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establishment has not undertaken an open and thorough examination of the UFO phenomenon. However, in recent years this perception has began to crumble—perhaps by design—as numerous astronauts have spoken publicly about the reality of UFOs and their belief in the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial visitors. On May 15, 1963, Major Gordon Cooper, one of the original Mercury astronauts and the last American to fly alone in space, completed a 22-orbit journey around the world. During the final orbit, Cooper told the tracking station at Muchea (near Perth, Australia) that he had sighted a glowing, greenish object that was quickly approaching his capsule. The unidentified flying object was solid enough to be picked up by Muchea's tracking on radar. Cooper's sighting was reported by the National Broadcast Company; however, when Cooper landed, reporters were not allowed to question him about the UFO sighting. This was not the first sighting by Major Cooper. In 1951 Cooper had sighted numerous UFOs while piloting an F-86 Sabrejet over Western Germany. The UFOs, which were sighted over a two-day period, were described as metallic, saucer-shaped disks at considerable altitude that easily out-maneuvered the American fighter planes. Six years later, while supervising flight training at Edwards AFB, Cooper and his colleagues witnessed andphotographed a "flying saucer" that landed near the base. The film was sent through the "normal channels" for processing and evaluation, yet he never received a report on the photographs. Due to security directives, Cooper kept these sightings to himself for many years. However, on July 14, 1978, Gordon Cooper met with Secretary General of the United Nations Kurt Waldheim to discuss his personal knowledge of UFOs and to encourage inter-national research. Also in attendance were Jacques Vallee, J. Allen Hynek, Calude Poher, David Saunders, and Prime Minister of Grenada Sir Eric Gairy. In a letter to the United Nation Security Council, Cooper wrote: "I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets and are obviously a little more advanced than we are here on Earth. . . . Most astronauts were reluctant to discuss UFOs. I feel that we need to have a top-level, coordinated program to scientifically col- lect and analyze data from all over the Earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion. Also, I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them [UFOs], of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe.'"™* On May 7, 1996, Cooper was interviewed on the nationally broadcast television program Paranormal Borderline. In the interview Cooper confirmed his personal encounters with UFOs in the 1950s and his belief that extraterrestrial life forms are During the interview Cooper expressed his belief that we are in an era of increasing revelation by the government and that he expects an announcement regarding the reality of UFOs and extraterrestrial life. 17 GORDON COOPER visiting this planet.