by Graham Stewart

UFO Reporter, UFO Research (NSW)

September 1995

from UFOEvidence Website

One of the most spectacular video footages of a UFO encounter was taken by cameras on board the Discovery space shuttle on 15 September, 1991. The video sequence was picked up live by a number of amateurs who were directly monitoring the transmissions. The material has been shown in news broadcasts and circulated amongst UFO researchers worldwide.

The video shows several small bright objects maneuvering on screen, apparently interacting with one another in a complex fashion. Skeptics have usually insisted these are merely shots of some of the many small ice particles which inevitably end up in orbit with every space shuttle.

UFO investigators were quick to dispute this interpretation, and US scientist Richard C. Hoagland soon conclusively demonstrated the objects were actually large-sized and many hundreds of kilometers away from the shuttle.

One UFO in particular appears to rise up from below the Earth's dawn horizon and can be clearly seen emerging from behind the atmosphere and the 'airglow' layers. It is certainly in orbit around the Earth, some distance out in space, and traveling quickly.

A sudden, bright flash of light is then seen to the left of the picture, below the shuttle. The UFO then turns at a sharp angle and heads out into space at very high speed. Two thin beams of light (or possibly condensation trails) move rapidly up from the Earth's surface towards where the UFO would have been if it had continued in its original orbit.

Subsequently, careful analysis of the video shows that:

• The distance from the Discovery to the Earth's horizon is 2,757 kilometers

• The UFO's speed before accelerating into space is 87,000 kph (Mach 73)

• Three seconds after the light flash, the UFO changes direction sharply and accelerates off into space at 340,000 kph (Mach 285) within 2.2 seconds

• Such an acceleration would produce 14,000 g of force (1g is normal Earth gravity)

The light flash and light beams (or contrails) that shoot into space have variously been described as a ground-based attempt to disrupt or destroy the UFO.

Hoagland interprets the incident captured by the Discovery's video-camera more specifically as a "Star Wars" weapons test against a Star Wars drone (the UFO). Other UFO investigators prefer to describe it as a Star Wars attempt against an extraterrestrial UFO. Whichever version you prefer, the technology implied is most certainly impressive - at least of Star Wars calibre.

More recently, from New Zealand, investigators have reviewed the video and corrected the actual time it was taken. They have found that the UFO incident was recorded over Australia and not the Philippine islands as was originally thought. Discovery's trajectory had already taken it across Surabaya in Java and above the Simpson Desert, Western Australia.

The UFO is first picked up coming over the horizon when the shuttle is close to Lake Carnegie, WA. Later, the light flash and one contrail can be tracked back to Exmouth Bay near the North West Cape military facility. A second contrail can be tracked back to the Pine Gap military facility in central Australia.

US investigators have been asking their Australian counterparts to provide further information which they don't have and which they probably can't get. All the information we have on this incident so far comes from the US or New Zealand. And, of course, there are Australia's stringent secrecy laws to contend with.

The scenario was probably captured on video purely by chance. Along with other UFO incidents recorded on video by NASA, this material has contributed significantly towards NASA's recent decision to discontinue live television transmissions from space.

The video footage itself (including a detailed investigation of the incident) can be found on the tape "Hoagland's Mars - The UN Briefing (Extended Version)."

 

NASA Space Shuttle Footage

UFO Missed by Ground Based Energy Pulse Weapon