Who's seen a UFO? I have, on two of my space missions. However, I figured out what the first one was, and I have a pretty good idea what was the second.
On another mission, Houston called to inform us that an expendable launch was about to take place from Cape Canaveral. After the third stage burned out, we watched a wonderfully beautiful rainbow in space that expanded into a huge oval, as the excess fuel was vented into space and caught the sunlight just right. If Houston had not warned us, I would not have been able to explain this, and would have found it very eery!
I firmly believe that there is other life in the universe. What I am more skeptical of, is whether we have been visited by extraterrestrials.
I must admit to being a bit intrigued when well-known colleagues come out and publicly accuse the US Government of covering up UFO evidence. Edgar Mitchell and the only other Leroy in the history of the program (Gordo Cooper) have both claimed that this is the case.
If we have been visited by aliens, I don't have a problem believing that the US Government would try to cover it up. However, would they really be able to do it? Have they done a very good job of covering up other things in the past?
What do you think? Have you seen one?
Leroy Chiao
Devon Island Expedition
This blog features educational updates on my Devon Island Expedition of July 14-20, 2007. Other sites: spaceref.com/blogs/earthclassroom, www.marsonearth.org
4 comments:
I too firmly believe in the existence of life elsewhere in the universe (hopefully, somewhere as close as Europa, but we won't know for a while). And I also believe in UFOs. What I don't believe is that the existence of Unidentified Flying Objects automatically imply the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence doing stuff around us. An UFO is just that, an unknown object, not an alien spaceship.
And as much as the US government try and gets away with some things, I don't think they would be able to hide a secret like that for the simple reason that any individual who could provide tangible evidence of alien lifeforms would get rich enough fast enough to be worth risking the wrath of the US of A.
... that of course doesn't mean that in case something in the vein of Independence Day happens I wouldn't be happy to find out that we have been researching and analyzing those guys for a couple of decades, even if secretly.
BTW, I almost forgot. It has nothing to do with aliens, but the date is nothing but appropriate. So, Godspeed, Komarov. I hope one of these days someone build an annex to the Space Mirror for those who also gave it all for the Conquest of Space in non-American flights. They are every ounce as brave as any man or woman who rode a T-38, a X-15, an Apollo, or a Shuttle into the great unknown.
I do believe that life exists elsewhere in the universe, for the simple reason that if it has already happened once on Earth, then it can happen again elsewhere. Maybe there is another race of Humans somewhere else in the universe? When we say "aliens", people automatically assume that you are talking about a far advanced race. But, what if we are more advanced than they are? What if we are actually one of the more advanced races in the universe?
When I look up at all the thousands of stars as I watch the ISS pass overhead, and I think that each one of those stars has a system of orbiting planets, I find it hard to believe that there isn't life elsewhere. We have barely explored a pinprick on a huge canvas.
I personally have never seen a UFO. And I'm not sure that I believe that we have ever been visited by aliens either, simply because I can't understand why any visiting extra-terrestrial race would only ever land and investigate remote, largely unpopulated areas, where only a few people are around to witness the so called "invasion". Surely, a race intelligent enough to know how to travel to Earth, would land in more populated and significant areas, such as cities, in order to gather better information about our planet??? And I don't know of one person who can keep a government secret without blurting it out to the press, let alone the thousands that would be required to cover up an “alien landing”.
Search for "UFO seen from Shuttle" on youtube for some interesting, supposed UFO sightings from the Space Shuttle.
-Pete
Statistically speaking, it's hard to draw the conclusion that we are 'alone' in the Milky Way galaxy, much less the universe...
But, it seems really convincing that in this day and age of technology, that if real, hard evidence of extra-terrestrial visits exists, we would have seen it by now.
But we haven't. The only "proof" we are ever shown are low-quality shaky/blurry video and blurry still photos that leave more to the imagination than provide evidence. If the real evidence is out there of extra-terrestrial visits, then surely it would have surfaced by now.
Until that hard evidence appears, I'm taking the attitude that those claiming coverups and pushing poor-quality evidence so loudly, are merely trying to draw attention to themselves for personal gain.
And evidently, we are ALL still waiting for that hard evidence.
;)
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