Nexus - 0228 - New Times Magazine-pages

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alone with the photos. We were allowed only the book and a mag- _ simply transcripts of the manned space flights, including the Moon nifying loupe. We would be escorted in and out for lunch and _ landings. Since he had gotten to know us over the three days and bathroom breaks. If we agreed to these terms, he said, we could _ had enjoyed seeing the photos himself, he gave me a wink and a begin at nine o'clock the next moming. We arrived at eight. nod and allowed me to enter the room unescorted. This time, we were escorted in by two men. We found five I spent most of the remaining time poring over the scientific extra-long conference-room tables set up in a U-shape. We had data, as I wasn't much interested in the transcripts. After all, along expected to find only the pictures listed in Leonard's book. To our _ with four billion others, I had watched the first lunar landing on amazement, there were thousands of photos, all in sets of numeri- TV. Fortunately, however, I decided to browse some transcripts cal order. Leonard had mentioned that the photos were numbered _and flipped casually through a few, killing the last 15 minutes of sequentially by the cameras. He also had mentioned that each time. Then my eyes caught it: "Houston, we've got a bogey at time the on-board computer picked up an anomaly while analysing _ two o'clock." a photo, it triggered a sequence of additional photos that zoomed And there was more: "Roger that, Apollo. Switching to alpha. in on the target closer and closer. Roll eight degrees and begin sequence..." The photos were huge, approximately 32 by 24 inches, with a “Roger, Mission Control. Confirming alpha." dull grey, almost dull-black look. On the back of each, technical Though I knew instinctively what it meant, I couldn't believe information was recorded, such as the probe's height above the _ what I was reading. I raced through the pages and other mission Moon's surface while it was taking the picture, the angle of _ transcripts and found similar dialogue. approach and the location of the Sun in relation to the capsule. "Mission Control, we've got Santa Claus coming over the hil. 7 Frustratingly, we had all the technical data for triangulation— "Roger, Apollo. Hold your fix. Switching bravo. Do you simple trigonometry and algebra were all that we needed to com- _— copy?" pute the size and distance of anything shown. But without paper, "Roger, Houston. Bravo link..." calculators or pencils we were limited to what we could do in our These guys were reporting UFO activity, but I couldn't remem- heads, and we weren't up to it—the numbers were too big, the _ ber ever hearing this during the live TV broadcasts of lunar mis- angles too acute. We had to rely on Leonard's numbers. But we _ sions in ‘69 and ‘70. I was too dumbfounded to say a word and too verified everything that he had seen. scared to tell Les or Roger. I didn't want to get either of them in To this day, I can remember these views: * a boulder that trouble. We had no clearance to see these documents. seemed to have been rolled uphill, leaving its tracks in the side of So I just kept my mouth shut while Les asked Roger if there was the hill; * obvious machinery on the surface, showing bolted sec- any way to buy some of the pictures we had reviewed. Roger tions; * three dilapidated bridges’ crossing a chasm that reminded gave us more forms to fill out and told us it would take several me of the Grand Canyon; ¢ pipe fittings that looked like four-way | weeks. When the pictures arrived, Les was back in Venezuela. Ts (or Xs) that could be seen in every photo, some with theirends | They were lousy as we expected, with almost no resolution. No turned up or down as they hung over the edge of a crater; + three surprising pyramids that prompted me later to study closely the Egyptian Gizeh pyramid complex; * apparent pipelines criss-crossing the surface, running to and from craters; * a UFO rising from the surface and photographed directly above a crater; ¢ and, perhaps the most memorable, the unmistakable figure of a rectangular [> structure placed squarely in the biggest >: crater pictured. The structure looked either very old or under construction, but the crater had to be miles wide, and the camera angle gave a perfect three-dimensional view. The clarity and resolution were unlike that of anything I had seen before or since, and I | shudder to think that this was only the begin- nings of the spy-in-the-sky technology that | has evolved since then. Nobody said much at all for three days. Lester was in hog heaven, having realised his greatest ambition. And I was hooked on UFOs. On our last day, actually during our last hours, I had seen enough and decided to stretch my legs. As I was escorted back to the main room, I noticed a false panel that was slightly ajar, and peeked inside. Floor- to-ceiling bookshelves were filled with white three-ring binders. Roger volunteered that View obtained by the Apollo. 17 astronauts using a = lens to photograph boulders and most of the binders were filled with the | boulder tracks on the North Massif at the Apollo 17 landing site. The largest object, making a details of NASA's scientific experiments conducted in space. The rest, he said, were weaving, tread-like track, is about 5 metres across. Illumination is from the right. (NASA photo, AS17-144-21991) simply transcripts of the manned space flights, including the Moon landings. Since he had gotten to know us over the three days and had enjoyed seeing the photos himself, he gave me a wink and a nod and allowed me to enter the room unescorted. I spent most of the remaining time poring over the scientific data, as I wasn't much interested in the transcripts. After all, along with four billion others, I had watched the first lunar landing on TV. Fortunately, however, I decided to browse some transcripts and flipped casually through a few, killing the last 15 minutes of time. Then my eyes caught it: "Houston, we've got a bogey at two o'clock.” And there was more: "Roger that, Apollo. Switching to alpha. Roll eight degrees and begin sequence..." “Roger, Mission Control. Confirming alpha." Though I knew instinctively what it meant, I couldn't believe what I was reading. I raced through the pages and other mission transcripts and found similar dialogue. "Mission Control, we've got Santa Claus coming over the hill. 7 "Roger, Apollo. Hold your fix. Switching bravo. Do you copy?" "Roger, Houston. Bravo link..." These guys were reporting UFO activity, but I couldn't remem- ber ever hearing this during the live TV broadcasts of lunar mis- sions in 69 and ‘70. I was too dumbfounded to say a word and too scared to tell Les or Roger. I didn't want to get either of them in trouble. We had no clearance to see these documents. So I just kept my mouth shut while Les asked Roger if there was any way to buy some of the pictures we had reviewed. Roger gave us more forms to fill out and told us it would take several weeks. When the pictures arrived, Les was back in Venezuela. They were lousy as we expected, with almost no resolution. No NEXUS © 47 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 1995