# Did the astronauts reaaly claim to have seen UFOs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2001, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-astronauts-reaaly-claim-to-have-seen-ufos/62873 "2001-04-22T13:15:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![beep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/51bf81/32.png) [@beep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beep)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2001, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-astronauts-reaaly-claim-to-have-seen-ufos/62873/1 "2001-04-22T13:15:29Z")
Huh? ---
**Author:** ![Grok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Grok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grok)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2001, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-astronauts-reaaly-claim-to-have-seen-ufos/62873/2 "2001-04-22T14:41:01Z")
On his Mercury flight, John Glenn claimed to have seen “fireflies”, which turned out to be small pieces of debris. Another crew (Wally Schirra’s on Apollo 7, I think) started reporting a UFO described as having skids, 12 reindeer, and a big fat guy at the controls. I’m not aware of any other “genuine” UFO sightings by astronauts, but then I haven’t been reading the Weekly World News lately. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2001, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-astronauts-reaaly-claim-to-have-seen-ufos/62873/3 "2001-04-22T15:00:19Z")
I’ve heard that an astronaut claimed to see a UFO. This claim was backed up by transmissions between the astronaut and Mission Control. Somewhere (sorry, no cite) I read that the conversation was taken out of context and that it was nothing more than a little joke. FWIW, I saw a “UFO” when I was in seventh grade. It was a glowing elipse behind some thin overcast. It wasn’t the sun, and it didn’t appear to be moving so it wasn’t one of the jets out of (then-)NAS Miramar. Was it from “outer space”? I seriously doubt it. It was just something in the sky that I couldn’t identify. Maybe refraction in the humid air. Maybe a Goodyear blimp that was catching the sun just right. But IMO, the possibility of extra-terrestrial craft visiting this planet is so mind-numbingly remote that it verges on the impossible. YMMV. In any case, IIRC the “astronaut UFO sighting” was a joke between the astronauts and Mission Control that someone misinterpreted. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2001, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-astronauts-reaaly-claim-to-have-seen-ufos/62873/4 "2001-04-22T15:16:02Z")
From NASA official fact sheet [FS-2000-01-015-HQ: The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects](http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-015-HQ.html): > [@](#): > > During several space missions, NASA astronauts have reported phenomena not immediately explainable; however, in every instance NASA determined that the observations could not be termed “abnormal” in the space environment. So I guess NASA has determined that being rectally probed by big-headed gray humanoids is simply something which is “normal for the space environment”… Okay, seriously, here’s an old _Skeptical Inquirer_ article by James Oberg which discusses [Astronaut “UFO” Sightings](http://www.debunker.com/texts/astronaut_ufo.html) in some detail. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@The\_Bad\_Astronomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Bad_Astronomer)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2001, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-astronauts-reaaly-claim-to-have-seen-ufos/62873/5 "2001-04-22T20:59:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny L.A. \* > \*\*I’ve heard that an astronaut claimed to see a UFO. This claim was backed up by transmissions between the astronaut and Mission Control. Somewhere (sorry, no cite) I read that the conversation was taken out of context and that it was nothing more than a little joke. > \*\* It was STS-73, and it was indeed a joke. Astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegrio was floating around inside the Shuttle, playing around a little, and stronaut Cady Coleman jokingly quipped, “We have an unidentified flying object here”. The UFO community jumped all over this, and I still hear it claimed as a serious quotation, though it’s easy to find the truth. I went to google, typed in “shuttle coleman joke UFO” and got this page: [http://www.ufovideo.com/sts73/sts73.htm](http://www.ufovideo.com/sts73/sts73.htm). Check it out; it’s funny. The guy who wrote it thinks there really is a spaceship reported. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2001, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-astronauts-reaaly-claim-to-have-seen-ufos/62873/6 "2001-04-22T22:43:29Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by The Bad Astronomer \* \*\* > [@](#): > > [http://www.ufovideo.com/sts73/sts73.htm](http://www.ufovideo.com/sts73/sts73.htm). Check it out; it’s funny. The guy who wrote it thinks there really is a spaceship reported. \*\* And he got in touch with his congressman about it too! Thanks for the link Mr Astronomer (or can I call you Bad?) ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-the-astronauts-reaaly-claim-to-have-seen-ufos/62873/7 "2001-04-22T22:53:15Z")
No site, but I recall seeing L. Gordon “Gordo” Cooper on a morning talk show a while back, during which he unequivocally declared that he was a firm believer in extraterrestrial visitations/crafts what-have-you. IIRC, he did indeed report what he considered a “genuine” UFO on a mission back in the 60s/early 70s. Sir