Pioneer Astronauts
and UFOs
On
May 3rd, 2007, Walter M ‘Wally’ Schirra, one of the
original Mercury Seven astronauts, died at the age of 84. These
pioneers of American manned spaceflight were John Glenn, Virgil
‘Gus’ Grissom, Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, Alan Shepherd, Donald
‘Deke’ Slayton and Wally Schirra. With Wally’s passing, there are
now only two of the ‘Right Stuff’ spacemen left alive, John Glenn
and Scott Carpenter.
UFOs have featured often in the careers of these men, both before
and during their NASA tenures:
Scott Carpenter took a photograph of an unidentified object during
his Aurora 7 mission, during the Mercury Project. It was
explained as ‘a tracking balloon’ that was ejected from his capsule.
However, Carpenter is reported to have said: “At no time, when the
astronauts were in space, were they alone. There was a constant
surveillance by UFOs.”
Gordon Cooper’s views on the UFO subject are well known. He reported
encountering UFOs while stationed as a pilot in Germany in the
1950s. During the flight of his Mercury capsule, Faith 7, in
1963, he reported seeing a glowing, green object that was
approaching his spacecraft. The object was picked up on radar, but
Cooper claimed that it might have been the Aurora Australis. He also
claimed to have witnessed a UFO landing at Edwards Air Force base in
the late 1950s. The entire event was filmed as the craft landed,
then took off again. The footage has never surfaced. He also
addressed the United Nations, expressing his opinion that the UFO
subject is extremely important and should be openly studied.
Wally Schirra joked that he was looking at a UFO during his Gemini 6
flight in 1965. He called it ‘Santa Claus’ and described it as ‘a
command module with eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the
command module is wearing a red suit.’ He also played ‘Jingle bells’
on his harmonica. Schirra was a well-known prankster and smuggled
objects onto his flights more than once, the harmonica being one and
a corned beef sandwich being another. Earlier, in 1962, during his
Mercury 8 Sigma 7 flight, he was serious when he reported an
odd glow: "A smog-appearing layer was evident during the fourth pass
while I was in drifting flight on the night side, almost at 32°
south latitude. I would say that this layer represented about a
quarter of the field of view out of the window and this surprised
me. I thought I was looking at clouds all the time until I saw stars
down at the bottom or underneath the glowing layer." Although widely
thought to be a natural phenomenon, it has yet to be identified.
In
1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in his
Mercury 6 craft, Friendship 7. His encounter with the
‘fireflies’ is famous and led to speculation that some form of life
exists in low Earth orbit. It was ascertained, however, that the
fireflies were particles from the capsule itself that had become
dislodged. Alan Shepherd inadvertently banged the inside wall of his
capsule and produced the same effect and later astronauts would
regularly ‘create fireflies’ for fun.
Deke Slayton reported seeing a UFO while flying a P-51 over
Minneapolis in 1951. He described it as a grey disc that flew away
at high speed as his aircraft approached.
Gus
Grissom was the second American in space, in his Mercury 4 capsule,
Liberty Bell 7 in 1961. He also reported ‘fireflies’, but his
flight is more famous for the sinking of the capsule when the door
blew off early, flooding the interior. Grissom almost drowned, but
he would be less fortunate five years later, when an oxygen fire in
the Apollo 1 capsule killed him and his crewmates, Roger Chaffee and
Ed White. There has been no official enquiry into the tragedy, but
it is thought that the men died of smoke inhalation rather than the
extensive burns to their bodies. Grissom’s son, Scott, has claimed
that his father was murdered because of his outspoken criticism of
the Apollo Project and its problems.
As
the manned space program continued, sightings of UFOs became almost
inevitable and continue to this day. Jeff Challender’s website,
Project P.R.O.V.E., found at www.projectprove.com, is a great
resource for the latest, as well as historical, UFO sightings far
above the Earth’s surface.
©
Steve Johnson -
2007
(Article
originally appeared in the July/August 2007 issue of UFO Data
Magazine) |