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HAVE AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS WITNESSED UFOs? by Jim Marrs © 7 April 2002 Pete Conrad, who I was with the whole time, saw anything that suggested ancient civilisations.". NASA spokesman Brian Welch added: "Everything we found, we made public." Despite these assurances, many researchers remain unconvinced. Rumours have persisted for years that the astronauts—nearly all of whom were military officers susceptible to being silenced under orders—may have seen something more on the Moon than rocks and dust. According to transcripts of the technical debriefing following the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin and Michael Collins told of an encounter with a large cylindrical UFO even before reaching the Moon. Aldrin said: "The first unusual thing that we saw, I guess, was one day out or pretty close to the Moon. It had a sizable dimension to it...". He said the Apollo crew at first thought the object was the Saturn 4 booster rocket (S-IVB), but he added: "We called the ground and were told the S-IVB was 6,000 miles away." Aldrin described the UFO as a cylinder, while Armstrong said it was "...really two rings. Two connected rings". Collins also said it appeared to be tumbling. He added: "It was a hollow cylinder. But then you could change the focus on the sextant and it would be replaced by this open-book shape. It was really weird." Even more strange was the experience of Aldrin and Armstrong after they reached the Moon. According to an Associated Press story of 20 July 1969 (my file copy is from the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram), the astronauts sighted eerie lights inside a crater near the point on the Moon where their lunar lander was due to touch down the next day. On their first sweep around the Moon, Armstrong described a mysterious bright light on the inner wall of the crater Aristarchus, located north of their flight path. "It seems to have a slight amount of fluorescence to it. The area in the crater is quite bright," he reported. "That area is definitely brighter than anything else I can see. There doesn't appear to be any colour involved in it... It looks like an eerie sight," confirmed Aldrin. Two astronauts who appear to have broken ranks are Dr Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper. On an Oprah Winfrey Show on 19 July 1991, Dr Mitchell hinted that all information regarding UFOs has not been released, saying: "I do believe that there is a lot more known about extraterrestrial investigation than is available to the public right now (and) has been for a long time... It's a long, long story. It goes back to World War II when all of that happened, American astronauts have seen and reported such? Thus goes the usual argument by those who would never place faith in UFO sightings or metaphysical experiences. Such science acolytes see high-tech hardware and rocket jets as the only viable means of exploring space. They view our astronauts as men and women operating strictly within the confines of conventional science and engineering. They place unlimited faith in NASA's ability to study the universe by spending taxpayer money solely on traditional technology. So, where does this leave the astronauts? Have America’s spacefarers confronted the unknown in space? The answer is a resounding "yes". The problem is that the mass media usually fail to distribute any such experiences widely. And, as a whole, US astronauts appear to have maintained a united front, stoutly denying that any valid UFO encounters have taken place. Following a news conference in March 1996 devoted to artifacts in space, particularly the famous "face on Mars", Apollo astronaut Alan Bean told the media: "It's not true. No one, certainly not me and [ alien craft truly exist, wouldn't the 62 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com DECEMBER 2007 — JANUARY 2008