When selecting astronauts, candidates, as you know, are tested not only in physical but also in psychological parameters. Therefore, there is no reason not to believe the stories of astronauts about the strange and unusual phenomena that they happened to encounter in space. Another thing is what is their nature?
Unidentified objects
When Apollo 11 landed safely on the moon in 1969, the astronauts kept silent that they were not alone there. Colonel Edwin Buzz Aldrin later said: “Through the window we saw that there was a large object at some distance from us. It was ring-shaped and had an ellipsoidal trajectory."
The crew members returned to Earth and reported the facility to then US President Richard Nixon. NASA has decided not to disclose the strange information.
Several years ago, at a press conference by Rosaviakosmos, former Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Kovalenok said that he had to observe an object the size of a human finger of unknown origin at the Salyut orbital station. He flew in orbit, and then suddenly exploded right in front of the astronaut. Smoke poured out of the UFO and it split into two parts, connected by something like a jumper. Alas, the object was not captured on film: it disappeared. This event coincided with a significant radioactive release.
Vladimir Kovalenok said that many of his colleagues had a chance to see something unusual in space. Thus, cosmonaut Musa Manarov, while in 1991 at the Mir station, watched the approach of the module with a new crew. Suddenly an antenna-like object separated from the module. He was filmed on camera, but it was not possible to identify the object.
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"Angels" on the ISS
In 1985, a strange, bright orange cloud suddenly appeared outside the Soviet space station Salyut-7. When it dissipated, the crew members saw on the other side of the window seven figures resembling human beings, but gigantic in stature and with large wings behind their backs. A halo shone around everyone's head. Incomprehensible "creatures" resembled angels!
A report on the incident was transmitted to Earth, which was immediately labeled "Secret". When the cosmonauts finished their program and returned to Earth, they were strictly forbidden to talk about the mysterious event.
Meanwhile, it turned out that creatures similar to angels appeared more than once near the American Shuttles. But this information was also not subject to wide publicity.
Space "ghosts"
Pilots and astronauts also repeatedly observed some ghostly substances in near-earth space at an altitude of 50 to 100 kilometers. They were also recorded by the equipment on board the orbital stations. In appearance, experts have divided them into several categories: they dubbed reddish rings "elves", blue "jellyfish" - "sprites", red - "tigers", and blue "fountains", beating upwards - "blue jets".
Shortly before the tragedy with the American shuttle Columbia in February 2003, photographs were transmitted to Earth showing a jellyfish-like object surrounded by a powerful red glow. The survey was conducted over Madagascar at an altitude of 150 kilometers.
In the summer of 2005, in Colorado, staff at the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University filmed another "jellyfish", this time in blue. Subsequently, when shooting with more powerful equipment, used by atmospheric physicists from the University of Alaska, it became clear that in fact the "sprites" do not look like jellyfish, but like bouncing balls.
According to Hans Nelsen, who heads a research group at the University of Alaska, bright lumps, similar to giant ball lightning, fly first along a trajectory vertically down and then up, while their speed is equal to one tenth the speed of light. Most likely, this is the result of chemical reactions taking place in the atmosphere.
In some cases, strange visions of astronauts can be explained by their altered state of consciousness, which occurs due to the impact of pressure and temperature changes, lack of oxygen and other similar factors. However, not all phenomena can be explained in this way.
Irina Shlionskaya