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May 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 31/05/2010 6:15 PM Page 21 The Truth Behind NASA’s UFO Videos 21 Footage in the Sky: The Truth Behind NASA's UFO Videos Fox News.com A batch of raw footage from decades-old NASA missions shows zipping lights and strange objects in the sky. Recently posted on YouTube, the clips are renewing UFO conspiracy theories that the government is hiding knowledge about its interactions with intelligent life. But two astronauts dispute that — and talk about NASA's supposed cover-up and what the clips really show. The scenario goes like this: It's 1996; you're an astronaut and you're looking at a UFO. This is quite possibly the biggest, most game- changing scientific discovery in the history of mankind. And here you are, gliding through space in low Earth orbit, watching this alien craft dance around your video camera's viewfinder. You are not alone — there are other astronauts onboard the space shuttle, and Mission Control background are either isolated lights on the is watching the live feed from Houston. ground or stars, I think likely the latter," Runco clips posted by Stubb and others, whether they Yet not a single raised voice or mention originate with NASA or a less credible source, of ETs or UFOs can be heard on the audio of says. In another of Stubb's posted clips, a tend to be framed only by a short title, with little this recording. Apparently, it's just another or no attempt at reporting. routine brush with extraterrestrial life, and view through the window of a space shuttle Runco notes that anyone could have shows lights drifting along in space, then another day in the life of a massive, decades- reversing direction and darting away with a simply e-mailed or called him to ask for his side long, multi-agency cover-up. flash. The title of that clip: "UFOs quickly take of the story, instead of simply posting a 13-year- This is the claim behind the recent old video and jumping to extraterrestrial posting of a batch of NASA-related clips on off on NASA video." conclusions. Again, the reality is less dramatic. YouTube, presented as evidence that Thomas Jones, a former shuttle mission Specificity might be the currency of the extraterrestrials are among us. specialist and payload commander and co- conspiracy theory set, with seemingly random The footage covers a number of images or snippets of data woven into a matrix missions, and a range of mysterious objects — author of "Planetology: Unlocking the Secrets of sinister intent, but even a casual investigation of the Solar System," was on that mission — in a clip featured on the science fiction of each of those facts can punch holes in the blog io9, a bizarre object rotates within the STS-80, which also took place in 1996 — and larger plotline. frame, seeming to morph from one shape to provided this description of the footage. Bloggers continue to reference an "A few ice crystals or flakes of thruster another as the cameraman casually tracks it. residue in the near field are floating by, get hit interview with Buzz Aldrin in 2005 about If that weren't mysterious enough, at one seeing a UFO while on Apollo 11, while point, a light drifts by. The post's headline poses by a thruster exhaust plume and zip out of the brushing off his claims that television producers the question: "Will the US Government Finally scene." UFO proponents tend to dismiss official blatantly quoted him out of context. Admit There Are Aliens?" responses from members of NASA, the And although UFO proponents have Whether or not the government has welcomed recent public statements from former anything to fess up about aliens, the astronaut Pentagon or any other government agency, but astronaut Edgar Mitchell about his belief in an Runco says that even if there was an active who shot that particular piece of footage has extraterrestrial cover-up dating back to Roswell, nothing to hide. cover-up, no amount of coercion could prevent Mitchell has never said he witnessed anything an astronaut — himself included — from laying Mario Runco was a mission specialist on claim to a confirmed sighting of an alien alien with his own eyes. board STS-77, a space shuttle mission that spaceship. Lacking quality in their evidence, UFO launched in May of 1996. One of the crew's "If I thought it was an intelligent craft, believers are left with quantity, a rambling objectives was to deploy an experimental collection of indistinct imagery and allegations satellite, the Passive Aerodynamically I'd be the first one to speak up," says Runco. "I'd that now includes a batch of space-shuttle want the credit: 'Mario Runco was the first Stabilized Magnetically Damped Satellite Test person in history to conclusively document the mission video clips that were never buried or Unit (PAM-STU). existence of an extraterrestrial civilization.' classified in the first place. The PAM-STU was roughly the size of a Runco points out that astronauts, in trash can, and was designed to test a new Why would I ever want to keep it secret?" general, are excited by the notion of intelligent Neither Runco nor Jones have any approach to satellite maneuverability, using the illusions about the likelihood of dispelling species on other worlds. planet's magnetic field to perform attitude NASA-related UFO myths, particularly when "Many of them use SETI@Home [a adjustments (instead of firing thrusters). Stubb and others are able to collect and distributed computing application that picks The crew filmed the spinning satellite through radio telescope data for incoming for days, but in the clip posted on YouTube by repurpose an ever-growing catalog of footage. messages] as their screensavers, because they "There's no way to keep people from Martyn Stubb, the PAM-STU appears in grainy, using public domain footage for silly purposes," think it's a possibility," he says. low-light-enhanced black and white. Jones says. "If a shuttle beams back 10 hours of But it's one thing to believe that alien Its two Stimsonite reflectors — the same life is a statistical likelihood, and another to materials used on road and bicycle reflectors — Earth views each day, there are bound to be interpret lights in the sky as intergalactic images and scenes that are misunderstood or catch the ambient light, and at one point appear contact. to merge into a single bright spot as the satellite taken out of context." "People see unexplained things," Jones If anything, it's the lack of context that turns head-on. many UFO theories and proponents rely on. The says. "I used to believe UFOs were spaceships "The lights moving by in the — when I was 14."