Astronauts and Aliens

Astronauts, being 'up there', above the Earth, would seem somehow to be closer to any alien life in a way. (Despite the fact that there seem to be plenty of alien encounters down here on the surface!)

Perhaps it is the unique view they have which makes what they have experienced of such interest. (I'm not even going to go into the whole conspiracy theory of whether or not the Moon landings were faked.)

Whatever your view is of alien sightings down here, there appears to be plenty of evidence pointing to many astronauts having alien or UFO encounters. It makes me think that there are definite reasons to at least consider that some alien conspiracy theories might well be true.

By mid 2008 there had been 482 people from 38 countries who had traveled in space.

Of all those people, some have had some interesting things to say, either publicly or privately.

Americans, by reason of the greater publicity in the States, have been better documented in relation to UFO's. But other countries' astronauts have also reported their views as well.

Some Americans

• Maurice Chatelain

Not an astronaut, but head of NASA's Communications Systems, Maurice has publicly stated that Neil Armstrong (first on the Moon) reported that there were aliens already there...

"The encounter was common knowledge in NASA, but nobody has talked about it until now....all Apollo and Gemini flights were followed, both at a distance and sometimes also quite closely, by space vehicles of extraterrestrial origin - flying saucers, or UFOs, if you want to call them by that name. Every time it occurred, the astronauts informed Mission Control, who then ordered absolute silence...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."

• Neil Armstrong and 'Buzz' Aldrin

The talk of aliens on the moon is due to the communications between astronauts Neil Armstrong and 'Buzz' Aldrin on the Moon and NASA back on Earth in Houston being eavesdropped on by many radio hams. The reported conversation (in part), ran as follows...

Moon: What was it? What the hell was it? That's all I want to know!"

Houston: What's there?... malfunction (garble) ... Mission Control calling Apollo 11 ...

Moon: These babies were huge, sir!... Enormous!... Oh, God! You wouldn't believe it! ... I'm telling you there are other space-craft out there ... lined up on the far side of the crater edge! ... They're on the Moon watching us!

Moon: We saw some visitors. They were here for a while, observing the instruments.

Houston: Repeat your last information!

Moon: I say that there were other spaceships. They're lined up in the other side of the crater!

Houston: Repeat, repeat!
...

Moon: ... My hands are shaking so badly I can't do anything. Film it? God, if these damned cameras have picked up anything - what then?

Houston: Have you picked up anything?

Moon: I didn't have any film at hand. Three shots of the saucers or whatever they were that were ruining the film.

Houston: Control, control here. Are you on your way? What is the uproar with the UFOs over?

Moon: They've landed here. There they are and they're watching us.

This apparently happened during a two minute break in transmission which NASA blamed on a camera overheating.

Armstrong subsequently said that they were clearly warned off the Moon and that there was no possibility of there being a moon base. He was alleged to have blamed the alien / UFO cover up on the CIA.

• Gordon Cooper

This astronaut addressed the United Nations. Although he denied ever seeing a UFO in space, he did see several as a pilot over Germany in the 1950's. Part of his address reads,

"I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which are a little more technically advanced than we are on Earth. I feel that we need to have a top level, coordinated program to scientifically collect and analyze data from all over the Earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interfere with these visitors in a friendly fashion."

Also in 1978 he wrote, in a letter in support of the UN initiative to study UFO's,
"Those few astronauts who have continued to participate in the UFO field have had to do so very cautiously. There are several of us who do believe in UFOs and who have had occasion to see a UFO on the ground, or from an airplane"

(The reference to UFO's on the ground is interesting, isn't it?)

Russian Astronauts

• Victor Afanasyev

A Russian astronaut (cosmonaut) in 1979, reported that his craft was followed closely by a UFO. His description is as follows,
"It followed us during half of our orbit. We observed it on the light side, and when we entered the shadow side, it disappeared completely. It was an engineering structure, made from some type of metal, approximately 40 meters long with inner hulls. The object was narrow here and wider here, and inside there were openings. Some places had projections like small wings. The object stayed very close to us. We photographed it, and our photos showed it to be 23 to 28 meters away."

• Gennadij Strekhalov

In 1990, this Cosmonaut saw something which he described as follows;

"On the last two flights I saw something. During the flight of 1990, I called Gennadij Manakov, our commander: “Come to the porthole”. Unfortunately, but this is typical, we did not manage to put a film in the camera quickly enough to film it. We looked on Newfoundland. The atmosphere was completely clear. And suddenly a kind of sphere appeared. I want to compare it with a Christmas tree decoration, beautiful, shiny, glittering. I saw it for ten seconds. The sphere appeared in the same way as it disappeared again. What it was, what size it had, I don't know. There was nothing I could compare it with. I was like struck by lightning by this phenomenon. It was a perfect sphere, glittering like a Christmas tree decoration."

Other evidence

There are a number of videos and photos supposedly taken by astronauts from various space craft which show anomalies near or around the craft.

As with alien pictures on Earth, it is important not to automatically accept or discard them as proof.

To give you some idea of the quality, look at this video of a UFO taken from a NASA Shuttle and then click on the links at the bottom of the screen to view related videos.

Not all astronauts have said they have seen UFO's in space. Some have remained silent. However, it is worth pointing out that most astronauts are military officers and can be ordered to remain silent.

UPDATE

In July 2008 Edgar Mitchell, sixth man on the moon, with two degrees and a doctorate, came out as saying he believes in aliens and in life on other planets as well as aliens on Earth.

In part of the interview, 'Mitchell said he had intelligence "that we have been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomenon is real - though it's been covered up by governments for the last 60 years or so".'

You can read more about Mitchell's views here.

But, perhaps of greater interest is the reaction to Mitchell's statement. Hostility, either open or slightly concealed, sarcasm and downright abuse are amongst the most common of reactions. To get the flavor of how media outlets combat such statements, just click on this link (which is a Google search) and browse the reactions!

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