Imagine for a moment that you are alone at a distance of hundreds of kilometers from the Earth, and suddenly you see some strange thing that cannot be explained. Yes, astronauts are brave people. They set out to meet the endless mystery known as space, not knowing what awaits them on the other side. They just have a mission, but sometimes unplanned and incomprehensible things happen.
Here are some stories of astronauts from all over the world who witnessed something inexplicable. If you've ever seen Event Horizon or Prometheus, know that it's not so bad, but pretty close.
Chinese astronaut heard knocking outside of his starship
In 2003, Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut to travel into space. He was aboard the Shenzhou 5 when he heard it one night on October 16, a strange, crackling sound outside. According to the cosmonaut himself, the impression was created that someone was knocking on the body of the spacecraft in the same way as an iron ladle was knocking on a wooden hammer. Liwei says that the sound did not come from outside or from inside the spacecraft.
Given that space is a vacuum, and sound requires a medium such as air or water to pass through, Livei's eerie claims have been challenged. But on subsequent Shenzhou missions in space, two other Chinese astronauts heard the same knock. There is a version that this incomprehensible knock is just the sound of squeezing the skin of the spacecraft, caused by the peculiarities of its design, since it is heard only by Chinese astronauts on board the Shenzhou.
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Apollo 10 astronauts hear alien music in their headphones
In 1969, American astronauts Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan, and John Young were on the dark side of the moon. As they photographed craters and sipped on grape juice, they heard otherworldly orchestrated noise emanating from their headset. This went on for one hour.
Throughout these decades, music remained a mystery until the moment was popularized early last year. There were versions that the sound was due to radio interference between spacecraft. However, it seems odd that three experienced astronauts mistook ordinary interference as an alien phenomenon, calling it "space music."
Neil Armstrong and UFO
In 1975, Maurice Chatelain, former chief of NASA's Communications Systems, wrote in his book Our Space Ancestors: “A few minutes after Armstrong set foot on the moon, two UFOs hovered overhead. Edwin Aldrin took some pictures. Some of these photographs were published in the June 1975 issue of People magazine."
After Armstrong set foot on the moon, there was two minutes of radio silence. NASA claims the cause is overheating of one of the two television cameras, which interrupted reception. But what really happened that day? Neil Armstrong never commented on this incident until his death in 2012, but reliable enough people confirm that in 1969 the Americans not only landed on the moon, but were also participants in one of the most significant extraterrestrial encounters of all time.
Russian cosmonaut saw something incredible
May 5, 1981 Hero of the Soviet Union, pilot-cosmonaut Major General Vladimir Kovalenok looked out of the window of the Salyut orbital space station. While traveling through the station, he witnessed something inexplicable. Unlike American astronauts, Kovalenok spoke openly about what he saw at a press conference in Moscow when he returned to Earth: “Many cosmonauts have seen phenomena that go beyond the experience of earthlings. For ten years I have never talked about such things. You asked me what happened on May 5, 1981, at about 6 pm, during the Salute mission. At the time, we were over the South African region, heading towards the Indian Ocean. I was just doing some gymnastic exercises when I saw an object in front of me through the window, the appearance of which I could not explain … I was looking at this object,and then something happened that is impossible according to the laws of physics. The object was elliptical. From the side it seemed as if it was rotating in the direction of flight. After that, there was a kind of explosion of golden light. Then, after one or two seconds, there was a second explosion somewhere else and two spheres appeared, golden and very beautiful. After this explosion, I saw white smoke. Before we entered the darkness, we flew through the twilight zone between day and night. We were moving eastward and when we entered the darkness of the earth's shadow, I could not see them anymore. The two spheres never came back. "Then, after one or two seconds, there was a second explosion somewhere else and two spheres appeared, golden and very beautiful. After this explosion, I saw white smoke. Before we entered the darkness, we flew through the twilight zone between day and night. We were moving eastward and when we entered the darkness of the earth's shadow, I could not see them anymore. The two spheres never came back. "Then, after one or two seconds, there was a second explosion somewhere else and two spheres appeared, golden and very beautiful. After this explosion, I saw white smoke. Before we entered the darkness, we flew through the twilight zone between day and night. We were moving eastward and when we entered the darkness of the earth's shadow, I could not see them anymore. The two spheres never came back."
American astronaut Leroy Chiao saw strange lights
In 2005, American astronaut Leroy Chiao was the commander of the International Space Station for six and a half months. By setting up antennas 230 miles above the Earth, he has witnessed what he has yet to understand. “I saw lights that seemed to line up. I saw them flying and I thought it looked awfully strange,”he later commented.
Russian cosmonaut filmed a UFO
Astronaut Musa Manarov spent 541 days in space in his entire career. But one day in 1991 is different from all the others. On the way to the Mir space station, he managed to film a cigar-shaped UFO. The recording lasts two full minutes. He observed how this object glowed at certain moments and moved in a spiral in space.
Unfortunately, in an airless space, it is impossible to determine whether an object is near or far. Since you have no frame of reference, you cannot determine the size of an object either, because there is nothing to compare it to. Was it some kind of massive object far in space, or something small, located at close range? Manarov categorically denies that this object was just space debris. Decide for yourself whether you should trust the person who broke the record for the longest continuous stay in space?
Space snakes
Dr. Storey Musgrave has six degrees, is a physician and mathematician, and has served in the Marine Corps. But he is also a NASA astronaut. Along with all these accomplishments, he told the most colorful UFO story we've ever heard. In a 1994 interview, he said about his experience: “I saw a snake in space. She is elastic because she had internal waves, and she followed us for a fairly long period of time. The more you are in space, the more incredible things you can see there."
Gordon Cooper and his UFO encounter
Gordon Cooper is an American astronaut who participated in the missions Mercury 9 and Gemini 5. He became the last American to be sent into space alone. But he also saw UFOs in space on more than one occasion. In 1951, while flying with the Air Force, he and other pilots witnessed a huge armada of UFOs flying at extremely high altitudes. This was the first such meeting for Cooper.
Twelve years later, in May 1963, Cooper went into space aboard the Mercury capsule. In its final orbit, it noticed a glowing green object approaching at high speed. The object was real, at least to the Muchea tracking station in Western Australia, which saw it on radar. Cooper reported the incident. But when he landed, he was told that he could not talk about this object.
Anna Pismenna