you i n regard of the UFO phenomenon that seems to be happen i ng in the United Stat e s as well as the rest of the world. I greatly appreciate all the i n f ormation you have led me to through our past correspondence . I am hopin g you can help me track down a few more specific things. Here is a somethin g I heard from someone I was corresponding with: 11 0n Sunday, August 10, 1997 at around 9:45am CDT, I was wat-ching TV and swi tched to the NASA channel f or news of the ongoing shutt l e mission . At the time, the y were broadcasting a nighttime view of Earth. As I watched, I was surprised to see a ligh t rising vertically from the bottom of the screen where Earth was displayed. As it continued to rise ve rtically (relative to the TV screen), the shut tle camera clearly began to track the l i ght and kept the picture centered on it . "Afte r it rose well above the horizon of Earth, the ligh t made an app are nt 90 - degre e turn to the r igh t (again relative to the screen) and continued off in that direction . The shuttle camera continued to track the object a nd began to zoom i n for a closer l ook. At that point NASA cut off the feed from the external camera and displayed the Houston space center instea d. Unfor tun ately, I wasn't prepared to record this on my VCR. The entire episode lasted l ess than a minute, so I was unable to get the VCR ready i n time." I am also interested in any inform atio n that can be relayed about the Groom Lak e Are a , also know as Area 51, or Dreamland, and an area known as Area S-4. The media has stated t hat these areas in the Nevada desert are testing grounds for US "Black Projec ts". I believe that vehicles such as the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-117 Stealth Fighter where teste d here. The gove rnment to date denies the exist ence 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 leas t , are you, the Air Force, or NASA, whoever happens to be in cont rol of the site willing to tell us that is does exist. It is my understandi ng that the Nellis Air Force Base surrounds Area 51, so I imag ine that t he Air force is the one who has juris dic tion over the Area. Many peop le including Bob Lazar, Bill Uhouse, and the father of a guy I work wi t h all claim to have worked in this secret area, and have seen and worked on craft o f an alien ori gin . Bill Ohouse claims tha t both President Nixon, and Bush visited the Area 51 facility to exa mine the progress of recreating alien technology. He also claims that the pro ject was going on with the aid of an alien "gray " known as Jarod (JAY-rod ). If there is any t ruth to the i r claims and the claims of many others, I woul d wonde r why such a spectacular secret would be kept from us, and why the aliens would not have made themselves known to t he general populace of Ear t h . Please do not just send me another list of Project Blue Book doc uments, 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 suspic ion toward the governm ent, and they just make me thin k even more that someone is hiding something. The thing I can "t figure out is why.
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Source text · mention onlyAnything 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 51, or even an admission that Area 51 exists. Thanks Muc~he-..:..· -------,(b) 16) 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 Sl. * Nevada Test site - Borders base on the west. I nitia lly "owned" Area Sl. * Security Anonymous "Cammo Dudes" patrolling base perimeter. * "Janet" Aircraft - Official EG&G "airline" ferrying workers to Groom Lake * ~ir Force Flight Test Center - Agen cy that controls Area 51. Based at Edwardo 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 • Lo ck.heed - Mar tin - Aircraft manufa c turer 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 Mechan ics" 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 ..
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Source text · mention only--------Author: {~ (6) <(o) (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 tru th to this, there is a big sha~e shame, on NASA. If you could contact NASA on my behalf about t hese incidences ·r would be very grateful. (o) (6) 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 fina l 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 i t wa s 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 -terres trial 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 t •o 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 coll ected 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."
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Source text · mention onlyEd 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 their 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 ma de the classic state men t "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 scep tic s beli eve 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" Aldr i n saw UFOs shortly after that hi storic landing on the Moon in Apollo 11 on 21 July 1969. I remember hearing one of the astronauts ref er to a "light" in or on a crater during the television transmission, followed by a request from mis sion control for further information. Noth i ng more was heard.
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Source text · mention onlyA<a:c,;ord i a9 Lo a f.or mer NASA emp.1.oye~ ot t q lii nder1 un nam,ed ra,di o j,arps wi t j.1 I their own VHF receiving facilities that b ypas sed N ASA' s b r o a d casting outl etc pic k e d u p t h e follo wing exc han ge: NASA: What's there? Mission Control calling Apollo 11 ... Apollo 11: These "Babie s " are huge , Sir! Enormous! OH MY GOD! You wouldn't beli eve 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: Hal 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! (by the Aliens). There was never any
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Source text · mention onlyquestion 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. II 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 disap peared." 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 Magaz ine article, Major White exclaimed over the radio:
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Source text · mention only"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 i:s 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 Mauric e Chatelain In 1979 Maurice Chatelain, former chief of NASA Communications Systems confirmed that Armstrong had i ndeed 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. 11 " ... 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?
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Source text · mention onlyShuttle 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 Riscovery, we stil l have the alien spacecraft under observance ...
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Source text · mention onlyJLJN 2 Lt /999 L:ATW:mtg: U1998-407f The Honorable Olympia J. Snowe United States Senate Washington , DC 20510 Dear Senator Snowe: Thank you for your May 18, 1998 , letter on behalf of (b) (6} __ regard ing Unidentified Flying Objects and his concern over the "authenticity of the recently released Mariner photographs ." There are no recently released Mariner photographs. We assume (b) (6 is referring to the images taken from our Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). NASA does not tamper with images received from MGS. These images are received on Earth in digital format, meaning "O 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://photojourna l.jp1. nasa .gov. We appreciate your interest in the se matters, and trust this information will be helpful to you in responding to {6) (6) Since rely, .,d"1J • ... , . • ieninaer Edward Heffernan (Acting) Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs ecc: S/Ruth Netting LB/Barbara Cherry Sent to Mark Berumen @ Hill Office (250 SROB) ((J/22--ltc8 w.1
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Source text · mention only-----a COMMnTEES: ~ OLYMPIA J. SN OWE MAINE ARMED SERVICES CoUNS EL TO THE AsslSTANT BUDGET MA..K.,:1TV LEADE R COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND 250 RUSSELL S ENATE OFFICE 8UILD1NG TRANSPORTATION(202) 224-5344 CHAIR OF OCEANS ANO ASHERIES WASHINGTON , DC 20510-1903 SUBCOMMITTEE SMALL BUSINESS May 18, 1998 Mr. Lawrence E . Medway Director, Congressional Inquiries Division National Aeronautic and Space Administration 300 E . Street, SW Washington, D.C. 20546 Dear Mr. Medway : I am writing to x ou regarding the concerns of my constituent, (o (6) (b) (6) _:_:.:.:--- of Stonington, Maine. (~~) is interested in U.F . O. 's and the recent photos of Mars which were rece ntly released. (o) (6) ___ is not convinced wi th 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 t he 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. lticerel~ , 1 ~t. -~ uni~ tes senator OJS:mjb A UGUSTA BtDDEFORO PORTUINO PRESOUE ls~e Two GAEAT FALLS Pt.Av. 68 SEWALL STI1EET, SUITE 101C ONE CUMBERLAND PLACE, SUITE 306 231 M AIN Smerr. Su1TE 2 3 CANAL PtAZA, SUITE 601 169 ACAOfMV STI1fe1', Sum 3 Su1Te 78 AUGUSTA, ME 04330 0ANGOA, ME 04401 8100,•0RO , ME 04005 P,O. Box 188 P•Fsoue is, e. ME 04769 A UBURN, ME 042 10 (207) 622-8292 (207) 945--0432 (207) 282--4144 POATLANO, ME 04112 (207) 764-5124 (207) 786-245 1 (207) 874'"°883 M AINE RELA'< SERVICE TOO 1"955-,3323 AUBURN BANGOR PRINTEO ON RECYCLED PAPERIN MAINE CALL TOLL-FREE l -800-432 - 1599
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Source text · mention onlyL98-407 - Sen. Snowe Enclosed is a fact sheet enti tled "The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects." As stated in the second paragraph of the Fact Sheet , Congress , in 1993, directed NASA to end its search program. T~r-extraterrestfial s is conduetee -through-Ibe.Seatch ..for:. E~teH igenee-I-nsHtute-(-SET+Institute) in-Mountain View , CA.(_ As for your interest in the recent photos of Mars taken from our Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) , not the Mar iner, these images are received on Earth in digital format, meaning "O and l". NASA does not tamper with these images. However, 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://photojourna l.jpl.nasa.gov/ We appreciate your inter est in this matter and trust this information will be usefu l to you.
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Source text · mention onlyL98-407 - Sen. Snowe Enclosed is a fact sheet entitled "The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects." As stated in the second paragraph of the Fact Sheet , Congress , in 1993, directed NASA to end its searc h program. Today th@ searoh :fer-extratertEtrials is condttst«l -through..Ihe-Sear:ch.ior. E~rate11esli ial fotemgenee -Ins-t1-tute-(-SffFHnstitute) in-Mountain View , CA. (___ As for your interest in the recent photos of Mars taken from our Mars Global Surveyor (MOS), not the Mariner, these images are received on Earth in digital format, meaning "0 and I". NASA does not tamper with these images. However, 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://photojoumal.jpl.nasa.gov / We appreciate your interest in this matter and trust this informati o n will be useful to you.
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Source text · mention only.___ ACTION REQUIRED CONGRES SIONAL INQUIRY Office of Legislative Affairs DATE: May 26, 1998 NASA Headquarters PAGES, if faxed: 3 300 E Street, SW Washington, DC 20546 TO: S/Ruth Netting Anne Ward PHONE: PHONE : (202) 358-1946 FAX: FAX: (202) 358-4343 Action assigned to: S/Ruth Netting Due 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: Anne.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 . MESSAGE: Ruth, If you answer this before June 1, please send answer to me. Thanks. Helen
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Source text · mention only< CONFIRMATION REPORT> 05-26-1998(TUE) 10:26 C TRANSM IT J NO. DATE TIME DESTINATION PG. DURATION MODE RESULT 18502 5-26 10:25 NASA HQTS 2 0°00'52" NORMAL OK 2 0·00•52"
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Source text · mention only-, HegClqYarte rs Action l racKing '5ystem (HATS) INCOMING CORRESPONDE NCE ACTIO N ID Number: L/199 8-00407 Title : Sen Snow e fwd s ltr from _________(b) (6) _, who 's interested in U.F.O. and th e rec ent Mars photo Recipient: Author: Organization: Action Office: Status: UHeffernan SNOWE SENATE LD/Rothman:P Open Date Written: Date Received: Date Concurred: Date Submitted : Date Signed: Date Closed: >>Current Due Date: Original Due Date: 05/18/1998 05/26/1998 06/18/1998 << Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices: UHeffernan , UHeninger , UKerwin Abstract: SEN SNOWE FWDS LTR FROM (o) (6) ___ OF STOCKINGTON , MAINE, WHO'S INTERESTED IN U.FO.'S AND THE RECENT PHOTOS OF MARS WHICH WERE RECENTLY RELEASED. Comments: Enclosures: NO Related Records : Keywords: {b) (6) __STONINGTON , MAINE U.F.O. MARS File Plan: Analyst: BMoore 05/26/1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention only,o~ 1 _t DRAFT 0~ {; L:ATW:mtg:U1998-407f / 7/;> y ~ he Honorable Olympia J. Snowe United States Senanns \.., Washington, DC 20510 Dear Senator Snowe: There are no recently released Mariner photographs. We assume (6>l 6) is referring to the images taken from our Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). NASA does not tamper with imageveceived from MGS. These images are received on Earth in digital format, meaning "0~nd 1". NASA merely translates these digital images, using cq_mputer 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.jp1. nasa.gov. We appreciate your interest in these matters, and trust this information will be helpful to you in responding tol 6) (6)_____ ___. Sincerely, Edward Heffernan (Acting) Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs
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Source text · mention only.. ecc: S/Ruth Netting LB/Barbara Cherry Sent to Mark Berumen @ Hill Office (250 SROB)
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Source text · mention only5 Headquarters Action Tracking System (HATS) INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Number: L/1998-00494 Title: Ward/White House Referral: UFO Hearings Recipient: A/Goldin Author: Organization: (15) (6) White House Date Written: Date Received: Date Concurred: Date Submitted: 05/17/1998 06/18/1998 Action Office: Status: UWard:S Closed Date Signed: Date Closed: >>Current Due Date: Original Due Date: 06/26/1998 06/26/1998 07/15/1998<< 07/15/1998 Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices: UHeffernan , UHeninger , UKerwin Abstract: White House Correspondence from (6) (6) who supports having congressional hearing regarding the existence of UFO's. ----- Comments: Note: Vanessa needs letterhead copy of signed/da ted response. Enclosures: White House Memo Related Records: A/1998-00416 Keywords: (b} (6) J UFO, hearings File Plan: 1320.4 Analyst: JMassey 06/24/1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention onlyJUN 2 4 L:ATW:mtg :U1998- 494f (6) (6) Dear (b) (6) The White House has reque sted NASA to respond to your May 17, 1998, letter to President Clinton concerning possible hearings on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). We are not aware of any hearings scheduled on UFO. Enclosed is a Fact Sheet , "The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects," which gives a brief history of NASA's investigations into UFO. We appreciate your interest in this matter and trust this information will be helpful to you. Sincerely, Edward Heffernan (Acting) Associate Administrato r for Legislative Affairs Enclosure ecc: S/Ruth Netting LB/Barbara Cherry Sent to Sue J. Smith Director, Office of Agency Liaison Room 6, OEOB The White House Washington, DC 20502 &l-alt:ii ltt.LY }J.12 ' I i ~lr:;y
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Source text · mention onlyTHE W HITE H OUS E WASHINGTON l: I DATE MEMORANDUM FOR: ' J FROM : SUE J. SMITH c;f'x1 DIRECTOR, OFFfd[ OF AGENCY LIAISON SUBJECT: 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 i n our efforts to be a ·s respons i ve as possible. Th e attached l ett ers have not received a White House Staff response. I am forwarding this correspo n den ce to you r agency f or any appropriate action. Please return the original incoming letter, along with a copy of any written or telephone response, to me at the address belo w. I also would appreciate y our sending a copy of y our age ncy ' s log of the nam~§ and adcl r@& &@B of 1:h@Be :iFidivielual 9 . Any misr ~farralg should be r e ttirn.ed -C9 my o.r:.i:u;~, i.i: yg~ 11.§V~ qy~etiQns you can reach me at: 4 5 6 - 7486. Su e J . Smith Director, Office of Agency Liaison Room 6, OEOB The White Ho u se Washi ngton, D.C. 20502 Again , t hank you for your continuing help. A98'-0 I I C,'f
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Source text · mention onlyFrom nobody@wwwr.-wrutehouse.gov Sun May 17 17:57:37 l998 Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 17:54:05 -0400 From: (6) (6) Subject: InboW1d-White_House_WWW_MAIL => PRESIDENT Apparently-to: president@WhiteHouse.GOV To: president@WhiteHouse.GOV Errors-to: The Postmaster <P,Qstmast~I.whitehouse.gov> Reply-to: {6) (6) <(b) (6) > Message-id: <199805l72154.RAA07723@www1.whitehouse.gov> Keywords: WWW-Correspondence; ; Ask a specific question regarding Administration policy; Science or Technology; Private Citizen; Comments: Forwarded from White House WWW Comments: This message scanned by SCAN version 0. 1 jms/960226 [Connection Infonnation] CLIENT: ww-trD2.proxy.aol.com(l52.163.201.136] BROWSER Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.0; AOL 3.0; Wmdows 95; Sony URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/Mail/html/Mail_President.html [Sender Infonnation] PERSONAL-NAME: {6) (6) EMAlL-ADDRESS: ORGANIZATION: RELATIONSHIP: STREET-ADDRESS : ( 6) (6) ---------i 01Y: Ventura STA1E-PROvrnCE: Ca ZIP-CODE: 93004 ~Q1.JNTR.Y; l Sf} [Message Information) PURPOSE: Ask a specific question regarding Administration policy TOPIC: Science or Technology AFFILIAT ION: Private Citizen SUBJECT: UFOs [Message) Dear Mr. President, It is my understanding that you, Mrs. Clinton, Vice-President Gore and heads of Congress, including the CIA director, members of the Senate and House, the Executive Branch and senior military reps in the Pentagon were briefed in or around December of 1997 by Dr. Steven Greer, International Director of CSETI( The Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence). Basically, he calls on you and other members of
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Source text · mention onlycongress 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-12? Certainly on your appoinonent as President you were briefed on the existence of UFOs. 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)
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Source text · mention onlyL:ATW:mti;,:U1998-494f (bf (o) Dear lb) (o) The White House has requested NASA to respond to your May 17, 1998, letter l'"o ~:QC:: Jot.i:!41..:f-. ( ;;~ concerning possible hearings on t1FQ!s. . - ~ r-- . . , ( f ') 0 I) ~lll\,cl •Cl.f\+.v~ '"' .'' ''~ a lOJ <.?d-.,. u ~ We are not aware of any hearings scheduled on U£f)\ -t-.T-he-att-aeAed-fact"Sflea,"The US Government and Unidentified Flyin Objects," iv~ abrief history of NASA's investigations into UFd~. llo\t1e!~ f.i er be:--. ge-vemment is curFently inve&tl~aling UFO's. We appreciate your interest in this matter and trust t Sincerely, Edward Heffernan (Acting) Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs Enclosure is information will be helpful to you.
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Source text · mention onlyecc: S/Ruth Netting LB/Barbara Cherry Sent to Sue J. Smith Director, Office of Agency Liaison Room 6, OEOB The White House Washington , DC 20502
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Source text · mention onlyHeadquarters Action Tracking System (HATS) INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Numbe r: U1998-00494 Title: Ward/White House Referral : UFO Hearings Re cipient: A/Goldin Author: '.@.36) Organization: White House Date Written: 05/17/1998 Date Received: 06/18/1998 Date Concurred: Date Submitted : Date Signed: Date Closed: Action Office: L/Ward:S >>Current Due Date : 07 /15/1998<< Original Due Date: 07/15/1998 Status: Open Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices: UHeffern an, L/Heninger, UKerwin Abstract: White House Correspondence from 6) (6) who supports having congressional hearing regarding the existence of UFO's. Comments: Note: Vanessa needs letterhead copy of signed/dated respons e. Enclosures: White House Memo Related Records: A/1998-00416 Keywords : UFO, hearings File Plan: Analyst: JMasse y 06/18/1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention onlyL 6/17/98 15:54:01 CORRESPONDENCE ACTION STATUS HISTORY Page 1 Correspondence and Action Tracking System Code A ID Number: A98-01199 Title: WHR BULK: CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON UFO'S Recipient: Organization: GOLDIN A *Other Recipients/ Organizations*: Author: Organization: (6J (6) WHR BULK •other Authors I Organizations": Date Written : Date Received: Original Date Due: >> Current Date Due: Submitted for Signature: Date Signed: jDate Completed: 05/17/1998 06/17/1998 07/15/1998 07/15/1998 << Action Office: L Signature Office: L Action Officer: HEFFERNAN Signature Officer: HEFFERNAN Status: Open Security: Public Priority: Normal In/Out: Incoming Info Copies: A,P Abstract: WHR BULK: VIA E-MAIL,(6) (6) , VENTURA, CA, SUPPORTS HAVING CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS REGARDING THE EXISTENCE OF UFO'S. Enclosures: NONE Comment: Keywords; WHR BULK CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS UFO'S ET'S Related Records: File plan: 1320-1 G Ad Hoc : A/1998-00461 Clerk: vc
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Source text · mention onlyHeadquarters Action Tracking System (HATS) INCOMI NG CORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Number: A/1998-00461 Title: WHR Bulk: Congressional Hearings on UFO's Recipient : A/Goldin Author: Organizat ion: WHR Bulk Action Office: UHeffernan Status: Open Date Written: Date Received: Date Concurred: Date Submitted: Date Signed: Date Closed: >>Current Due Date: Original Due Date: 05/17/1998 06/17/1998 07 /15/1998<< 07/15/1998 Signat ure Office: U Heffe rnan Info Offi ces: A/Goldin , P/WILHIDE Abstract: WHR Bulk: Via E-mail,(b) <6>ventura, CA, supports having congressional hearings regarding the existence of UFO's. Comments: Enclosures: None Related Records : A98-01199 Keywords: WHR Bulk California Congressional Hearings UFO's File Plan: 1320-1 G Analyst: VCoates 06/17/1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention onlyHeadquarters Action Tracking System (HATS) INCOMINGICORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Number: U1998-00470 Title: WARD/Rep. Gordon re taxpayers money on space aliens. Recipient: UHeffernan Author: Organization: Action Office: Status: GORDON HOUSE L/Ward:S Closed Date Written: Date Received: Date Concurred: Date Submitted: Date Signed: Date Closed: >>Current Due Date: Original Due Date: 06/04/1998 06/15/1998 06/18/1998 06/18/1998 07/06/1998<< Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices: UHeffernan, L/Heninger, UKerwin, LO/Rothman Abstract: REP. GORDON WRITES ON BEHALF OF (6) (6) RE TAXPAYERS MONEY BEING SPENT ON SPACE ALIENS. Comments: Enclosures: YES LTR Related Records: Keywords: (b) (6) SPACE ALIENS TAXPAYERS MONEY, UFO File Plan: 1320.4 Analyst: BMoore 06/18/1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention onlyJ N I 8 L:ATW:mtg: U1998-4 70f (o) (6) Deadb) (6) Congressman Bart Gordon has asked NASA to respond to your recen t letter to him wherein you enclosed an article on Congress funding the search for extraterrestrials. Enclosed is a fact sheet entitled "The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects ." As stated in the second paragraph of the Fact Sheet , Congress , in 1993, directed NASA 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. We appreciate your interest in this matter and trust this information will be useful to you. Sincerely, I. lYnn W.~He;in~ar Edward Heffernan (Acting) Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs Enclosure cc: The Honorable Bart Gordon ecc: S/Ruth Netting LB/Barbara Cherry Sent to Patton Lane@ Hill Office (2201 RHOB) ~ls\cei ~ Un it (
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Source text · mention onlyI III I, lll,11 ,I ,I, ..,II ,I, I, ,I.. I,, I, 111, ..,II 11, I11,1 rll)(o)) ___________ _ , ,• .. '(? PM • ) I ' ·:1 ; L •' • --~✓
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Source text · mention only'201 AAVBURN BUILOING WASHINGTON. DC 2051~206 ~BAft'f GORDON 6TH DISTRICT.TENNESSEE 12021225-4231 FAX: 1202l 22S-6887COMMERCE COMMITTEE SCIENCE COMMlffiE 106 SOUTli MAPLE STREET PO. BOX 1986 RANK ING MEMBER MURFREESBORO, TN'.31133 SUSCOMMITitE dNSPACE l615l89e-1986 FAX: {815) 896--8218 <trongress of tbe Wniteb ~tates 17 SOUlH JEFFEflSON STI\EET P.O. 8OX 1U0~ouse of l\epresentatibes COOKEVILLE. TN 38501 1'93l J528-5907 June 4, 1998 Ms . Mary D. Kerwin Deputy Associate Administrator For Legeslative Affairs National Aeronautics and Space Administration Two Independence Square, Room 9L33 300 E St., SW Washington, D. C. 20546 Dear Ms . Kerwin, I am writing to you on behalf of my constituent , (6) (6) (6) (6) , and have enclosed a copy of her inquiry . I would appreciate i t if you wou l d respond direct l y to my constituent, as well as send a copy to me for record keeping . I look forward to receiving your response. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration in this matter . Please ca l l if you n eed more information or have further questions . Stay in touch, BART GORDON Member of Congress BJG/pl email : bart .gordon@mail.house .gov Internet : http ://www .house.gov/gordon/
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Source text · mention onlyThe US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects http://www.hq.nasa.gov /office /pao/facts/HTM L/FS-017-HQ.htm I' . NASA Facts fIL£ COPY National Aeronautics and Space Administrat ion NASA Head(1Jares Public A f0. irs Offce CcdeP 300 E Street SW washington DC 2054 6 FS-1997-01-017-HQ The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects No branch of the United States Government is currently involved with or responsible for investigations into the possibility of alien life on other planets or for investigating Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's). The US Air Force (USAF) and the Nationa l Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) 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 UFO's are related to aliens. From I 947 to 1969, the Air Force investigated UFO's; then in 1977, NASA was asked to examine the possibility of resuming UFO investigation s. After studying all of the facts available , it was determined that nothing would be gained by further investigation, since there was an absence of tangible evidence. In October 1992, NASA was directed by Congress to begin a detailed search for artificia l radio signals from other civilizations under the NASA Towards Other Planetary Systems (TOPS)/Hi gh Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) program (also known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project). Congress directed NASA to end this project in October 1993, citing pressures on the US Federal budget. The HRMS did not detect any confirmed signal before it was stopped. However, simi lar work will continue in a more limited manner through efforts of private groups and through academic institution s. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI Institute) in Mountain View, CA, effective ly replaced the Government project, borrowing the signal processing system from NASA. The SETI Institute is a nonprofit corporation conducting research in a number of fields including all science and technology aspects of astronomy and planetary sciences, chemica l evolution, the origin of life, biological evolution, and cultural evolution. During several space missions, NASA astronauts have reported phenomena not immediate ly explainable; however , in every instance NASA determined that the observations could not be termed "abnormal" in the space environm ent. The 194 7 to 1969 USAF investigations studied UFO's under Project Blue Book. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was 1 of 3 06/16 / 1998 10:35 AM
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Source text · mention onlyl'he US dovemment and Unidentified Flying Objects http://www.hq.nasa.gov /office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-017-HQ.html . . terminated December 17, 1969. Of the total of 12,618 sightings reported to Project Blue Book, 701 remain "unidentified." The decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, "Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects;" a review of the University of Colorado's report by the Nationa l Academy of Sciences; previous UFO studies; and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during the 1940's, '50's and '60's. As a result of experience, investigations, and studies since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book were: (1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever a threat to our national security; (2) there was no evidence submitted to, or discovered by, the Air Force that sightings categorized as "unidentified" represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modem scientific knowledge; and (3) there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" were extraterrestrial vehicles . With the termination of Project Blue Book, the USAF regulation establishing and controlling the program for investigating and analyzing UFO's was rescinded. Documentation regarding the former Project Blue Book investigation was permanently transferred to the •Modem Military Branch, National Archives and Records Service, in Washington, DC 20408, and is available for public review and analysis. Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations by the USAF or NASA. Given the current environment of steadily decreasing defense and space budgets, it is unlikely that the Air Force or NASA will become involved in this type of costly project in the foreseeable future. Since neither NASA nor the Air Force is engaged in day-to-day UFO research, neither one reviews UFO-related articles intended for publication, evaluates UFO-type spacecraft drawings , or accepts accounts of UFO sightings or applications for employment in the field of aerial phenomena investigation. UFO Points of Contact 1. For further information on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligenc e, please contact the SETI Institute, 2035 Landings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043, (415) 960-4530. 2. News media requiring Project Blue Book files should contact the Nationa l Archives Public Affairs Office, (202) 501-5525. Public queries should be addressed to the Project Blue Book archivist at (202) 501-5385. For queries not related to Project Blue Book, contact the Nationa l Archives receptionist at (202) 501-5400. Documentation is available from: Modem Military Branch, National Archives and Records Service, Eighth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408. 3. The Air Force publication, "The Roswell Report: Fact vs. 2 of3 06/16/1998 10:35 AM
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Source text · mention onlyl'h c US Clovemment and Uni dentifi ed Flying O bjects http ://www .hq.nasa .gov/o fficc/ pao/ fac ts/l lT ML/FS-O I ?- HQ. html . " Fiction in the New Mexico Desert," a lengthy document providing all of the details available from the Air Force on the Roswell incident, is available for $52 from the US Government Printing Office, Superintende nt of Documents , Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-9328. 4. There are a number of universities and professional scientific organizations that have considered UFO phenomena during periodic meetings and seminars . A list ofprivate organizations interested in aerial phenomena may be found in Gale's Encyclopedia ofAssociations . 5. Persons wishing to report UFO sightings are advised to contact law enforcement agencies. Responsible NASA Official : Elsie Weigel - eweigel@hg.nasa.gov Web Page Curator: Woody Smith - woody.smith@hq.na sa.gov Web Designer: Pamela Sams Revised: February 14, 1997 3 of 3 06/ 16/1998 10:35 AM
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Source text · mention only- L:A 1W:mtg:U1998-470f (6} (6) Dear'Cb) (6) Congressman Bart Gordon has asked NASA to respond to your recent letter to him wherein you enclosed an article on Congress funding the search for extraterrestrials. Enclosed is a fact sheet entitled "The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects." ~ ¥01:1 will Aete-.tAaHl'l the secenEI paragrc1~ -'1Ae Congress in 1993 directed NASA to end ~ ~ ~ ·its-search tore~ ,; ~ 1-J.s'\\\ <;,,Q_ ~ Today the search for extraterrestrials is conducted through The Search for \ . ~ - Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI Institute) in Mountain View, CA. X'.t.0 \i Q!. ~-...) ' \J1 ~ ..J J\--e. We appreciate your interest in this matter~~ ~ k v-:-'f- f ~ 1<:>_,,. ( ~< + Sincerely, Is 1>-1} ~ • )'~ ~~ ~ - ~~ ~ ,/ · v\.,~ 'f ~ Edward Heffernan ~~ (Acting) Associate Administrator for Legislative Affairs ~ Enclos ure ~9. cc: The Honorable Bart Gordon
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Source text · mention only..... ecc: S/Ruth Netting LB/Barbara Cherry Sent to Patton Lane @ Hill Office (2201 RHOS)
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Source text · mention onlyLA98-00106 Security : U Name To: GOLDIN Action/Info: A Due Date - Current: 05/28/98 Due Date - Original: 05/28/98 Suspense Status: C Date Completed: 05/01/98 Action Office: L/S WARD Info Copy: AI,EH,LH,MDK Signature Office: HENINGER Enclosures: N Clerk : JM Interim Replies Dates: Comments : Response Progress : Rel'd records: A98-00789 File plans : 1320.4 Type: I No. Organization 1 ADMINISTRATOR 0 0 43 WHR 0 0 Topics Written : 03/16/98 Received: 04/23/98 !Keywords WHITE HOUSE CSETI HEARING PUBLIC UFO EXTRATERRESTRIAL EVIDENCE Storage Location: Summary of Contents: WHITE HOUSE REFERRAL : (o) (B) , MEMBER OF CSETI, SUPPORTS OPEN CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS, OR A PRESIDENTIAL DISCUSSION, REGARDING EVIDENCE AS TO THE EXISTENCE OF ALIEN BEINGS AND SPACECRAFT. Referred No. Organization From : 0 0 0
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Source text · mention onlyAY L:A TW:mtg:LA98-106f (6) (6) Dear(Df(o) The White House has forwarded to NASA for response your letter of March 16, 1998, in which you advocate Congressional Hearings or a Presidential Discussion regarding alien beings and their spacecraft . Enclosed is a NASA Fact Sheet entitled "The U.S. Government 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 you may wish to pursue. We appreciate your interest in this matter. Edward Heffernan (Acting) Associate Administr ator for Legislative Affairs Enclosure This letter came to us via_the White House Bulk Mail 5lih1cw;✓ 113( c#t ~-; I /7 l 5"/11w
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Source text · mention only4122/98 15:46:44 Corresponde nce and Actio n Tracking System CORRESPONDENCE ACTION Code A ID Number: A98-00789 Title: WHR BULK: PUBLIC CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON EXTRATERRESTRIAL EVIDENCE Recipient: GOLDIN Organization: A •other Recipients / Organizations•: ,(6\ (6)--,Author: , ' ' I Organization: WHR BULK •other Authors/ Organizations*: / Date Written: 03/16/1998 Date Received: 04/22/1998 Original Date Due: 05/28/1998 >> Current Date Due: 05/28/1998 << Submitted for Signature: Date Signed: jDate Completed: Action Office: L Action Officer: HEFFERNAN Info Copies: A. AB,S , P Signature Office: Signature Officer: L Status : Open In/Out: Incoming Priority : Nonnal *Responsible Office I Responsible Officer (Due Date)*: WHR BULK: (6) (S) _( MINNEAPOLIS, MN, & MEMBER OF CSETI, SUPPORTS OPEN Abstract: CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS, OR EVEN A PRESIDENTIAL DISCUSSION, REGARDING EVIDENCE AS TO THE EXISTENCE OF ALIEN BEINGS AND SPACECRAFT IN OUR GOVERNMENT'S POSESSION. Enclosures : NONE Comments: Clerk: vcAd Hoc: I
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Source text · mention onlyHeadquarters Action Tracking System (HA TS) INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Number: A/1998-00310 Title: WHR Bulk: Public Congressional Hearings on Extraterrestrial Evidence Recipient: A/Goldin Author: Organization: WHRBulk Date Written: 03/16/1998 Date Received : 04/22/1998 Date Concurred: Date Submitted: Date Signed: Date Closed: Action Office: UHeffeman >>Current Due Date: << Original Due Date: Status: Open Signature Office: UHeffeman Info Offices: A/Goldin, AB/Heffernan, PJWILHIDE, S/HUNTRESS Abstract: WHR Bulk: (o) (S) Minneapolis, MN, Member of CSETI , supports open Congresiona l Hearings, or even a Presidential discussion, regarding evidence as to the existence of alien beings and spcecraft in our Government's posession . • Comments: Enclosures: None Related Records: A98-00789 Keywords: WHR Bulk Open Congressional Hearings Alien Beings ET's spacecraft CSETI File Plan: Analyst: VCoates 04/22/1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention onlyFrom nobody@wwwl.whitehouse.gov Mon Mar 16 22: 19:34 1998 Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 22:16:43 -0500 From:(6J (S) do) (6) _J> Subject: Inbound-White_House_ WWW _MAIL => PRESIDENT Apparently-to: president@WhiteHouse.GOV To: president@WhiteHouse .GOV Errors-t<?: The Postmaster <postmaster@www 1. whi~~e.gov> ~ - Reply-to: (b) (6) <(o) 6) ~ ~\:i,VOftf;J . .-? • Message-id: <! 998031703 I 6. W AA! 4!32@wwwl. whittJ(J.,j{fJ,l,fif0,4L. . Keywords: WWW-Correspondence; ; Ask a specific question regJfn~iS Administration policy; Science or Technology; Private· Citizen; Comments: Forwarded from White House WWW ~ t,,A.,.}.. c-' Comments: This message scanned by SCAN version 0.1 jms/960226 -"! r l....~-~~j . [Connection Information] ~1;J-- 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_Fresident.html [Sender Information] PERSONAL-NAME: (5) (6) EMAIL-ADDRESS: ORGANIZATION: CSETI RELATIONSHIP: member.________ _ STREET-ADDRESS: (b) (6) CITY: Minneapolis---------~ STATE-PROVINCE : MN ZIP-CODE: 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 extraterrestria l evidence (Message) Dear Mr. President: During these trying days in your Presidency, I want to let you know and appreciate the work you have done as President A/1<11S--·ao 31() A'IB-tJO 78'1
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Source text · mention onlyand 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 House, 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 Hearings or even a Presidential Discussion - 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 Hearings in private with people who were in someway connected with knowledge about alien beings, ET technology, spacecraft. Did 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 Helms 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 Dr. Steven Greer. But, his website address is: www.cseti.org I've heard early in your Presidency you asked former colleage Webster Hubbel 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 personne l and just plain citizens would like to speak up and discuss what they know. The American public's attitude would tum 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.
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Source text · mention onlySo ... I do hope you receive this e-mail and not just one of the many ~sistants 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, (o) (6)
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Source text · mention only.. L:ATW: mtg:LA98-106f DRAFT ) (6) The White House has foiwarded to NASA for response your letter of March 16, 1998, in which you advocate Congressional Hearings or a Presidential Discussion regarding alien beings and their spacecraft. ., ~ · ~ Enclosed is a NASA Fact Sheet entitled 1he U.S. Government 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 0A;;f:~ou may wish to pursue. We appreciate your interest in this matter. Sincerely, Edward Heffernan (Acting) Associate Administ rator for Legislative Affa irs Enclosure
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Source text · mention onlyHeadquarters Action Tracking System (HATS) INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Number: U1998-00415 Title: ROTHMAN/Sen Snowe fwds ltr from <5) (5) who's interested in,,_______ __ U.F.O.'s sightings and abductions Recipient: L/Heffernan Author : SNOWE Organization: SENATE Date Written: 05/13/1998 Date Received: 05/27/1998 Date Concurred: Date Submitted: Date Signed: 05/27/1998 Date Closed: 05/27/1998 Action Office: LD/Rothman:P >>Current Due Date: 06/17/1998<< Original Due Date: Status: Closed Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices : UHeffernan , UHeninger , UKerwin Abstract: SEN SNOWE FWDS L TR FROM (o) (6) WHO'S INTERESTED IN UFO'S SIGHTINGS AND ABDUCTIONS. --------- Comments: Helen spoke w/staffer referring him to Air Force; fwded fax sheet on UFOs. Enclosures: YES LTR Related Records: Keywords: (b) (6) U.F.O. SIGHTINGS ABDUCTION File Plan: 1320.4 Analyst: BMoore 05/27/1998 Page 1 of 1
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Source text · mention only------- Date: ~&1 /ji Time: c) '. os Phone#: Fax#: !l~Ll - \9\/ '4, From: Helen Rothman Director, Congressional Inquiries Division Office ofLegislative Affairs Voice#: (202) 358-1943 Fax#: (202) 358-4343 Message: Gl\c.u )2 - CAc::r'. ~ fa-i, ru," J Clf'<'\ V&6 ~ Number of Pages __ including cover
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Source text · mention onlyNASA Facts National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Headquarters Public Affairs Office Code P 300 E Street SW Washington DC 20546 FS-1997-01-017-HQ The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects No branch of the United States Government is cwrently in volved with or responsible for investigations into the possi bility ofalien life on other planets or for investigating Uni dentifiedFlyingObjects (UFO's). The US Air Force (USAF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have had intennittent, independent investigations ofthe possibility ofalien life onother planets; however, none of these has produced factual evidence that life exists on other planets, nor that UFO's are related to aliens. From 1947to 1969, the Air Force investigated UFO's; then in 1977, NASA was asked to examine the possibility of resuming UFO 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 oftangiole evidence . In October 1992, NASA was directed by Congress to begin a detailed search for artificial radio signals from other civi lizations under the NASA Towards Other Planetary Systems (TOPS)/High Resolution Microwave Swvey (HR.MS) pro gram (also known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelli gence project). Congress directed NASA to end this project in October 1993, citing pressures on the US Federal budget The HRMS did not detect any confmned signal before it was stopped. However, 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 NASA : The SETI Institute is a nonprofit corporation conducting research in a number offields including all science and technology aspects of as tronomy and planetary sciences, chemical evolution, the ori gin of life, biological evolution, and cultural evolution. During several space missions, NASA astronauts have re ported phenomena not immediately explainable; however, in every instance NASA determined that the observations could not be tenned "abnormal" in the space environment. The 1947 to 1969 USAF investigations studied UFO's un der Project Blue Book. The project, headquartered at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was terminated December 17, 1969. Ofthe total of 12,618 sightings reported to Project Blue Book, 701 remain "unidentified." The decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, "Scientific Study ofUnidentified Flying Objects;" a review ofthe University of Colorado's report by the National Academy of Sciences; previous UFO studies; and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during the 1940's, '50's and '60's. As a result ofexperience, inves tigations, and studies since 1948, the conclusions ofProject Blue Book were: (1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever a threat to our national security; (2) there was no evidence submitted to, or discov ered by, the Air Force that sightings categorized as "uniden tified" represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modem scientific knowledge; and (3) there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as "unidentified" were extraterrestrial vehicles . With the termination ofProject Blue Book, the USAF regu lation establishing and controlling the program for investi gating and analyzing UFO 's was rescinded. Documentation regarding the former Project Blue Book investigation was permanently transferred to the Modem Mili tary Branch , National Archives and Records Service, in Washington, DC 20408, and is available for public review and analysis. Since the termination ofProject Blue Book, nothing has oc cwred that would support a resumption of UFO investiga tions by the USAF or NASA. Given the cwrent environ ment of steadily decreasing defense and space budgets, it is unlikely that the Air Force or NASA will become involved in this type of costly project in the foreseeable future.
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Source text · mention onlySince neither NASA nor the Air Force is engaged in day-to day UFO research, neither one reviews UFO-related articles intended for publication, evaluates UFO-type spacecraft drawings, or accepts accounts of UFO sightings or applica tions for employment in the field ofaerial phenomena inves tigation. UFO Points of Contact 1. For further infonnation on the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, please contact the SETI I~itute, 2035 Land ings Drive, Mountain View, CA 94043, (415) 960-4530. 2. News media requiring Project Blue Book files should con tact the National Archives Public Affairs Office, (202) 501- 5525. Public queries should be addressed to the Project Blue Book archivist at (202) 501-5385. For queries not related to Project Blue Book, contact the National Ar chives receptionist at (202) 501-5400. Documentation is available from: Modem Military Branch, National Ar chives and Records Service, Eighth Street and Pennsyl vania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20408. 3. The Air Force publication, "The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert," a lengthy docu ment providing all of the details available from the Air Force on the Roswell incident, is available for $52 from the US Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Docwnents , Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402- 9328. 4. There are a nwnber of universities and professional sci entific organizations that have considered UFO phenom ena during periodic meetings and seminars. A list ofpri vate Oiganizations interested in aerial phenomena may be found in Gale's Encyclopedia ofAssociations. 5. Persons wishing to report UFO sightings are advised to contact law enforcement agencies. 2
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Source text · mention only< CONFIRMATION REPORT> 05-27-1998(WED) 13:57 [ TRA N S MIT J NO. DATE TIME DESTINATION PG . DURATION MODE RESULT 18529 5-27 13:55 202 224 1946 3 0°01'31" NORM .E OK 3 0°01'31"
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Source text · mention only< CONFIRMATION REPORT > 05-27 - 1998(WEO) 13 : 57 [ TRAN S MIT J NO. D ATE TIME DEST! NATION PG. DURATION MODE RESULT 18529 5-27 13:55 202 224 1946 3 0°0 1 '31" NORM. E OK 3 0° 01 '31"
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Source text · mention onlyOL VMPIA J SNOWE MAINE CoUN SEL TO THE AsSIS'l"ANT MAJOftllY l.EAoEA COMMITTEES : ARMED SERVICES BUDGET COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND 250 RUSSELL SENATE Orn« BUILDING TRANSPORTATIO N (202) 224-5344 CHAIR OF OCEANS AND FISHERIES WASHIN GTON, DC 20510-1 903 SUBCOMMITTEE May 13, 1998 SMALL BUSINESS Mr. Lawrence E. Medway Director, Congressional Inquiries Division National Aeronautic and Space Administration 300 E. Street, SW Washington, D.C. 20546 Dear Mr. Medway: I am writing to you regarding the concerns of my constituent, (5) (S) of Portland, Maine. _____,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 A UBURN AUGUSTA BANGOR 8IOOEFORO PORTlANO PRESQUE ISLE Two GREAT FALLS P1.AlA 68 SEWALL STREET, SUITE 101C ONE CuM8EALA.NO PLACE, SUnE 306 231 M AIN STReer, SUITE 2 3 CANAL Pl.A2A, Sum, 601 169 ACAOcMY STREET, Sum 3 Surre 78 AVGUSTA , ME 04330 BANGOR, ME 0440 1 810DE .FORD, ME 04005 P.O. Sox 188 Pa£S OUE ISt.E, ME 04769 Au8UAN, ME 04210 1207) 786-2451 (207) 622-8292 (207) 945-0432 (207) 282-4144 PORTI.AND, ME 04112 (207) 874--0883 (207) 764-5124 MAINE RElAY SERVICE TOO 1-955--3323 IN MAINE CALL TOLL-FREE 1- 800-432 - 1599 PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER
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Source text · mention only~ i-;J 7953 (r'l ?C{ APR O1 1998 FEBUARY 22 1998 TIME- 9:11 am Dear Senitor Olyimpia Snow, My name is <6H6> I'm from Portland, Maine. I'm 12 years old. (6) (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 :30A.M. 2. SHIROYAMA, KAWANOE CITY JAPAN FEB/2/ 75 16:00 MILITARY TIME 3. WAIKIKI BEACH, HONOLULU, HAWAII MARCH/1 5/93 12:00 P.M. 4. COLFAX, WISCONSIN APRIU1 9/ 78 13:30 MILITARY TIME 5. DENVER, COLARODO MAY/1991 AFTERNOON 6. BARCELONA, SPAIN JUNE/1978 SUNDOWN 7. MONTEMORELOS, NUEVA LEON, MEXICO SUMMER OF 1994 AFTERNOON 8. VANCOUVER, B.C. CANADA OCTOBER/17 /1992 9. GULF BREEZ, FLORADA SEPTEMBER/24/1994 18:50 MILITARY TIME 10. ZACATELCO, TLAXCALA, MEXICO OCTOBER/ 31 /199 1 11. VIBORG, JUTLAND, DENMARK NOVEMBER/17/74 9:00 A.M. 12. COCOYOC, MORELOS, MEXICO NOVEMBER/3/73 9:00 A.M. 13. BELJUM MIDNIGHT 14. MT. KIDTARDIN, MAINE MIDNIGHT 3 CAMPERS WERE ABDUCTED 15. GROOM LAKE NEVADA AREA 51 FREQUNTLY As you have read ldo know alot aboout U.F.O'S. I also knoew in RIGHT PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, OHIO THERE KEEPING ALIENS AND CRAFT IN HANGER 18. THERE IS ALSO A GOVERNMENT AGENCY 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 pit ition from a high school in New Hampshire to have information on the Roswell crash released to th~ public. I have heard roomers that at HULAMAN AIR FORCE BASE A U.F.O. LANDED AND THE HIGH RANKING PERSON AT THE BASE TALKED TO THE ALIEN. The government made a big mistake by letting Aliens into the country and can do nothing about it. sincerly, (6) (6")~ --~----- P.S. I'm including my address, phone number, and P.O. box . APR O 7 1998 1 t
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Source text · mention only------- Headquarters Action Tracking System (HATS) INCOMING CORRESPONDENCE ACTION ID Number: L/1998-00415 Title: ROTHMAN/Sen Snowe fwds ltr from (o) (5) who's interested in U.F.O.'s sightings and abductions Recipient : Author: Organization: Action Office: Status: UHeffern an SNOWE SENATE LD/Rothman :P Open Date Written: Date Received : Date Concurred: Date Submitted: Date Signed: Date Closed : >>Current Due Date: Original Due Date: 05/13/1998 05/27/1998 06/17/1998 << Signature Office: UHeffernan Info Offices: UHeffernan , UHeninger, UKerwin Abstract: SEN SNOWE FWDS L TR FROM (6f{SJ WHO'S INTERESTED IN UFO'S SIGHTINGS AND ABDUCTIONS. Comments: Enclosures: YES LTR Related Records: Keywords : (b) (6) U.F.O. SIGHTINGS ABDUCTION File Plan: Analyst: BMoore 05/27/1998 Page 1 of 1
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