Originally Published: April 30, 2015. Updated June 7, 2020

Case File Summary

What are we looking at?: This is a photo taken by the Mercury Redstone 1A Mission launched on December 19, 1960.

Out of the 420 photos archived in ASU’s collection, there are multiple photos that capture, what appears to be, an unknown object, or possibly a craft, that shouldn’t be there.

In 1960, there wasn’t much in space, so what could this mysterious object be?

Photo #MR-1A-9186-266 – This appears to be the first photo of the object, and it appears towards the lower left side of the frame.

Photo #MR-1A-9186-267 – Nothing anomalous appears to be in this frame, but it is included for research.

Photo #MR-1A-9186-268 – Here, what appears to be an object, appears towards the top left. Although not significant, when coupled with the next frame, it seems like the object is flying towards the Mercury-Redstone spacecraft. Illusion?

Photo #MR-1A-9186-269 – Here is the most important, and clearest frame. The object now appears again towards the lower left side of the frame.

The Analysis

After posting this case file, I received a lot of feedback.  Those skeptical on the case proposed that it was a reflection of something inside the craft. So, I did a bit of analysis to see if that theory holds water.

I used 2 photos from the string above. Photo #MR-1A-9186-266 (B&W) and also Photo #MR-1A-9186-269 (Red Tint). I feel that you can discount this theory of a reflection, due to the fact the “reflection” does not appear in 2 of the photos in between these two frames in or near the spot, and also the theory ignores Photo #MR-1A-9186-268 which may show the object much farther in the background.

But, for sake of argument, we will dismiss those photos and deal with the two argued as a reflection. I used, what I believe, is the only constant (non-moving) object in the frame of photos – the reflection of the mission clock. The spacecraft is moving, so therefore, objects on the outside of the spacecraft would be moving their position in the frame as well.  Matching the clock on the photos, would show what was constant inside the craft as it would appear in the same exact position, and what was ‘moving’ outside the craft therefore being in different positions as the spacecraft moved.

Here is the analysis (you can click on the photo for higher resolution):

By matching up the clock on the top left, you can see the “object” in question appears to be in a different position, therefore potentially ruling out it’s a reflection inside the craft of an object. If it was a reflection, once the clocks were lined up, the “reflection” would also be on top of each other.

About the Mission: Mercury-Redstone 1A (MR-1A) was launched on December 19, 1960 from LC-5 at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The mission objectives of this unmanned suborbital flight were to qualify the spacecraft for space flight and qualify the system for an upcoming primate suborbital flight. The spacecraft tested its instrumentation, posigrade rockets, retro rockets and recovery system.

The mission was completely successful. The Mercury capsule reached an altitude of 130 miles (210 km) and a range of 235 miles (378 km).

The launch vehicle reached a slightly higher velocity than expected – 4,909 miles per hour (7,900 km/h).

The Mercury spacecraft was recovered from the Atlantic Ocean by recovery helicopters about 15 minutes after landing. Serial numbers: Mercury Spacecraft # 2 together with the escape tower from Capsule # 8, and the antenna fairing from Capsule # 10 were reflown on MR-1A.

Redstone MRLV-3 was used.

Flight time 15 minutes 45 seconds.

NASA’s Original Source: Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and the archive housed by Arizona State University. A direct link to the photo can be found here: http://tothemoon.ser.asu.edu/gallery/mercury/1#MR-1A-9186-269

STS-75 Comparison

Although not much can be concluded from this, it should be noted. This is not proposed to be an exact match, however, multiple UFOs were seen on Space Shuttle mission STS-75. This is known as the “Tether Incident,” and the objects do have a similarity.

Objects of circular shape were also seen on STS-75, many with a notch of some kind out of the object itself. Again, not an exact match, but the similarity is interesting enough to be noted.

STS-75 and Mercury-Redstone 1A were separated by 36 years on their mission clocks. Keep in mind also with the below, the objects were shot with different camera and technology that was separated by decades.

Possible Explanation?

After posting this case file, The Black Vault received quite a bit of feedback. However, one stuck out as a well thought out, and sourced, explanation for what this could be.  Special thanks to Jon Hunter for taking the time to write in:

Hello,

I just found your site, and I enjoy the extra level of analysis applied to these kind of stories, but I think key points in the story about Mercury photographs were missed.

While there certainly not many objects to be seen in space in November 1960, there were three objects that were right along the capsule’s flight path: the single-stage Redstone rocket that rode all the way up to space, the abort escape tower, and the retro rocket pack.

The reflected mission clock in the pictures gives the information we need to decide if either of these objects could be captured by a camera in the window. According to the Wikipedia article for Mercury 1A, the launch occurred at 16:15 UTC and the capsule landed at 16:30. This fits with the clock: it’s apparently 4:23 when the pictures were taken, or about 8 minutes into the mission. By this point the craft had already rotated 180 degrees away from its forward path, to point the heat shield and retro rockets forward. The nose was angled down 34 degrees. Look at the placement of the window on the sloped surface of the capsule: rotated 34 degrees down, that window would be facing back along the path of the flight, right in the direction the Redstone booster should be.

When the capsule separated from the rocket at T+2:24 minutes, it gained 4.6 m/s of velocity over the rocket, but at T+5:15 minutes the retro rockets provided -168 m/s of total change in velocity, allowing the booster to “catch up,” though on different arcs.

I think the final piece of the puzzle occurred at T+7:15 minutes. The craft detected atmospheric reentry and began a 10 degrees/sec roll for stability. That explains the shifting view of Earth in the window and why the object outside disappears from view between 266 and 268. Then in 269 it is in frame again, flaring. Between 266 and 269 the Redstone booster hit the atmosphere uncontrolled and the visible flare could be hot gases or some other atmospheric effect.

The Redstone booster seems to be the answer that makes the most sense. At 8 minutes into the mission, the window would be facing the area of space the booster would be, right at the time that the booster would be hitting the atmosphere and beginning its uncontrolled and fiery descent. Trying to spot the boosters (like the larger Atlas ones on later missions) was a part of the standard tasks Mercury astronauts tried to complete. It was important for learning about how easily astronauts could orient themselves and targets in space. It was very difficult, but it would have been easier on the short, suborbital flights of Mercury when the capsule rotated 180 degrees just a few minutes into the mission and separation between capsule and booster was relatively small.

I hope this offers a reasonable solution to the mystery, and I’d be interested to know if it makes sense to others.

All the best,
Jon Hunter

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The attached photograph was found by Black Vault user “Willease” who submitted it here for dissemination to the public.

Additional details and some analysis are below.

The Photograph

Original Photograph:

(Download a raw .tif file released by NASA. Note: File size is 190MB)

Cropped / Zoomed / Rotated Photograph:

Image Analysis

The following were submitted by “Willease.”

Photograph Data Available

The post Unknown Triangular Object in Apollo 9 Photograph over Chuska Mountains, Arizona – NASA Photo ID: AS09-22-3325 first appeared on The Black Vault Case Files.

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by Erika Southey, TBV Investigations

OUMUAMUA, an interstellar object has caused quite a bit of speculation, a stir and captured the interest of many an Astrophile.

The worldwide web is rife with various reports of this oddly shaped object. Some even thought it to be an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO). Scientists are certain it’s not.

Oumuamua (Hawaiian term for scout) was discovered at the Haleakala Observation in Hawaii by Robert Weryk using Pan-STARRS 1.

This oddly shaped 400 meters long by about 40 meters wide object was classified as a hyperbolic asteroid.

It’s origin still puzzles the astronomy community. Some suggest that it came from a nearby star known as TYC4742-1027-1, whereas others think it came from the Kuiper Belt. The asteroid is moving at quite a speed that have astronomers scratch their heads even more to determine its origin.

Heading towards the Pegasus constellation; Oumuamua will be visible to us for a while longer, before disappearing.

It’s the first of its type that has entered our solar system.

Will there be similar occurrences? Is there an unexplored part of the cosmos with unusual ‘geology’ that we have not yet discovered?

Additional Information

The following was published by NASA on November 20, 2017. 

Astronomers recently scrambled to observe an intriguing asteroid that zipped through the solar system on a steep trajectory from interstellar space—the first confirmed object from another star. 

Now, new data reveal the interstellar interloper to be a rocky, cigar-shaped object with a somewhat reddish hue. The asteroid, named ‘Oumuamua by its discoverers, is up to one-quarter mile (400 meters) long and highly-elongated—perhaps 10 times as long as it is wide. That aspect ratio is greater than that of any asteroid or comet observed in our solar system to date. While its elongated shape is quite surprising, and unlike asteroids seen in our solar system, it may provide new clues into how other solar systems formed.

The observations and analyses were funded in part by NASA and appear in the Nov. 20 issue of the journal Nature. They suggest this unusual object had been wandering through the Milky Way, unattached to any star system, for hundreds of millions of years before its chance encounter with our star system.

“For decades we’ve theorized that such interstellar objects are out there, and now – for the first time – we have direct evidence they exist,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This history-making discovery is opening a new window to study formation of solar systems beyond our own.” 

Immediately after its discovery, telescopes around the world, including ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile and other observatories around the world were called into action to measure the object’s orbit, brightness and color. Urgency for viewing from ground-based telescopes was vital to get the best data. 

Combining the images from the FORS instrument on the ESO telescope using four different filters with those of other large telescopes, a team of astronomers led by Karen Meech of the Institute for Astronomy in Hawaii found that ‘Oumuamua varies in brightness by a factor of ten as it spins on its axis every 7.3 hours. No known asteroid or comet from our solar system varies so widely in brightness, with such a large ratio between length and width. The most elongated objects we have seen to date are no more than three times longer than they are wide.   

“This unusually big variation in brightness means that the object is highly elongated: about ten times as long as it is wide, with a complex, convoluted shape,” said Meech. We also found that it had a reddish color, similar to objects in the outer solar system, and confirmed that it is completely inert, without the faintest hint of dust around it.”

These properties suggest that ‘Oumuamua is dense, comprised of rock and possibly metals, has no water or ice, and that its surface was reddened due to the effects of irradiation from cosmic rays over hundreds of millions of years. 

A few large ground-based telescopes continue to track the asteroid, though it’s rapidly fading as it recedes from our planet. Two of NASA’s space telescopes (Hubble and Spitzer) are tracking the object the week of Nov. 20. As of Nov. 20, ‘Oumuamua is travelling about 85,700 miles per hour (38.3 kilometers per second) relative to the Sun. Its location is approximately 124 million miles (200 million kilometers) from Earth — the distance between Mars and Jupiter – though its outbound path is about 20 degrees above the plane of planets that orbit the Sun. The object passed Mars’s orbit around Nov. 1 and will pass Jupiter’s orbit in May of 2018. It will travel beyond Saturn’s orbit in January 2019; as it leaves our solar system, ‘Oumuamua will head for the constellation Pegasus.

Observations from large ground-based telescopes will continue until the object becomes too faint to be detected, sometime after mid-December. NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) continues to take all available tracking measurements to refine the trajectory of 1I/2017 U1 as it exits our solar system. 

This remarkable object was discovered Oct. 19 by the University of Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS1 telescope, funded by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations(NEOO) Program, which finds and tracks asteroids and comets in Earth’s neighborhood. NASA Planetary Defense Officer Lindley Johnson said, “We are fortunate that our sky survey telescope was looking in the right place at the right time to capture this historic moment. This serendipitous discovery is bonus science enabled by NASA’s efforts to find, track and characterize near-Earth objects that could potentially pose a threat to our planet.”  

Preliminary orbital calculations suggest that the object came from the approximate direction of the bright star Vega, in the northern constellation of Lyra. However, it took so long for the interstellar object to make the journey – even at the speed of about 59,000 miles per hour (26.4 kilometers per second) — that Vega was not near that position when the asteroid was there about 300,000 years ago. 

While originally classified as a comet, observations from ESO and elsewhere revealed no signs of cometary activity after it slingshotted past the Sun on Sept. 9 at a blistering speed of 196,000 miles per hour (87.3 kilometers per second). 

The object has since been reclassified as interstellar asteroid 1I/2017 U1 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), which is responsible for granting official names to bodies in the solar system and beyond. In addition to the technical name, the Pan-STARRS team dubbed it ‘Oumuamua (pronounced oh MOO-uh MOO-uh), which is Hawaiian for “a messenger from afar arriving first.” 

Astronomers estimate that an interstellar asteroid similar to ‘Oumuamua passes through the inner solar system about once per year, but they are faint and hard to spot and have been missed until now. It is only recently that survey telescopes, such as Pan-STARRS, are powerful enough to have a chance to discover them. 

“What a fascinating discovery this is!” said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. “It’s a strange visitor from a faraway star system, shaped like nothing we’ve ever seen in our own solar system neighborhood.”

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The following video was posted to LiveLeak, but a person just taking a video of the “Super Moon.” In the process of doing so, they captured either two objects, or one, casting a shadow on the lunar surface.

The Video

Witness Testimony

Possible Explanations

Having such an extreme zoom on the surface of the moon, is going to blur out anything relatively close to the camera lens.

However, this will not rule out either a satellite above Earth’s atmosphere, or quite possible a lunar probe in orbit around the moon.

Other Super Moon Sightings

Black Vault user LookNowTV submitted the following video. Rich, from LooknowTV, analyzed multiple videos that were captured the night of the Super Moon. 

It was submitted here, and is used with permission.

Please note: The opinions represented on this video are that of Rick from LookNowTV. 

The description posted on YouTube was: 

5 Best UFO SUPERMOON Sightings Caught On Camera! A few days ago everyone was out recording video of the Supermoon. I wanted to take at some of the best most credible UFO Supermoon videos. I also wanted to talked about the UFO Supermoon video that went viral fast thanks to online Tabloid attention. Let’s take a closer look!

What do YOU think? Comment below.

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What are we looking at? A mysterious object has been photographed by the spacecraft Rosetta, and experts have yet been able to give an explanation.

Sitting on the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, is an object that many truth-seekers say, does not belong. When compared to the rocky outcrops that surround it, there appears to be no similarity, despite being in the same light casting the same shadows at the same angle.

This celestial anomaly even shows signs that the it is reflecting the sunlight back into Rosetta’s camera lens, very much like a metallic object would.

The photograph was taken on September 10th, and released by the European Space Agency (ESA). It’s caption reads:

Four image NAVCAM mosaic of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, using images taken on 10 September when Rosetta was 27.8 km from the comet

Could this be an artificial structure caught on camera?  Or, is it just like NASA wants us to believe about the “Face on Mars,” a trick of lights and shadows?

Original ESA source for photograph

Added on 9/29/2014

A member of The Black Vault, MFranklin, decided to take the case file, and analyze the highest resolution photo available. His analysis was uploaded to the image gallery, and can be downloaded (higher resolution) below. It appears that the unknown object is floating above the surface of the comet.

Of course, it could be a trick of lights and shadows.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

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“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 to avoid panic by all means.”

ASTRONAUT GORDON COOPER’S MESSAGE TO THE U.N.

“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. We may first have to show them that we have learned how to resolve our problems by peaceful means rather than warfare, before we are accepted as fully qualified universal team members. Their acceptance will have tremendous possibilities of advancing our world in all areas. Certainly then it would seem that the U.N. has a vested interest in handling the subject quickly and properly. I should point out that I am not an experienced UFO professional researcher – I have not as yet had the privilege of flying a UFO nor of meeting the crew of one. However, I do feel that I am somewhat qualified to discuss them, since I have been into the fringes of the vast areas of which they travel. Also, 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 west to east over Europe. They were at a higher altitude than we could reach with our jet fighters….If the U.N. agrees to pursue this project and lend the credibility to it, perhaps many more well qualified people will agree to step forth and provide help and information.”

– Astronaut Gordon Cooper addressing a U.N. panel discussion on UFOs and ETs in New York, in 1985; Panel was chaired by then U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. The above message was given to the U.N. by Astronaut Gordon L. Cooper, one of America’s original seven Mercury Astronauts. Cooper orbited the Earth for a record 34 hour, 22 orbit flight in the spacecraft ‘Faith 7’, in May of 1963. He has been outspoken about the need for an open inquiry into UFOs – based on his own personal experience of sighting UFOs in space and the testimony of other Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Astronauts.

GORDON COOPER & UFOs: AN ASTRONAUT SPEAKS OUT

  by Timothy Green Beckley

“One of the few individuals whose prominence is beyond question has, however, over the past few months, dared to open his mouth and challenge the status quo. Gordon Cooper was one of America’s original astronauts. He helped pioneer this country’s space exploration efforts when, aboard a tiny space capsule known as Mercury [Faith] 7, Cooper orbited the Earth for 34 hours, proving that man could live outside our atmosphere for prolonged periods. His patriotism, bravery and respectability go without saying… Cooper has recently made several public pronouncements concerning his strong belief in UFOs. While a guest on the Merv Griffin Show, Cooper shocked the viewing audiences by speaking for over five minutes on a topic that was only within the past few years often considered too bizarre for polite conversation. But there were some things that Cooper wouldn’t even discuss on the air in front of the curious multitudes. Luckily Lee Spiegel is a personal friend of Gordon Cooper. They have conferred on several occasions, and while in the company of the man who is bound and determined to crack the ‘Cosmic Watergate’ which he is convinced exists within the higher echelon of government, the former space traveler is more than happy to talk about his UFO experiences – and they are many. In the early 1950s, Cooper was assigned to a jet fighter group in Germany.

While stationed there, he remembers very vividly the week an entire formation of circular objects passed over the Air Base on almost a daily routine. ‘We never could get close enough to pin them down, but they were round in shape and very metallic looking,’ Cooper points out. UFOs were to continue to haunt him when the Air Force Colonel was transferred several years later to Edwards Air Force Base Flight Test Center in the California desert. What happened one afternoon while he was on duty at this military base is evidence enough that the government definitely does keep a lot of secrets when it comes to UFOs! The incident took place in the late 1950s, either 1957 or 1958 – as Cooper can best recall; and to this day, the photographic evidence of an actual UFO touching down upon the Earth is being kept under wraps. During this period, Cooper was a Project Manager at Edwards Air Force Base, just three or four years before entering America’s space program. After lunch this particular day, Cooper had assigned a team of photographers to an area of the vast dry lake beds near Edwards. In a taped interview with UFOlogist Lee Spiegel, the former Astronaut disclosed that while the crew was out there, they spotted a strange-looking craft above the lake bed, and they began taking films of it. Cooper says the object was very definitely ‘hovering above the ground. And then it slowly came down and sat on the lake bed for a few minutes.’ All during this time the motion picture cameras were filming away. ‘There were varied estimates by the cameramen on what the actual size of the object was,’ Cooper confesses, ‘but they all agreed that it was at least the size of a vehicle that would carry normal-sized people in it.’ Col. Cooper was not fortunate enough to be outside at the time of this incredible encounter, but he did see the films as soon as they were rushed through the development process. ‘It was a typical circular-shaped UFO,’ he recollects. ‘Not too many people saw it, because it took off at quite a sharp angle and just climbed straight on out of sight!’ Cooper admits he didn’t take any kind of poll to determine who had seen the craft, ‘because there were always strange things flying around in the air over Edwards.’ This is a statement Lee Spiegel was able to verify through his own research efforts, having obtained closely guarded tapes of conversations between military pilots circling the base and their commanding officers in the flight tower, tracking the presence of unknown objects. ‘People just didn’t ask a lot of questions about things they saw and couldn’t understand,’ notes Cooper, who adds that it was a lot simpler to look the other way, shrug one’s shoulders, and chalk up what had been seen to ‘just another experimental aircraft that must have been developed at another area of the air base.’ But what about the photographic proof – the motion picture footage – that was taken? ‘I think it was definitely a UFO,’ Cooper states, as he makes no bones about it. ‘However, where it (the object) came from and who was in it is hard to determine, because it didn’t stay around long enough to discuss the matter – there wasn’t even time to send out a welcoming committee!’ After he reviewed the film at least a dozen times, the footage was quickly forwarded to Washington. Cooper no doubt expected to get a reply in a few weeks’ time as to what his men had seen and photographed, but there was no word, and the movie *vanished* – never to surface again…. On coast-to-coast television, Cooper recently made a blockbuster statement that had the telephone lines tied up the next day, as viewers telephoned the stations which carried the syndicated Merv Griffin Show, anxious to find out if their ears had been playing tricks on them the night before. Toward the end of the talk-show host’s interview with the former Astronaut, Merv broke into a secretive tone of voice right on the air, and aimed a hundred-thousand-dollar question at his guest:

‘There is a story going around, Gordon, that a spaceship did land in middle America and there were occupants, and members of our government were able to keep one of the occupants alive for a period of time. They’ve seen the metal of the aircraft and they know what the people look like – is that a credible story?’ For all intents and purposes Cooper should have laughed for assuredly such a speculative story belongs in the category of science fiction or space fantasy. But Gordon Cooper kept a straight face when he replied: ‘I think it’s fairly credible. I would like to see the time when all qualified people could really work together to properly investigate these stories and either refute or prove them.’ The bombshell had been dropped. Cooper went on to say that from the various reports of UFO contacts and abductions he had been privy to, he was convinced that the occupants of this crashed UFO were ‘probably not that different from what we are,’ – that they are almost totally humanoid (i.e., have two arms, two legs, a torso and readily identifiable facial features) in appearance. Taken aback by what Cooper had said over the national airwaves, Lee Spiegel telephoned Cooper’s office the following morning and managed to get past his private secretary, though others in the media were getting the cold shoulder. ‘Cooper admitted to me that he could have revealed more on the air, but he decided not to play his entire hand because he felt certain that some ‘official eyebrows were going to get raised’.'”

(The above article was excerpted from the book “MJ-12 and the Riddle of Hangar 18” by Timothy Green Beckley; 1981; Inner Light Publications P.O. Box 753, New Brunswick, N.J. 08903; p.12 – 14. An excellent book — JS)

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Official NASA Caption: There is no caption given for this photo by NASA.

What are we looking at? Outside the window during a photograph taken by the crew of STS-88, is a mysterious unidentified object.  Could this be space junk?  The famed Black Knight Satellite?

The high resolution photo is available below for download.

High Resolution Photo:

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I’m not convinced the mountain shape has actually changed, as that could be observed with telescopes. I’m sure the actual images of Area 51 are much different than what we see on Google Earth imagery.

Note: The above report was written by Photo Analyst David Mason. UFOs Northwest thanks him for this report. Through additional research I found that the same “artificial cloud” appears on a Google Earth image taken on June 28, 2010. The fact that the same cloud shows up on two individual Google Earth images taken nearly a year apart adds gravity that the cloud is not real and is a fabrication. The question is: What is the cloud concealing? Is it concealing a crash? As Dave Mason points out the sun doesn’t shine from the north in the northern hemisphere. The cloud measures two miles north to south and about one mile east to west.

Weather Conditions: It is not known the time that the images were taken. On Mar 13, 2011 a check of weather at Nellis Air Force Base showed that skies were clear for most hours of the day. There were a few clouds measured at 17,000 feet for some hours. Some clouds were first reported at 2 PM, but the next clouds were not seen until 6 PM. The cloud in the above photos probably is much lower than 17,000 feet. On June 28, 2010 a few clouds were measured at 10,000 feet later in the day. Skies were totally clear for most hours. On June 28, 2010 the clouds did not appear until around 6 PM. Satellite photos are generally taken earlier in the day when the sun angle is higher.

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Back in March 10, 2011 well after midnight between 1am MST and 3am MST while out on the Arctic Ocean ( Beaufort Sea ) a few miles from Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, I was out shooting the Aurora Borealis ( aka northern lights ) when I was startled to spot fast moving red lights coming in my direction from the west.

I continued shooting long exposure photos ( 8 sec to 30 sec ) and in this photo you can clearly see a long streak as this plane ??? cruised above me at a super speed, much faster than a regular airline jet. I have a few other photos from this series as the plane disappeared in a eastery direction…once almost out of view the sonic boom that followed scared the crap out of me, being out on the ice alone, in the dark! it sounded like thunder and the explosion startled me to say the least.

The weird thing about this whole episode was that a few days later my computer and hard drive, where I had all my photos of the aurora stored ( 5500 + photos ), was hit with a virus of some sort and all of my files were completely destoyed.

I had no back up copies whatsoever. I never did recover my year and a half of aurora photos from 2010 thru March 2011. This happened after posting a few select shot onto my Flickr photostream at http://www.flickr.com/photos/39548131@N06/

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The ISS is a hotbed for UFO sightings with new UFO sightings weekly coming over the live internet cam.

Here we see Space X trying to dock but while they are working at that, a UFO comes over and watches.

The UFO looks like a rectangle shape with two orb like windows or bright spots.

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Official NASA Caption: Microscopic Imager Non-linearized Full frame EDR acquired on Sol 654 of Opportunity’s mission to Meridiani Planum at approximately at approximately 12:02:57 Mars local solar time, Microscopic Imager dust cover commanded to be CLOSED. NASA/JPL/Cornell/USGS

Original NASA Source: Opportunity – All Raw Images Sol 654 (60 images)

What are we looking at? In this photo, there is, what appears to be, an unknown object hovering in the background. It does not appear to be a rock or other object connected to the rover.

Explanations:

Marc Dantontio, image analyst from MUFON, submitted the following explanation:

Marc Dantonio John, the object in question is not in the background because you cannot see the background in this image. If you look carefully you can see that what has been mistaken for Mars in the background is actually the surface of the vehicle itself to which the object is attached. The “Mars surface” ends to the left abruptly as the contour of the vehicle changes so you can see this is just a happenstance where being slightly out of focus made it appear to be a de focused Mars terrain. It is slightly out of focus because the micro imager is actually focused much closer on other parts of the vehicle at that moment. Mars is hopelessly out of focus.

After receiving this feedback, I was able to dig some more to determine what the actual “object was. It is, indeed, a screw on one of the arms of the rover. On Sol day 2 of the mission, the rover’s same camera captured this image:

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Note from Black Vault user Willease: I was searching through images from the Dawn mission to Vesta and stumbled on what appears to be structures near the edge in a crater. Notice the shadows…

Official NASA Caption: PIA15495: Layered Young Crater – This image from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft shows a young crater on Vesta that is 9 miles (15 kilometers) in diameter. Layering is visible in the crater walls, as are large boulders that were thrown out in the material ejected from the impact. The ejected material likely once resided deep within Vesta, since this crater formed within the deep Rheasilvia impact basin. It may provide clues to Vesta’s composition at depth.

This image was obtained by Dawn’s framing camera image was acquired on Dec. 21, 2011, during Dawn’s low-altitude mapping orbit (on average 130 miles or 210 kilometers above the surface). Rheasilvia is located at the south pole of Vesta. The image covers an area of 260 square miles (670 square kilometers).

The Dawn mission to the asteroids Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate’s Discovery Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn Framing Cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR, and NASA/JPL.

What are we looking at? On the crater wall, you will see what appears to be a very tall structure, casting a long shadow.  Given the fact that not a single object appears around it – some speculate this could be artificial.

What is NASA’s Dawn Mission? During its nearly decade-long mission, the Dawn mission will study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres, celestial bodies believed to have accreted early in the history of the solar system. The mission will characterize the early solar system and the processes that dominated its formation.

Original NASA Source for photograph: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA15495

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Official NASA Caption: LRV Floor? Sunstruck.

Official NASA Label: AS17-135-20680HR

What are we looking at? This photograph is from the official NASA archives of Apollo 17.  In the official index of Apollo 17 photographs, available for download below, you will find that this photograph is listed as a “blank” photograph.

However, when looking at the photo, you can clearly see it isn’t blank. What appears to be a pyramid shaped object, or structure, appears faintly in the background.  What also adds to the legitimacy of the photograph, is there is a blurry, out of focus “foreground object.” This supports the theory this is a legitimate photograph (not a “blank” photo as NASA suggests) and that there could possibly be a structure captured on film.

What do you think? Post your comments and theories below.

Original NASA Source: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/AS17-135-20680HR.jpg

Possible explanation? While looking at other photos in the sequence, it appears this could have been a bad photo of the floor of the lunar module.

On the same magazine this photo was taken, there are other “pyramid shaped” angles that may resemble a pyramid in a poor photo.

Please reference these photos:

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The following is an archived article first written by Scott McMan in 2013. It was submitted to UFO Casebook, and archived here, with permission.

Brigadier General, James McDivitt, USAF Retired, was the commander on the Gemini IV mission among others. However, it was on that particular space flight in June of 1965 that McDivitt saw what he described in these words:

It had a very definite shape – a cylindrical object – it was white – it had a long arm that stuck out on the side. like a beer can or a pop can, and with a little thing like maybe like a pencil or something sticking out of it.

The video is below.

McDivitt suspected that it was probably very close to the spacecraft, but he was also somewhat confused:

I don’t know whether it was a very small object up close or a very large object a long ways away. There was nothing to judge by. I really don’t know how big it was.

We had two cameras that were just floating in the spacecraft at the time, so I grabbed one and took a picture of (the object) and grabbed the other and took a picture. Then I turned on the rocket control systems because I was afraid we might hit it.

At the time we were drifting – without checking I have no idea which way we were going – but as we drifted up a little farther the sun shone on the window of the spacecraft.

The windshield was dirty – just like in an automobile, you can’t see through it. So I had the rocket control engines going again and moved the spacecraft so that the window was in darkness again – the object was gone.

At the end of the day, it’s all in what you want to believe. There are those who will accept a more conventional explanation and others who are going to claim this is proof of ET.

Whatever you believe, I’m sure McDivitt often wishes he never saw what he saw…

Original Photograph

The original source is taken from (active as of 9/28/21) – http://tothemoon.ser.asu.edu/data_g/G04/Unidentified/full/GT4-37149-039_G04-U_f.png 

Source & References

http://www.ghosttheory.com/2013/10/04/mcdivitt-gemini-ufo-finally-viewable?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GhostTheory+(Ghost+Theory)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb7Gtufrc1E#t=80

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Currently, there is no caption available for this photo from NASA.  The cropped and rotated image above was slightly enhanced to bring out clarity, but is untouched and unmanipulated otherwise.

The following, is all known information on this photo:

Electronic Image Data

Camera files only apply to electronic still cameras.

No sound file available.

Identification

Mission: STS088 Roll: 724 Frame: 65 Mission ID on the Film or image: STS88

Country or Geographic Name: OCEAN

Features: PAN-SNGLNT., SPACE DEBRIS

Center Point Latitude: Center Point Longitude: (Negative numbers indicate south for latitude and west for longitude)

Stereo: No (Yes indicates there is an adjacent picture of the same area)

ONC Map ID: M-05 JNC Map ID: 51

Camera

Camera Tilt: High Oblique

Camera Focal Length: 250mm

Camera: HB: Hasselblad

Film: 5069 : Kodak Elite 100S, E6 Reversal, Replaces Lumiere, Warmer in tone vs. Lumiere.

Quality

Film Exposure: Over Exposed

Percentage of Cloud Cover: 90 (76-100)

Nadir

Date: 19981211 (YYYYMMDD)GMT Time: 201641 (HHMMSS)

Nadir Point Latitude: -29.3, Longitude: 8.3 (Negative numbers indicate south for latitude and west for longitude)

Nadir to Photo Center Direction: North

Sun Azimuth: 225 (Clockwise angle in degrees from north to the sun measured at the nadir point)

Spacecraft Altitude: 213 nautical miles (394 km)

Sun Elevation Angle: -22 (Angle in degrees between the horizon and the sun, measured at the nadir point)

Orbit Number: 118

Original Source: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/scripts/sseop/photo.pl?mission=STS088&roll=724&frame=65

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