Former astronaut: Man not alone in universe

[IndianaGreen]

Former astronaut: Man not alone in universe

CNN) -- Earth Day may fall later this week, but as far as former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell and other UFO enthusiasts are concerned, the real story is happening elsewhere.

Mitchell, who was part of the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, asserted Monday that extraterrestrial life exists, and that the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and other governments.

He delivered his remarks during an appearance at the National Press Club following the conclusion of the fifth annual X-Conference, a meeting of UFO activists and researchers studying the possibility of alien life forms.

Mankind has long wondered if we're "alone in the universe. only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we're not alone," Mitchell said.

"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is become a part of the planetary community. ... We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."

Mitchell grew up in Roswell, New Mexico, which some UFO believers maintain was the site of a UFO crash in 1947. He said residents of his hometown "had been hushed and told not to talk about their experience by military authorities." They had been warned of "dire consequences" if they did so.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/04/20/ufo.conference/index.html

[rcrush]

1. I think lots of astronauts say this.

I believe Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin said the same thing.

[Warpy]

3. So does anyone who's really looked at the Hubble photos

and realized that the sky isn't just crammed with other stars, it's crammed full of other galaxies.

Anyone who thinks we're alone is either ignorant or has massive ego problems.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. or believes in 2000 yr old fairy tales that

stole scary stories from tribes long gone.

[Soylent Brice]

19. i like your answer most.

[BoneDaddy]

20. Wow

I love when skeptics become as sure of their assertions as fundamentalist religious can be.

[Sharklive6]

16. Skeptics Need to get informed

Roughly 10 years ago, Mitchell claimed, he was finally given an appointment at Pentagon to discuss what he had been told.
An unnamed admiral working for the Joint Chiefs of Staff promised to uncover the truth behind the Roswell story, Mitchell said. The stories of a UFO crash "were confirmed."

NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell
EDUCATION: Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University (1952); Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautics from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (1961); Doctorate of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964; Honorary Doctorates from New Mexico State University (1971), Carnegie-Mellon University (1971), University of Akron (1979) and Embry-Riddle University (1996).

HONORS AND AWARDS: Presidential Medal of Freedom. USN Distinguished Service Medal. NASA Distinguished Service Medal. NASA Distinguished Service Award. Three NASA Group Achievement Awards. USAF Aerospace Research Pilot School, First in Class Award. Medal of the City of New York. American Astronautical Society, Flight Achievement Award. Arnold Air Society, John F. Kennedy Award for Space Exploration. Carnegie Mellon University Alumni, Outstanding Man of the Year (1972). Kappa Sigma, Man of the Year Award (1972). Adventurers Club, Gold Medal Award for Exploration. Explorers Club, Lowell Thomas Award for Explorations in Human Consciousness (1980). Drexel University, Engineering and Science Award for Explorations in Consciousness (1974). Space Hall of Fame (inducted 1979). Astronaut Hall of Fame (inducted 1995). Nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize (2005).
EXPERIENCE: Mitchell’s experience includes Navy operational flight, test flight, engineering, engineering management, and experience as a college instructor. Mitchell came to the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston after graduating first in his class from the Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School where he was both student and instructor.

He entered the Navy in 1952 and completed his basic training at the San Diego Recruit Depot. In May 1953, after completing instruction at the Officers’ Candidate School at Newport, Rhode Island, he was commissioned as an Ensign. He completed flight training in July 1954 at Hutchinson, Kansas, and subsequently was assigned to Patrol Squadron 29 deployed to Okinawa.

From 1957 to 1958, he flew A3 aircraft while assigned to Heavy Attack Squadron Two deployed aboard the USS BON HOMME RICHARD and USS TICONGEROGA; and he was a research project pilot with Air Development Squadron Five until 1959. From 1964 to 1965 he served as Chief, Project Management Division of the Navy Field Office for Manned Orbiting Laboratory. 1965-1966 was spent

[IndianaGreen]

5. Mercury 7 astronaut Gordon Cooper had some UFO stories to tell

Gordon Cooper: No Mercury UFO
By Robert Scott Martin

Staff Writer
posted: 06:37 pm ET
10 September 1999

Pioneering astronaut Gordon Cooper denies being the first astronaut to see a UFO while in orbit, but stands by his reports of a strange encounter over Germany in the 1950s.

Cooper flatly denied the long-standing claim, repeated over the years by various authors including UFOlogical saints Allen Hynek and Jacques Valley, that he saw a greenish object with a red tail move past his Mercury 9 spacecraft in 1963.

<snip>

"On one occasion, I saw some strange vehicles that we assumed were UFOs," he told Bell.

In the encounter, which took place over Germany in the early 1950s, Cooper saw "flights of fighters flying by in the same sort of formation we flew, moving east to west." The U.S. Air Force base scrambled its own pilots, including Cooper, who remembers the objects as looking "just like saucers -- they were metallic looking, but we couldn't really get close enough to see more than that. You couldn't see any wings on them."

At the time, Cooper entertained the possibility that the craft might be a new Soviet design, but "looking back now," he suspects "it was some kind of extraterrestrial vehicle."

<snip>

Area 51 and the lost Gemini photographs

After another round of filming --- this time in orbit aboard Gemini 5 -- Cooper ran into trouble with the authorities when they confiscated film he took from space. However, in contrast to UFO legend, this film did not contain photographic proof of an alien encounter.

Instead, he had ran afoul of the authorities for taking pictures of the "top secret" Nevada military base known familiarly as "Area 51".

"I found out fairly recently that one of the reasons it got confiscated was I had inadvertently … overflown Area 51," while taking test photos, he said.

http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/phenomena/cooper.html

[Grinchie]

25. Does the confiscation of the Film due to the proof of Black Budget bases make it ok?

No, it doesn't, because then it would be revealed that the Federal Budget is nothing more than a way to waste money and shape the future without any oversight whatsoever.

700 dollar toilets seats, Commie menace, blah blah blah. What did we get out of the Space program? Teflon, Tang, some photographic access to the earth, but ever picture is scrubbed and airbrushed prior to release.

What do we get from the military? Bunker Buster Bombs, Davy Crockett Tactical nukes, Depleted Uranium, Trillions of dollars of spending, uncared for Veterans, and Hummers that produce drinking water from burning diesal fumes, instead of a Hummer that run on water.

Try looking up the Disclosure Project. The historical evidence os too great to ignore regarding black projects and the alternate space program. The Disclosure Project claims that technology exist right now that can end the use of Oil as we konow it, but is held under national security cover.

Frankly, I believe them. If Farday could actually measure the weight of an Electron in the 1800's, and Tesla developing the foundations for radio, I'm kind of surprised at the overall lack of progress considering the many patents for efficient electrolyzation of water into Browns gas.

Stanley A. Meyer The Safe Free Energy Conference Einsiedeln_Switzerland-1989

"The energy potential of a gallon of water is 2.5 million barrels of oil" It really gets interesting at 42:00 minutes in.

Like Tesla, Stan Meyer is nearly an unknown entity.

[stop the bleeding]

2. Kick nt

[county worker]

4. It seems to me the odds are that there is life elsewhere besides earth but

I don't think any extraterrestrials have visited earth. I say that because there is no where on earth that you can go to see and touch physical evidence of extraterrestrials.

[mike_c]

8. you haven't met any of my former girl friends.....

A couple of them were CLEARLY from "France." :rofl:

[county worker]

10. Have you really touched a cone head? Is cone head any better than the regular kind?

[infidel dog]

11. For what it's worth, some canine musings on the subject.

I agree with you that when you take into account all the galaxies in this big ol' universe, the likelihood of life SOMEWHERE out there is pretty high. Its frequency is another question. As far as spacecraft visiting our planet, or the idea of us benighted earthlings being a part of some inter-planetary community based in our corner of the galaxy, I wouldn't put any shekels on it. There has been no evidence of extraterrestrial visitation(yet discovered) at any period or place on Earth, and no attempts at communication either. The incredible distances between us and our nearest stellar neighbors make travel extraordinarily difficult and time-consuming, even at speeds approaching that of light. Space-faring organisms would either have to be practically immortal or multi-generational colonial communities; interstellar ant-farms, if you will. And these ant-farms would be exponentially beyond us technologically, to boot. Frankly, I am relieved that no E.T.'s have shown up knocking at our door. When technologically superior civilizations make contact with primitive ones, well, just look at the jolly track record when Europeans landed in the Americas. Epidemics and genocide, and this was between people of the same species!! If any future visiting alien beings are not possessed of god-like benevolence and wisdom, th'- th'- th'- That's all, Folks.

[Captain Hilts]

7. It's pretty clear martians don't want us there. They disable most of our craft that land there. nt

[MADem]

9. I think those that think we are alone in this huge expanse are a bit pompous.

I sometimes wonder if I'll live to see it acknowledged by world governments.

[GKirk]

12. He had me....

..."Former astronaut: Man not alone in universe"

Then he lost me..."there really is no doubt we are being visited."

Just sounds like another nut case to me.

[Gator_Matt]

13. I think there is alien life, but this guy gives no evidence

It would be a miracle for there NOT to be extraterrestrial life when you consider that there are billions of galaxies, each with a colossal number of stars. This I don't doubt. What bothers me is that this former astronaut doesn't seem to offer any evidence for his claim. He is heavily involved in mysticism and seems to be a bit of a nut, which unfortunately discredits any sort of serious discussion on the topic of alien life.

[Sharklive6]

17. attention?

I think when you finally do some research you will be more informed.

Did you even pay attention?

[Joe Bacon]

14. What aliens would want to have anything to do with us?

For 88 years, we've been broadcasting all kinds of crap that goes out into space. Any sane and rational aliens who encounter our transmissions should be scared shitless of us.

[Sharklive6]

15. Joint Chiefs of Staff told him

I am glad someone posted this.

People who say there is no evidence, have never attempted to look.

I can help inform you on all the evidence including FOIA documents.

I guess FOIA documents are not evidence.

[Joanne98]

18. We need the Bluebook files released. If there's nothing there why won't they

release them?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

21. Itn't is a mathematical probability

that somewhere in the universe life exists? Whether or not that life has found its way here is another subject.

[tinrobot]

22. ...or whether it's intelligent

I get the feeling single cell microbial life pervades the universe, evolved multicellular life much more rare, and evolved intelligent life very rare.

[roguevalley]

23. I don't think so. I can imagine sheer numbers of possible places

make it so. Distance is keeping us clueless. IMHO.

[bemildred]

26. Occam's Razor requires that one not "multiply entities needlessly".

Assuming that life on Earth is unique certainly falls in that category. We have no evidence for that other than that we have no evidence, well, not much anyway. The correct assumption is that we are somewheres between rare and common.

[Vidar]

24. Applauding Mr. Mitchell.