UK Space Command Officially Launches
Article from Malvern Editorial July 30, 2021 (malvernobserver.co.uk)
• July 29th marked the official opening of UK Space Command, with the first ‘Space Operator’ Badges presented to personnel.
Article from Malvern Editorial July 30, 2021 (malvernobserver.co.uk)
• July 29th marked the official opening of UK Space Command, with the first ‘Space Operator’ Badges presented to personnel.
Article by Daniel Otis July 29, 2021 (vice.com)
• When professional pilots spot UFOs in Canadian airspace they rely on Nav Canada air traffic control towers and radar installations for verification. Nav Canada directs thousands of flights per day
Article by DNA Web Team July 28, 2021 (dnaindia.com)
• A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany has developed the first-ever detailed map of millions of black holes, supermassive black holes and neutron stars
Article from Metro Science Reporter July 28, 2021 (metro.co.uk)
• In June, the US military and intelligence agencies (except the CIA) published a 9-page unclassified preliminary report identifying 144 UFOs sightings by US military pilots since 2004.
Article by Helena Sutan July 25, 2021 (brinkwire.com)
• Rummaging through UFO accounts disclosed by the Canadian military dating back to the 1950s, along with additional accounts gleaned through a series of information requests, interviews, and publicly available records,
Editorial by The Sankei Shimbun July 22, 2021 (japan-forward.com)
• In May 2020, in response to the ongoing militarization of space by China and Russia, Japan’s ‘Self-Defense Force’ launched its ‘Space Operations Squadron’ and revised its “Ensuring Space Security” policy to cooperate with the United States in enhancing its deterrence capabilities in space.
Article by Jak Connor July 20, 2021 (tweaktown.com)
• On December 1, 1987, in Ilkley Moor, Yorkshire, England, British police officer Philip Spencer left his home to venture down one of the many walking trails with his camera to capture images of the Moor. Suddenly, he spotted a creature with large black eyes, pointy ears, long arms, and feet that were hoof-shaped.
Article by Robert Besser July 23, 2021 (bignewsnetwork.com)
• In May, the US Space Force announced a proposal to develop deep space radar sensors that would monitor orbiting satellites and space debris.
Article by Anthony Capaccio July 10, 2021 (bloomberg.com)
• Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has repeatedly referred to China as the top military challenge. China’s threats to U.S. satellites and Russian advances in ‘counterspace’ technologies were among the justifications American officials cited for establishing the U.S. Space Force and the regional Space Command during the Trump administration. According to Rear Admiral Michael Studeman, the top intelligence official for the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific command, China is making sizable, long-term investments in weapons designed to jam or destroy satellites as the nation seeks to rapidly narrow the gap in space technology with the U.S.
• In April, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said that the Chinese military “will continue to integrate…satellite reconnaissance and positioning, navigation, and timing, and satellite communications into its weapons and command-and-control systems to erode the U.S. military’s information advantage.”
• “[China and Russia] look at our space capability and want to equal and exceed those and be able to dominate to guarantee themselves the maneuvering they need to be able to secure their objectives if they’re in a fight,” said Admiral Studeman. “China is pushing to develop antisatellite weapons with capabilities from “dazzling to jamming, to kinetic kill-from-the-ground, from space — all that, they’re on the march.”
• As Beijing continues to train its military space elements to “field new destructive and nondestructive ground- and space-based antisatellite (ASAT) weapons,” according to a DNI ‘Threat Assessment’ report, developing counterspace operations will be integral to a potential U.S. military campaign. China has “already fielded ground-based ASAT missiles intended to destroy satellites in low-earth orbit and ground-based ASAT lasers probably intended to blind or damage sensitive space-based optical sensors” on low-earth orbit satellites, according to the report.
• In a draft report on the fiscal 2022 defense bill, the House Appropriations Committee signaled its concern over “the growing threats posed by ground-based lasers capable of damaging or destroying sensitive space sensors in low-orbit, and the lack of a coordinated strategy to understand this threat and develop concepts to mitigate its risks.” The report directed the Pentagon, “to provide a plan to collect, consolidate, and characterize laser threat activity data of potential adversaries, and to develop strategies to mitigate these threats.”
• China is pursuing parallel programs for space, military and commercial communications satellites, with a ‘small number’ of dedicated military communications satellites. On the other hand, the U.S. has a substantial amount of activity going on as “we recognize the threat,” says Studeman. “It will be a game of measures and countermeasures and counter-countermeasures for some time to come.”
• The U.S. Space Force is building 48 ground-based ‘counterspace’ weapon systems known as the ‘Meadowlands system’ that are designed to temporarily jam but not destroy Chinese and Russian satellites. The first of these is expected to become operational in March 2020.
China is making sizable, long-term investments in weapons designed to jam or destroy satellites as the nation seeks to rapidly narrow the gap in space technology with the U.S., according to the top intelligence official for the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific command.
China is pushing to develop antisatellite weapons with capabilities from “dazzling to jamming, to kinetic kill-from-the-ground, from space — all that, they’re on the march,” Rear Admiral Michael Studeman said this week during an intelligence-security trade group’s webinar.
Studeman’s comments mark the most current unclassified assessment of the
counter-space capabilities of a nation that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin repeatedly refers to as the top challenge for U.S. defense planning and spending.
China’s threats to U.S. satellites as well as Russian advances in counterspace technologies were among the primary justifications American officials cited for establishing the U.S. Space Force, the sixth U.S. military service branch and the regional Space Command, during the Trump administration.
“They take a look at our space capability and want to equal and exceed those and be able to dominate to guarantee themselves the maneuvering they need to be able to secure their objectives if they’re in a fight,” Studeman said.
The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in April that the Chinese
military “will continue to integrate space services — such as satellite reconnaissance and positioning, navigation, and timing and satellite communications — into its weapons and command-and-control systems to erode the U.S. military’s information advantage.”
Developing so-called counterspace operations will be integral to a potential military campaign, the DNI said. Beijing continues to train its military space elements and “field new destructive and nondestructive ground- and space-based antisatellite (ASAT) weapons,” the intelligence office said in its annual Threat Assessment report.
It has “already fielded ground-based ASAT missiles intended to destroy satellites in low-earth orbit and ground-based ASAT lasers probably intended to blind or damage sensitive space-based optical sensors” on low-earth orbit satellites, according to the report.
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Article by Vivienne Machi July 13, 2021 (defensenews.com)
• On July 13th at the German Space Situational Awareness Centre in Uedem, the German Ministry of Defense announced the creation of a new space command, becoming the latest of a handful of nations prioritizing more resources and missions among the stars.
• Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer provided a keynote speech for the event. The military is “responding to the increasing significance of space for our state’s ability to function, the prosperity of our population, and the increasing dependency of the armed forces on space-supported data, services and products,” Kramp-Karrenbauer said.
• Since 2009, the German Air Force (or Luftwaffe), has used the Space Situational Awareness Centre to monitor space assets, order maneuvering of systems and recommend evasion routes to commercial satellite operators. The Air and Space Operations Center was inaugurated there in the fall of 2020 in response to NATO’s declaration of space as a new operational domain.
• NATO has named space as one of its top seven priorities for ‘emerging and disruptive technologies’. In March, NATO member nations’ defense ministers endorsed a new strategy of increased cooperation with technology innovation hubs and nontraditional industry.
• Germany is not the only country to create a separate military space entity. The U.S. officially reestablished its Space Command in August 2019, and the U.S. Space Force was established in December 2019. The original Space Command was established in 1985, becoming part of the U.S. Strategic Command in 2002 as part of the military reorganization following the Sept. 11 attacks.
• With the creation of its new space command, Commandement de l’espace, in 2019, France renamed its Air Force to become the Air and Space Force in the fall of 2020.
• The United Kingdom also established a separate Space Command in spring 2021 as a joint command staffed with personnel from the British Army, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and the civil service.
STUTTGART, Germany — The German military has announced the creation of a separate command dedicated to space, becoming the latest of a handful of nations prioritizing more resources and missions among the stars.
The Ministry of Defence introduced the new space command in a July 13 ceremony at the German Space Situational Awareness Centre in Uedem, located in the country’s North Rhine-Westphalia region.
Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer provided a keynote speech for the event.
The military is “responding to the increasing significance of space for our state’s ability to function, the prosperity of our population, and the increasing dependency of the armed forces on space-supported data, services and products,” the ministry said in a statement.
Since 2009, the German Air Force, or Luftwaffe, has used the center to monitor space assets, order maneuvering of systems and recommend evasion routes to commercial satellite operators, according to the German Aerospace Center. In fall 2020, the Air and Space Operations Center, or ASOC, was inaugurated there in response to NATO’s declaration of space as a new operational domain at the alliance’s 2019 meeting in London, England.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
Article by Natalia Ningthoujam July 6, 2021 (latintimes.com)
• Matthew Evans, 36, of Teignmouth, Devon county, UK, was in his top-floor flat recently when he looked out of his window to see an UFO hovering “for ten seconds” over a Devon seafront. He took photos of it. (see above and below) In the photos, four bright lights are seen in a triangular-shaped formation in the sky over the sea.
• Within seconds of taking the photos, the UFO sped off. “It wasn’t moving like a plane would,” Evans said. “It was moving a lot slower and went up and down for a bit before hovering a good ten seconds. It stayed in one spot long enough for me to pull out my phone and get those snaps. Then it quickly zoomed off at some speed and I couldn’t see it anymore. The light was really bright.”
• The images were published in several news outlets, and people came up with different theories. Some said that it was the Sun partially hidden by clouds. Others said that it looked like a plane. Someone suggested that it was just a reflection of street lights. One reader said that it’s “quite clearly a ship on the horizon.”
• “I’m not quite losing my marbles yet. But it’s hard to place it, so I suppose it is an unidentified flying object,” said Evans.
A 36-year-old student said that he recently spotted an object hovering “for ten
seconds” over a Devon seafront. He thinks that it might be an unidentified flying object (UFO).
Matthew Evans even took a photo of the object which he saw when he looked out of the window in his top-floor flat in Teignmouth in the English county of Devon last week, reported DevonLive.
In the photos, four bright lights are seen in a triangular-shaped formation up in the sky. The student said that within seconds of taking the photos, the object sped off. “It wasn’t moving like a plane would. It was moving a lot slower and went up and down for a bit before hovering a good ten seconds,” Evans said.
“It stayed in one spot long enough for me to pull out my phone and get those snaps. Then it quickly zoomed off at some speed and I couldn’t see it anymore. The light was really bright,” he added.
He didn’t know what it could be, so he decided to take photos. “I’m not quite losing my marbles yet. But it’s hard to place it, so I suppose it is an unidentified flying object,” he said.
After the images got published in different news outlets, people came up with different theories. According to some, it was the sun partially hidden by clouds while others said that it looked like a plane. Someone suggested that it was just a reflection of street lights. But a reader said that it’s “quite clearly a ship on the horizon.”
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.
Article by Jak Connor July 5, 2021 (tweaktown.com)
• A recently declassified Australian report on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) on the National Archives of Australia website (see here) features 58 pages of compelling information on UFO sightings and strange encounters with alien creatures between 1957 and 1971.
• Page 32 of the report states, “50m from object, witness paralyzed (also birds and cows). Four handsome men with brown skin emerge with translucent helmets.” The report lists many cases where extraterrestrials used paralysis as a way of subduing witnesses.
• The report shows the United States has been involved in UFOs and conducting investigations into them since 1947. Page 7 of the report reads: “The early analyses of UFO reports by USAF Intelligence indicated that real phenomena were being reported which had flight characteristics so far in advance of US aircraft that only an extraterrestrial origin could be envisaged.”
A declassified Australian report on Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) mentions several encounters with alien life that are unexplainable
The declassified report is located on the National Archives of Australia website and features 58 pages of compelling information on UFO sightings and strange encounters with alien creatures between 1957 and 1971. Page 32 of the report states, “50m from object, witness paralyzed (also birds and cows). Four handsome men with brown skin emerge with translucent helmets.” The report also shows the United States has been involved in UFOs and conducting investigations into them since 1947.
Page 7 of the report reads as follows: “The early analyses of UFO reports by USAF Intelligence indicated that real phenomena were being reported which had flight characteristics so far in advance of US aircraft that only an extraterrestrial origin could be envisaged.” Additionally, the report lists many cases where extraterrestrials were using paralysis as a way of subduing witnesses.
It should be noted that the Reddit post that has gone viral states that the report was declassified in 2021. However, after doing some investigating, I couldn’t find any concrete proof of when the document was officially declassified. To check out the documents yourself, visit this link here.
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Article by Press Association 2021 June 30, 2021 (leighjournal.co.uk)
• The recent release of an Interim Pentagon UFO report concluded that the UFO phenomena ‘could be military aircraft with very fast capabilities or even extraterrestrial’. At the minimum, said the report, the UFOs “clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to US national security.” Of 144 UFO sightings by US military pilots since 2004, all but one remains unexplained, according to the report.
• Raising the US report in the British Parliament, former Conservative Party treasurer Lord Sarfraz said, “For decades people who have been concerned with UFOs have been dismissed as fantasists. But now the US Director of National Intelligence, who oversees 17 intelligence agencies, has published a report saying that data on UFOs is inconclusive.”
• So does the British Ministry of Defence take reports of UFOs in British airspace seriously? Defence Minister Baroness Goldie (pictured above) responded: “The MoD deals with actual threats substantiated by evidence.” “The Government continues to take any potential threat to the UK seriously.” However, “in over 50 years no such reporting had indicated the existence of any military threat to the United Kingdom”. Therefore, the British Government has no plans to conduct its own investigation into UFOs.
• Tory peer Viscount Ridley chimed in: “Unidentified does not mean suspicious… The idea that in an era of mobile phone cameras, drones and frequent travel there could possibly be alien spaceships whizzing about undetected in our atmosphere on a regular basis is not I think very plausible. It’s much more likely that these blurred images have boring explanations, alas.”
• Lady Goldie said: “The UK air defence community detects and monitors all flying air systems 24 hours a day to provide an identified air picture as part of the UK’s national security posture and our commitment to the integrity of NATO airspace.” Typhoon combat aircraft in Scotland and in Lincolnshire are “held at high readiness ready to intercept any threat to UK airspace”. Dismissing UFOs, Lady Goldie stated: “We deal with actual threats substantiated by evidence.”
• Labour frontbencher Lord Coaker pointed out that “the Pentagon has said that ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ are actually a serious national security threat. When asked if she agreed with that assessment, Lady Goldie remarked: “We are of course aware of the US assessment… We regard threats as having to exist in the first place. We regard them as having to be substantiated by evidence and that’s because we need to know what we are addressing and how best we can address it. The MoD has no plans to conduct its own report into UAP because in over 50 years no such reporting had indicated the existence of any military threat to the United Kingdom.”
Assurances were sought at Westminster following the publication of a Pentagon
report which said the phenomena “may pose a challenge to US national security”.
However, the British Government has said it has no plans to conduct its own investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), better known to the public as UFOs, “because in over 50 years no such reporting had indicated the existence of any military threat to the United Kingdom”.
The interim Pentagon report said of 144 sightings by military pilots since 2004, all but one remain unexplained.
It also said while there were “no clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial explanation” for the objects, it also did not rule it out.
Pointing out they “probably lack a single explanation”, it added: “UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to US national security.”
Raising the US report in Parliament, former Conservative Party treasurer Lord Sarfraz said: “For decades people who have been concerned with UFOs have been dismissed as fantasists.
“But now the US director of national intelligence, who oversees 17 intelligence agencies, has published a report saying that data on UFOs is inconclusive.
“The report offers several possible explanations.
“It does not rule out that these could be military aircraft with very fast capabilities or even extraterrestrial phenomena.
“Either way can the minister reassure members of the public that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) takes reports of unidentified objects in our airspace very seriously?”
Responding, defence minister Baroness Goldie said: “The MoD deals with actual threats
substantiated by evidence.
“The Government continues to take any potential threat to the UK seriously.”
Tory peer Viscount Ridley said: “Unidentified does not mean suspicious.
“Does the minister recognise the US report referred to says there is no clear indication that there is any non-terrestrial explanation for the 144 sightings?
“The idea that in an era of mobile phone cameras, drones and frequent travel there could possibly be alien spaceships whizzing about undetected in our atmosphere on a regular basis is not I think very plausible.
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Article from Agence-France Presse July 4, 2021 (theguardian.com)
• In June, three Chinese astronauts blasted off to become the first crew of the new Tiangong space station in orbit around Earth, where they will remain for three months in China’s longest crewed mission to date. On July 4th, two of the astronauts conducted the first of two seven-hour spacewalks to work on assembling the Tiangong space station. Fueled in part by a U.S. ban on Chinese astronauts on the International Space Station, the construction of the Tiangong space station is a significant step in China’s ambitious space program.
• China previously landed a rover on Mars and sent probes to the Moon. This is China’s first crewed mission into space in nearly five years, and the first time since 2008 that Chinese astronauts have gone outside their spacecraft. China is the third country to complete a spacewalk after the Soviet Union and the US. This is a matter of huge prestige as the country marks the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party this month with a massive propaganda campaign.
• In this first spacewalk, astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo were tasked with elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module and testing the station’s robotic arm which will be used to transfer future modules around the station. The astronauts also installed foot stops on the robotic arm and carried out other assembly work. The crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training in preparation.
• In a video clip, Liu and Tang were shown opening a hatch and exiting the module separately, wearing newly developed suits. They were supported from inside the station by the mission commander, Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot who is on his third space mission. The video clip showed Liu leaving the cabin, exclaiming: “Wow, it’s too beautiful out here.” The Chinese space agency is planning a total of eleven launches through to the end of next year, including three more crewed missions. They will deliver two more lab modules to expand the station, along with supplies.
• Chinese state television showed footage of the astronauts’ daily lives on Tiangong, including setting up an exercise bike and working out on a treadmill. One crew member was shown eating with chopsticks; another did a handstand and somersault after mealtime. The televised spacewalk garnered 200 million views on China’s social media platform Weibo. One user wrote: “How much I’m moved by each step of achievement is beyond words.”
• President Xi Jinping has said the construction of China’s first space station is opening “new horizons” in humanity’s attempts to explore the cosmos. The Tiangong space station is expected to have a lifespan of at least ten years, and China has said it would be open to international collaboration on the station. The U.S.-run International Space Station is due for retirement after 2024, although NASA says it could remain functional beyond 2028.
Chinese astronauts have performed the country’s first tandem spacewalk, working for seven hours on the outside of the new Tiangong station in orbit around Earth.
Tiangong’s construction is a significant step in China’s ambitious space programme. China has previously landed a rover on Mars and sent probes to the moon.
Last month, three astronauts blasted off to become the first crew of the station, where they will remain for three months in China’s longest crewed mission to date. On Sunday morning, two of them left the station for about seven hours of work in the first spacewalk at Tiangong, the China Manned Space Agency said.
“The safe return of astronauts Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to the Tianhe core module marks the complete success of the first spacewalk in our country’s space station construction,” the agency said.
Their tasks included elevating a panoramic camera outside the Tianhe core module and testing the station’s robotic arm, which will be used to transfer future modules around the station, state media said. The astronauts installed foot stops on the robotic arm and, with its support, carried out other assembly work, the space agency added.
In a video clip of Liu leaving the cabin, he exclaimed: “Wow, it’s too beautiful out here.”
Liu and Tang were shown opening a hatch and exiting the module separately, wearing newly developed suits said to weigh 130kg (20st). They were supported from inside the station by the mission commander, Nie Haisheng, a decorated air force pilot who is on his third space mission.
This was the first of two spacewalks planned for the mission, both expected to last six or seven hours. It was the first time since 2008 that Chinese astronauts have gone outside their spacecraft. Back then, Zhai Zhigang made China the third country to complete a spacewalk after the Soviet Union and the US.
This is China’s first crewed mission in nearly five years, and a matter of huge prestige as the country marks the 100th anniversary of the ruling Communist party this month with a massive propaganda campaign. To prepare, the crew underwent more than 6,000 hours of training.
2:49 minute video pf first spacewalk on the Chinese space station,
July 4, 2021 (‘SciNews’ YouTube)
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Article by Gautam Peddada June 23, 2021 (collective-evolution.com)
• While everyone is focused on the American version of the study, which will contain over 120 events, the French sub-agency that investigates UFOs, GEIPAN, has released a report that covers over 600 recorded incidents over a 64-year period, encompassing 56 nations. The paper concentrates on 290 of these incidents that had an impact on flight safety. North America (Canada and USA) had 298 instances, 108 instances were reported in Europe, and 33 instances occurred in French airspace.
• The distribution of the 600 cases by year reveals that 320 instances (53%) occurred between 1946 and 1960, with 275 cases (46%) concentrated between 1950 and 1957. The year with the most instances (83 cases) was 1952, followed by 1954 with 40 cases. The years 1952 in the United States and 1954 in Europe are regarded as the two peak years for UFO sightings.
• There is no discernible seasonal trend. July has the most instances (75) compared to the other months, and April has the fewest cases (29). The remaining 10 months had between 42 and 56 instances, which does not appear to be a substantial difference. Of 562 occurrences, 54% occurred at night and 46% occurred during the day.
• The UFO sightings recorded by military pilots are the most common during a 64-year period at 42%. Commercial pilots reported 39%, while private pilots recorded 18%. But from 1990 to 2010, commercial aircraft instances were the most frequent at 70%, military pilots reported 17%, and private pilots reported 13% of the instances. This is likely related to a shroud of military secrecy about UFOs. Of the instances reported by military aircraft, 75% happened during a 14-year period from 1946 for 1959. 24% of the cases were observed by two or more aircraft in flight, and two-thirds of the 600 cases were seen by two or more witnesses.
• Of the 278 cases where radar was employed, radar positively identified the UFO in 162 cases. In 115 cases, radar did not support an observer’s sighting. In 34 cases, the visual observation of a UFO was verified by both airborne and ground radar. In one case in 1995, the crew of a B-757 noticed a black cigar-shaped wingless object below their aircraft 15–20 miles away. On radar, it looked to be motionless, then surged in a burst of speed for 20 to 30 seconds before coming to a complete halt. It lingered for one and a half minutes before accelerating again in a burst of speed between 1000 and 1400 mph. This was done many times during a four-minute period, after which the target vanished.
• Pilots classify UFOs as either “light points” or “objects” which have a solid appearance. 74% of the UFO ‘objects’ reported were described as having a three-dimensional, solid aspect. The most commonly reported ‘objects’ are round or elliptical with a metallic appearance. But additional forms have been reported including two yellow objects shaped like hamburgers (1980); a giant triangle-shaped object (Chile 1978); an airliner fuselage without any wings or tail, with potholes lighted from inside (France 1985); an elliptical shape, flat below and slightly domed on the upper part (Sahara 1965); a large translucent metallic mushroom (Australia 1954).
• Interaction cases, where the UFO appears to react to the presence of an aircraft, were observed in half of the instances. These cases fall into three categories: (1) UFO conducts maneuvers to approach, chase, or escape from the aircraft; (2) dogfights with military aircraft; and (3) UFO circles or performs maneuvers near to the aircraft and may cause electromagnetic impacts on aviation systems. In 78 occasions, a UFO approached the plane on a collision path, and in 6 cases there was a near-collision with the aircraft. The pilot was required to take evasive action in 31 occasions to avoid colliding with the UFO, including three cases involving commercial aircraft in which passengers were wounded during the move.
• The most troublesome element of UFO contacts were situations in which permanent or transitory electromagnetic impacts occurred on aircraft systems – usually private craft – during flight. In 81 of the 600 cases, electromagnetic interference was seen and reported, and everything from radios to weaponry was impacted.
While everyone is focused on the American version of the study, which will contain over 120 events, GEIPAN has released a report that covers over 600 recorded incidents by pilots over a 64-year period. The paper concentrates on 290 of these incidents when the unidentified aerial device had (or may have had) an impact on flight safety.
While the study has received little attention, there are several data points that are essential in establishing or verifying particular aspects of the phenomena. It will be fascinating to see if the DNI’s report to Congress has comparable results, or if they will disclose these findings in the public realm.
1952 & 1954 — The Peak Years
The distribution of the 600 cases by year reveals that 320 instances (53%) occurred over a 16-year period (from 1946 to 1960), with 275 cases (46%) occurring between 1950 and 1957. The year with the most instances (83 cases) was 1952, followed by 1954 with 40 cases. The years 1952 in the United States and 1954 in Europe are regarded as the two peak years for UAP sightings.
There is no discernible seasonal trend in the distribution of these 600 cases per month. July has the most instances (75) compared to the other months, and April has the fewest cases (29). The remaining 10 months had between 42 and 56 instances, which does not appear to be a substantial difference.
Witnesses failed to indicate the time of day in 38 cases (6 percent). Out of the remaining 562 occurrences, 305 (54%) occurred at night and 257 (46%) occurred during the day.
A Global Phenomenon
The 600 instances are almost universally dispersed. They are positioned over continental zones (564 in total), encompassing 56 nations, as well as above marine zones (36 cases). The American continent (North, Central, and South America) had 376 cases (58 percent), with North America having 298 instances (Canada and USA). 108 instances have been reported above Europe, with 33 of them occurring in French airspace.
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Article by Amelia Ward June 22, 2021 (ladbible.com)
• On 17 September 2016, a spherical UFO was video recorded by a police helicopter using its FLIR thermal camera near St. Athan in Wales UK moving over the Bristol Channel. (see 1:13 minute video below) The object was travelling at 106mph against the wind. The footage was kept hidden from the public until former policeman and current UFO investigator Gary Heseltine obtained the video under the UK’s Freedom of Information law. Heseltine thinks there are many questions that need answering by the UK government.
• The whole incident took place over eight minutes, with the footage showing the camera changing settings to try to work out what it was. “This is verified police helicopter FLIR footage showing an object not seen with the naked eye but clearly seen in the infrared spectrum. It is moving against the wind, so it is not a balloon, nor is emitting any heat signature indicating a propulsion system,” Heseltine told The Sun Online.
• “My FOI requests were largely stonewalled by the police authorities,” said Heseltine. “I believe there is much more information on this event that has yet to be released. I think it is highly likely that other police helicopter crews have recorded similar footage on their FLIR cameras. Given that the stigma relating to this subject is being lifted I urge them to be more transparent on this issue. This footage proves that objects, similar to what have been captured by the US Navy is being recorded on the same FLIR cameras here in the UK.”
A UFO that was caught on camera travelling at about 106mph was filmed by a police
helicopter in the UK.
The footage, which until recently wasn’t released, shows the object moving over the Bristol Channel.
It was filmed by a police helicopter, which was using its FLIR thermal camera near St Athan in Wales.
The object seems to move against the wind, appearing to travel at high speed. Small segments of the video were shared by the NPAS team, but after a Freedom of Information request was submitted by former policeman Gary Heseltine, the full thing has been released.
It shows the bizarre encounter, which took place on 17 September 2016, and UFO investigator Heseltine thinks there are many questions that need answering by the UK government.
NPAS South West said at the time that the heat setting was set to show hot objects as darker on the screen.
The whole incident took place over eight minutes, with the footage showing the camera changing settings to try to work out what it was.
Three years after the clip was released, police said: “A drone is possible, but they were unable to keep up with it so it would have to have been very fast.”
1:13 minute thermal imaging video of spherical UFO over Wales, UK in 2016 (‘Daily Mail’ YouTube)
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Article by Evgeny Mikhaylov June 20, 2021 (sputniknews.com)
• Facebook by Lucy Jane Castle, from Hinckley in southwest Leicestershire, England, recently saw a ‘Tic Tac’ UFO hovering in the sky, very similar to the UFO spotted by former US Navy pilot Cmdr. David Fravor during a routine training mission about 100 miles off the Pacific coast between San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico in 2004.
• “It was hovering for a while and within a blink of an eye it had gone”, Castle said. “Never seen anything like this before in that shape… Quickly took a picture while it was very still and within a blink of an eye it disappeared”.
The infamous “white Tic Tac” UFO spotted in 2004 by the US Navy has once again
appeared – this time, over the United Kingdom. The strange object was photographed and shared on Facebook by Lucy Jane Castle, from Hinckley in southwest Leicestershire.
“It was hovering for a while and within a blink of an eye it had gone”, she said. “Never seen anything like this before in that shape… Quickly took a picture while it was very still and within a blink of an eye it disappeared”.
The strange thing was originally spotted by former US Navy pilot Cmdr. David Fravor while he was on a routine training mission about 60 to 100 miles off the coast between San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico. According to testimony, the UFO didn’t create rotor wash (air turbulence caused by helicopter blades) and mirrored the pilots’ movements, before disappearing.
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Article by Joe Dandron June 19, 2021 (dispatch.com)
• Humans may not be alone in this galaxy. Ohio – the Buckeye State – has had its fair share of UFO sightings and close encounters. Here are five of the most popular sightings in Ohio lore:
• Portage County, 1966 – On April 17, 1966, two Portage County (in northeast Ohio) Sheriff’s deputies stopped at about 5 a.m. to investigate an abandoned car when they saw a UFO come up from behind some trees. They followed the flying saucer across the state line into Pennsylvania during an 86-mile chase that at times reached 100 mph. At one point, a dispatcher instructed the two deputies to shoot the object, but a sergeant countermanded that, saying it could be a government weather balloon. Deputy Dale Spaur said that the object was roughly 40 feet wide and 20 feet tall. “Somebody had control over it,” he said. “It wasn’t just floating around. It can maneuver.” The deputies gave up the pursuit in Conway, Pennsylvania where the UFO hovered, then sped off into the night. Hundreds of people reported seeing the saucer and hearing its steady hum.
• Tarlton, 2006 or 2007 – Two women were driving back from Columbus, near Tarlton, Ohio, when they spotted an “entity sitting inside of a silver truck.” The entity was of slight body stature, “almost glowing”. “My headlights are shining on the vehicle because we’re looking straight at it,” one of the women stated. “I felt like something was turning my head, making me turn and as I turned in the opposite direction there was this … it glowed like white power, that’s the only way I can describe it.” “There (were) no eyeballs,” the second woman reported. “Very thin, hairless, bald and so thin … no definition of (nose and mouth). But it was glowing.”
• Pickaway County, 1958 – On Feb. 27, 1958, 17 year old Pete Hartinger was on his way to the Pickaway County Fairgrounds when he saw a saucer-shaped object floating over the local feed mill before drifting out of sight. Then something else returned. “A totally different object came back. It was a reddish-orange object, a circle just like the setting sun,” said Hartinger, now in his 80s. “It stopped and hovered in midair … and the top half folded down onto itself.”
• South Bloomfield, 2006 – In March 2006, Michael Moore spotted “slow-moving, hovering lights” on his commute to work. The lights traveled low and hovered above a gas station in South Bloomfield, Ohio, about 20 miles south of Columbus, before the UFO shot off into the northeast sky. “I pulled into Speedway since I needed gas and when I got out of my car I saw it hovering almost directly overhead,” said Moore. “The lights were so bright that the glare prevented me from seeing an actual shape of the object.”
• Canal Winchester, Circleville, 2019 – On June 13, 2019, an anonymous witness saw a “white light and oval in shape …heading east”. It was in view for less than five seconds before disappearing. Then in the early morning of November 15, 2019, he saw a similar object, also oval shaped and white near the intersection of Routes 674 and 22. He watched the object nearly land, but emit no noise at all, before disappearing.
From Roswell, New Mexico, to Circleville, Ohio, UFOs and aliens have been part of American myth and legend for some 75 years.
The U.S. government last year released three videos of UFO sightings by Navy pilots — one from 2004 and two from 2015. Later this month, a Pentagon task force is expected to deliver a report to Congress on what government officials now call “unexplained aerial phenomena.”
The report may suggest the possibility of Chinese or Russian spycraft, or it could confirm thousands of conspiracy theorists’ suspicions: Humans may not be alone in this galaxy. Or not.
The Buckeye State has had its fair share of UFO sightings and close encounters. Here are five of the most popular in Ohio lore:
1. Portage County, 1966
On April 17, 1966, two Portage County Sheriff’s deputies stopped to investigate an abandoned car about 5 a.m. near Ravenna, Ohio, about 144 miles northeast of Columbus.
According to a report from The Beaver County Times in western Pennsylvania, the two deputies saw a UFO come up from behind some trees and chased the flying saucer from Ohio across the state line into Pennsylvania during an 86-mile chase that at times reached 100 mph.
At one point, a dispatcher instructed the two deputies to shoot the object, but a sergeant countermanded that, saying it could be a government weather balloon, the story said.
One of the Portage County deputies, Dale Spaur, told reporters then that the object was roughly 40 feet wide and 20 feet tall by his estimation.
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June 15, 2021 (sputniknews.com)
• On June 15th, the director general of the Roscosmos Russian state space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, told the audience at the GLEX-2021 space conference in St. Petersburg that the space tug ‘Zeus’ (pictured above) which has been under construction since 2010, is on schedule to make its first space flight in 2030. Rogozin called the search for extraterrestrial life and the monitoring of space-borne threats to the Earth the two most important tasks of the space tug.
• Once competed, Zeus will stop by Mars and Venus on its way to visit and study the outer planets and even distant stars. The space tug fitted with a nuclear reactor which will allow the ship to travel long distances. “[T]he most important task will be to discover and understand whether we are alone in space or there is another life,” Rogozin said.
• “Today, we have ensured the development of space monitoring programs, and this is of practical significance for how to avoid dangerous collisions in space,” said Rogozin. “But there is another, even more important task — how to protect our planet from uninvited collisions with space bodies that can destroy the civilization.” Rogozin noted that there exists no technology capable of diverting the trajectory of space objects approaching the Earth.
• Rogozin also emphasized the significance of international cooperation in space, calling it “the highest form of politics and ethics” in the relations between nations. The Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX) is an annual event that has gathered representatives of scientific circles, governments and industries since 2012.
ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) – Russian nuclear-powered space tug Zeus, currently
under construction, will be sent on a mission to search for life in deep space once completed, Dmitry Rogozin, the director general of the Russian state space agency Roscosmos, said on Tuesday.
The space tug fitted with a nuclear reactor is set to be used for missions to remote planets of the Solar System and beyond. It has been under development since 2010 and is expected to make its first space flight in 2030.
“Missions that will be sent to Mars, Venus and, in the future after the development of thermonuclear capabilities, beyond the solar system, the most important task will be to discover and understand whether we are alone in space or there is another life,” Rogozin said at the GLEX-2021 space conference.
The Roscosmos chief called the search for extraterrestrial life and the monitoring of space-borne threats to the Earth the most important tasks of world cosmonautics.
“Today, we have ensured the development of space monitoring programs, and this is of practical significance for how to avoid dangerous collisions in space. But there is another, even more important task — how to protect our planet from uninvited collisions with space bodies that can destroy the civilization,” Rogozin said, noting that there so far exists no technology capable of diverting the trajectory of space objects approaching the Earth.
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Article by Bhaswati Guha Majumder June 10, 2021 (swarajyamag.com)
• Luis Elizondo (pictured above), the former head of the Pentagon’s UFO research program, told the Washington Post that UFOs have frequently rendered our nuclear weapons unusable. “We’ve had incidents where these UAPs have interfered and actually brought offline our nuclear capabilities.” Given the fact that nuclear technologies in the US are being phased out, some might say this is a good thing. But Elizondo says that he has data showing that UFOs have actually put nukes online in other countries, which is “just as concerning”. At any rate, these UFOs certainly have an interest in America’s nuclear technology, and have the capacity to tamper with it.
• Elizondo noted that UFOs also have some sort of connection with, and have a tendency to be seen in and around water.
• Elizondo then turned the subject to UFO’s hypersonic velocity and their ability to change directions instantly. “[H]uman beings can withstand about 9 G forces or some of our best aircraft can withstand about 16 Gs. These things are doing 3-, 4-, 600 Gs in mid-flight,” he said. And at these hypersonic speeds, they can make a 90 degree turn. “To put that into context, our SR-71 Blackbird when at 3,200 miles an hour wants to take a right-hand turn, it takes roughly half the state of Ohio to do it,” said Elizondo.
• According to Elizondo, the third main technological capacity found among UFOs is cloaking technology.
• Elizondo’s remarks came after a sneak peek at a Pentagon assessment on UFOs, which is due to be disclosed by June 25th, which purportedly revealed no concrete evidence of extraterrestrial technology underpinning the bizarre aerial phenomena. If it isn’t alien technology, then that leaves two alternatives. Either this is secret US technology that we’ve managed to keep secret even from ourselves, or Russia and/or China have leap-frogged our own technological development, which has escaped the attention of our entire intelligence apparatus.
• Elizondo says that the new Pentagon investigation will rule out the possibility that these UFO sightings are linked to US technology. Furthermore, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe announced definitively that this is not Russian technology.
• So, that leaves China. But Chinese officials recently stated that the Chinese military is now using artificial intelligence to investigate UFOs after being “overwhelmed” by UFO reports. It is unnatural for an authoritarian state like China to admit to a lack of control over national security matters, said Marik von Rennenkampff, a former analyst with the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation at the US Department of State. And it is not likely to be part of a deception campaign by Beijing. According to von Rennenkampff, China is equally baffled by some of the same UFO events as the United States. China has struggled to produce engines for its fifth-generation fighter aircraft. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that they have managed to develop flying saucers.
• Elizondo pointed out that there have been reports of UFO sightings since the 1950s. It doesn’t make sense that in 1950 China would have mastered this beyond next-generation technology to be able to fly anywhere on the face of the planet, but has managed to keep it as a secret for 70 years. Also, China has a habit of stealing technology from the US. “So, one has to ask the question that if…a country had this technology, would it be necessary to steal…much more basic technology from another country?”
• [Editor’s Note] Oh, well if the government says that the US doesn’t possess UFO technology, then that’s good enough for me. The US government/ military industrial complex/ deep state would never lie to us, would they? The US intelligence community would never use the Senate Committee’s report to further the deep state’s agenda of hiding the fact that the US government has secretly possessed extraterrestrial anti-gravity electromagnetic propulsion and cloaking technology since the 1950s, would they? Of course not. And a former CIA counter-intelligence official like Elizondo would never be a part of that agenda, would he? So the mind-controlled, brain-dead American public will simply have to accept that the UFOs we’ve seen are not ours, not theirs, and not alien in origin. And if they did not come from anywhere, then they must not exist at all. The only answer then is mass hallucination. This makes perfect sense. Thank you Lue for clearing that up.
Luis Elizondo, the former director of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), said in a recent interview that unidentified flying objects or UFOs have frequently rendered nuclear weapons unusable in the United States.
While referring to UFOs by their official Pentagon term, Unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), Elizondo told Washington Post: “We’ve had incidents where these UAPs have interfered and actually brought offline our nuclear capabilities”.
“I think to some they would probably say, well, that’s a sign that whatever this is, is something that is peaceful,” Elizondo said of the fact that nuclear technologies in the United States are being phased out.
“But in the same context, we also have data suggesting that in other countries these things have interfered with their nuclear technology and actually turned them on, put them online. So that is equally, for me, just as concerning,” he added.
According to his understanding, there is enough evidence at this point to show that there is an interest in America’s nuclear technology, as well as the capacity to tamper with it.
The Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), which was formed last summer by the Pentagon to examine odd aerial phenomena, has taken the role of the now-defunct AATIP.
The former AATIP director claimed that there are some common traits among UFO sightings.
“We see an interest in our nuclear capabilities, and then we have this really bizarre…I don’t know if you call it an interest, but there seems to be a connection with water, and these things have a tendency to be seen in and around water,” said Elizondo.
He also shared other observations on the technological capabilities implied by UFO sightings.
Elizondo told the American news outlet: “The first is hypersonic velocity. The ability to change directions instantly”.
“And when I say instantly, I mean human beings can withstand about 9 G forces or some of our best aircraft can withstand about 16 Gs. These things are doing 3-, 4-, 600 Gs in mid-flight,” he added.
He also noted UFOs’ hypersonic speeds.
Elizondo explained that “you know, there are [some known human] technologies that can go that fast, but then again, you don’t expect a hypersonic aircraft to do a 90-degree turn”.
“To put that into context, our SR-71 Blackbird when at 3,200 miles an hour wants to take a right-hand turn, it takes roughly half the state of Ohio to do it,” he added.
According to him, the third main technological capacity found among UFOs is cloaking technology.
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Article by Zachary Vogt June 7, 2021 (italicsmag.com)
• According to Edoardo Russo, Secretary General of the Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici (CISU) (ie: the Italian Center for Ufology), “Italy is one of the most active countries in Europe (in UFO sightings), more than France, Germany, and Spain.” The history of alien visitors in Italy is also exceptional.
• In 1933, Benito Mussolini was concerned enough about a UFO that crash landed in Lombardy that he establish a secret working group known as Cabinet RS/33. Mussolini suppressed all evidence of the spacecraft and had his security forces monitor the skies for similar intrusions. Another UFO sighting occurred in 1936 when Venice was buzzed both by a large metal disc and a slate-colored tube in the same night. Mussolini enlisted the help of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi to investigate. The Cabinet RS/33 shared their findings with Nazi Germany. These incidents predated the sightings in the United States which began in the early 1940s.
• On October 27, 1954, the Florence soccer team was playing its regional rival Pistoiese on a typical Tuscan fall day. Suddenly, the crowd of 10,000 screamed in surprise as what appeared to be a fleet of oval spacecraft moved slowly over the stadium. Florence player Ardico Magnini remembers: “It was something that looked like an egg that was moving slowly, slowly, slowly. Everyone was looking up, and also there was some glitter coming down from the sky, silver glitter. We were astonished. We had never seen anything like it before. We were absolutely shocked.” The game was suspended due to “aerial interference”.
• That same October night, eyewitnesses from all across Tuscany called the police and newspapers, claiming a Martian invasion was underway. The authorities were particularly puzzled by the “silver glitter” that had fallen all across Florence. A journalist at La Nazione collected some samples of what seemed like cobwebs or string and brought them to scientists at the University of Florence. Though the material did contain natural elements like boron, silicon, and magnesium, the tests proved inconclusive.
• Sixty years later, some ascribed the event to migrating spiders, who use the process known as ‘ballooning’ to move long distances through the air. Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN) president Roberto Pinotti strongly disagreed: “We may conclude that it was an intelligent phenomenon, a technological phenomenon, and a phenomenon that cannot be linked with anything we know on Earth.”
• The number of UFO reports in Italy have surged over the last year. According to the CUN, there was a 57% increase in alien sightings from 2019 to 2020, with a large number in Rome, Turin, Naples, and Florence. While some sightings may be attributed to Elon Musk’s Starlink satellites passing overhead, others have yet to be explained as human activity, which is what excites those at CUN. Italians from Sicily to Tuscany have provided photos and videos of flying spheres and discs that have no simple explanation.
• As the United States media applauds its government for requesting a Pentagon report on UFO sightings from the American military, Italian ufologists remind the international community that in 2001, Italy was the first country in the world to release military data on UFOs. The Italian Air Force, has been documenting UFO encounters since 1978. There is even an official webpage on the Air Forces’s website devoted to ‘Oggetti Volanti Non Identificati’, or ‘Unidentified Flying Objects’. CUN published an official press release applauding the transparency and commitment of the Italian Air Force, and called for further examination of the U.S. UFO report.
• [Editor’s Note] And let’s not forget the ‘Friendship Case’ from the 1950’s when dozens of Italians interacted with a group of friendly extraterrestrial humans of various sizes. (See documentary video below.)
Italy is renowned for many aspects of its cuisine and culture, but UFO activity does not
immediately spring to mind as being one of the peculiarities of the peninsula. However, according to the experts, it should. Edoardo Russo, secretary general of CISU, or the Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici — the Italian Center for Ufology, stated in 2011 that for the number of UFO sightings and reports, “Italy is one of the most active countries in Europe, more than France, Germany, and Spain.” While this could simply mean that Italians have more active imaginations and are more prone to believing in extraterrestrial life, the history of Italy and alien visitors is quite fascinating nonetheless. As far-fetched as it might seem, the Italian narrative of flying saucers involves Benito Mussolini, soccer, and Elon Musk’s Starlink program.
In 1933, as he strengthened his grip over Italy, the last thing on Benito Mussolini’s
mind was little green men from Mars. Yet according to documents unearthed in the late 1990s, Mussolini was concerned enough about an unidentified flying object that crash landed in Lombardy to establish a secret working group known as Cabinet RS/33. Demonstrating the paranoia common among the dictator set, Mussolini suppressed all evidence of the spacecraft and had his security forces monitor the skies for similar intrusions. Despite his best efforts, another UFO sighting occurred in 1936, when Venice was buzzed both by a large metal disc and a slate-colored tube within the
same night. Mussolini enlisted the help of radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi to investigate the happenings, and the Cabinet RS/33 shared many of their findings with Nazi Germany. While there is little other information about what happened to the crashed UFO and the tests performed by the fascist scientists, it is notable that these otherworldly encounters predated the sightings in the United States, which began in the early 1940s.
One of the most notable sightings that garnered national media attention occurred on October 27, 1954. Florence soccer team Fiorentina was battling it out on the pitch
with regional rival Pistoiese on a typically Tuscan fall day. Suddenly, the crowd of 10,000 screamed in surprise as what appeared to be a fleet of oval spacecraft moved slowly over the stadium. Fiorentina player Ardico Magnini remembers that “It was something that looked like an egg that was moving slowly, slowly, slowly. Everyone was looking up and also there was some glitter coming down from the sky, silver glitter. We were astonished. We had never seen anything like it before. We were absolutely shocked.” The game was suspended due to “aerial interference,” a first in the history of Italian soccer, and yet to be repeated.
The fans and players were not the only ones to witness the phenomenon. All across Tuscany, eyewitnesses called the police and newspapers, claiming a Martian invasion was underway. The authorities were particularly puzzled by the “silver glitter” that had fallen all across Florence. A journalist at La Nazione collected some samples of what seemed like cobwebs or string and brought them to scientists at the University of Florence. The tests proved inconclusive, though the material did contain natural elements like boron, silicon, and magnesium. Sixty years later and there are those that ascribe the event to migrating spiders, who use the process known as ballooning to move long distances through the air. Centro Ufologico Nazionale (CUN) president Roberto Pinotti strongly disagrees. In his view, “We may conclude that it was an intelligent phenomenon, a technological phenomenon and a phenomenon that cannot be linked with anything we know on Earth.”
53:28 minute documentary on the Italian ‘Friendship Case’ (‘Prowoke Thought’ YouTube)
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Article by Janis Mackey Frayer June 17, 2021 (nbcnews.com)
• On June 17th, the Chinese Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule successfully launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, sending three astronauts on a historic mission to an orbiting space station that China is currently building. It was the first time in five years that China has sent humans into space. (see 1:07 minute video of launch below)
• Shenzhou-12, or “Divine Vessel,” is one of 11 planned missions to complete construction of China’s 70-ton ‘Tiangong’ or “Harmony of the Heavens” space station that should be up and running by next year. The astronauts will remain docked with the main Tianhe section of the station for three months to perform spacewalks, maintenance work and critical testing of life support and other systems.
• “I believe that in the near future, when the Chinese space station is complete, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts taking on joint missions,” China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming said at an earlier news conference. “Exploring the vast universe, developing space activities and building a powerful space nation is our unremitting space dream.”
• The 20 year-old International Space Station, or ISS, which has hosted astronauts from the U.S., Russia and a number of other countries is set to be decommissioned after 2024. China has long been frozen out of and ISS mission due to American concerns over the Chinese space program’s secrecy and connections to its own military. Moscow has hinted that it may withdraw from ISS cooperation in 2025, meaning China could be the only country with a functioning space station.
• The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, also signed an agreement in March with the Chinese National Space Administration to build a base on or around the Moon, which they will call the International Scientific Lunar Station. “All the firsts that the U.S. and the USSR did in the Cold War, China is just ticking them off,” said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “Now they’re at the point where they’re starting to think, ‘OK, we’re not just copying the West anymore, we’re going to start doing our own thing’. And that’s going to be very interesting to watch.”
• On the day before the launch, the three Chinese astronauts (pictured above) met with reporters from inside a germ-free glass chamber. Veteran Nie Haisheng, 56, was looking forward to his third trip to space, while Liu Boming, 54, took part in a 2011 mission that included China’s first spacewalk. They were joined by 40-year-old Tang Hongbo, who was looking forward to his first journey up to the stars, having been selected for training in 2010.
• After Tianhe’s main module was successfully launched last month, state media reported that President Xi Jinping wrote a letter to congratulate Chinese engineers for a breakthrough that earned a place in the nation’s history. NASA and others scolded Beijing for acting recklessly by allowing a rocket booster from that mission to fall to Earth in a seemingly uncontrolled manner.
• The Shenzhou-12’s launch was covered on state television and celebrated as a matter of prestige ahead of the Communist Party’s 100th anniversary next month. For Xi, the space station holds symbolic value in his vision of his country as “a space power in all respects.”
• But as China pours billions of dollars into its space programs, including an exploration of the dark side of the Moon and its recent landing of a rover on Mars, some analysts fear that its lack of international coordination is creating a dangerously competitive playing field in space. “There is no doubt the U.S. is the most advanced,” Zhou Jianping, the chief designer at China’s Manned Space Agency told NBC News. “Regardless of scale, China develops space programs out of our country’s own need … to fulfil our own dream.”
JIUQUAN, China — A Chinese rocket blasted off from a launch pad in the Gobi Desert on Thursday, sending three astronauts on a historic mission to an orbiting space station China is building.
Fire and huge clouds of dust could be seen in the distance when the Long March-2F rocket carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule roared away from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, as China’s space race with the United States and Russia continues to gather pace.
It was the first time in five years that China has sent humans into space.
For Rong Yi, the rocket’s chief designer, it was hard to see it go.
“We have invested so much energy,” she told NBC News, likening the rocket to raising a child. “But I am thrilled to see it fulfill its duty within 10 minutes.”
Shenzhou-12, or “Divine Vessel,” is one of 11 planned missions to complete construction of China’s 70-ton Tiangong or Harmony of the Heavens space station that is set to be up and running by next year.
The astronauts will remain docked with the main Tianhe section of the station for three months — China’s longest crewed mission yet — to perform spacewalks, maintenance work and critical testing of life support and other systems.
“I believe that in the near future, when the Chinese space station is complete, we will see Chinese and foreign astronauts taking on joint missions,” China Manned Space Agency Assistant Director Ji Qiming said at a news conference Wednesday ahead of the launch.
“Exploring the vast universe, developing space activities and building a powerful space nation is our unremitting space dream,” he said.
China has long been frozen out of the International Space Station, or ISS, a project launched 20 years ago that has served as the ultimate expression of post-Cold War reconciliation between Russia and the United States. American concerns over the Chinese space program’s secrecy and connections to its military were largely responsible for that.
But the aging ISS that hosted astronauts from the U.S., Russia and a number of other countries is set to be decommissioned after 2024. As broader U.S.-Russia relations deteriorate, Moscow has hinted that it may withdraw from ISS cooperation in 2025, meaning China could be the only country with a functioning space station.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, also signed an agreement in March with the Chinese National Space Administration to build a base on or around the Moon, which they will call the International Scientific Lunar Station.
1:06 minute video of the launch of the Long March-2F rocket
carrying the Shenzhou-12 capsule (‘NBC News’ YouTube)
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Article by Wulan Kusuma Wardhani June 7, 2021 (thejakartapost.com)
• Indonesia’s largest UFO-centric community is BETA-UFO (‘BETA’ being short for Benda Terbang Aneh, the Indonesian translation of UFO). Established in 1997, BETA-UFO has more than 19,000 registered members on its Facebook group, with about one hundred actively involved in the community’s ongoing activities. BETA-UFO carries out discussion, research, investigation and public education on UFOs. The community’s website contains information about, among other things, UFO sightings around Indonesia. Anyone can report sightings through the Facebook and WhatsApp groups, but only selected testimonies are published on the website.
• “BETA-UFO keeps thinking critically, meaning we aren’t believers who ignore data and facts,” said Nur Agustinus, cofounder of the community organization. The community usually contacts people who report sightings and analyzes any pictures sent by possible witnesses. “If the analysis proves that, for example, it’s a light beam or flare ejected from the sun, we will tell them it isn’t a UFO. We have members from various government agencies, so it’s easy to check [facts].”
• Agustinu, who is today a psychologist in Surabaya, shared with The Jakarta Post how his ongoing passion for extraterrestrial phenomena began. As a high school student, he discovered astronomy and fell in love. “I liked observing the stars and moon with a telescope. My parents supported my hobby.” As he grew older, he devoured any articles and books about UFOs that he could find.
• Another senior BETA-UFO member, Anugerah Sentot Sudono or “Nugy”, has been fascinated by extraterrestrial phenomena since he was a child when his father let him watch a movie depicting a UFO and aliens. Nugy’s curiosity grew stronger when he lived in Paris in the 1980s. In 1990, Nugy was in Puncak, Bogor for a senior high school class farewell party. “I went to bed around 9 p.m., but was suddenly awakened at 12 a.m. Then I walked upstairs to the balcony. When I looked to the skies, I saw an oval object moving downward,” said the 48-year-old learning development manager. “My friends thought it was a comet. But I told them it wasn’t, because a comet has a tail and is not as bright as this object.” Nugy became a full-fledged believer.
• Nugy has had to endure the slings and arrows of skeptics. In February 2021, Nugy was interviewed for a YouTube channel. In the comments section, some said that Nugy was insane and a liar. He has even been accused of making up stories.
• In the 1960s, Jacob Salatun was a Vice Air Marshal in the Indonesian Air Force. He founded the National Institute of Aeronautics and Space, wrote a pair of books on UFOs, and pioneered an Indonesian UFO Studies group – a precursor to BETA-UFO. Nugy says that in the 1950s, Salatun had documented proof of alien and UFO encounters. In one of his books, Jacob related the testimony of the head of a police station in Alor Island, East Nusa Tenggara about an alien and UFO encounter the officer had experienced. That “testimony” was one of the many things that convinced Nugy that UFOs were not merely the imagination of just a few. “It’s hard for us to think this is all a mass hallucination,” said Nugy.
• Agustinus says that alien origins is a favorite topic that always gets strong traction from Facebook members. “Some say they may come from outside the Earth. There is also an assumption that they may have been living on Earth for a long time in unknown places, either in underground caves or on the seabed. US and Russian military officers have reported their encounters with unidentified submerged objects.” These types of theories get passed around on the BETA-UFO board.
• Leaked information on the impending US Congressional report on UFOs, however, indicates that no conclusive evidence has been found to suggest that UFOs are alien spaceships. Agustinus thinks that there are political agendas behind the disclosure.
• Nugy believes that if UFOs are considered a threat, the US military will go after more funding to prepare for this threat. Nugy never thought that the US report would reveal the existence of alien lifeforms. “In the end, if aliens are classified as a threat, the DoD would end up requesting a budget increase for the US Space Force,” he said.
“I liked observing the stars and moon with a telescope. My parents supported my hobby.”
Nur Agustinus, cofounder of Indonesia’s largest UFO-centric community, BETA-UFO, shared with The Jakarta Post how his ongoing passion for extraterrestrial phenomena began. As a high school student he discovered astronomy and fell in love. His parents found it positive and let the young Nur, now 55 years of age, have his fun.
As he grew older, he devoured any articles and books about UFOs he could get his hands on.
“In 1979, news about UFO sightings in New Zealand was published in major newspapers such as Sinar Harapan and Kompas. In the same year, many books on UFOs in Indonesian were published by [Bandung-based publisher] Tanadi Group,” recalled Nur, who is today a psychologist in Surabaya.
Another senior BETA-UFO member, Anugerah Sentot Sudono, who often goes by
Nugy, has been fascinated by extraterrestrial phenomena since he was a child, starting after his father let him watch a movie depicting a UFO and aliens.
Nugy’s curiosity grew stronger when he lived in Paris between 1984 and 1985. During his time there, Nugy read many books about UFOs. However, it wasn’t until an occurrence in 1990 at Puncak, Bogor, that Nugy truly fell for UFOs.
“I was there for a senior high school class farewell party. I went to bed around 9 p.m., but was suddenly awakened at 12 a.m. Then I walked upstairs to the balcony. When I looked to the skies, I saw an oval object moving downward,” recalled the 48-year-old learning development manager.
“My friends thought it was a comet. But I told them it wasn’t, because a comet has a tail and is not as bright as this object.”
Nugy became a full-fledged believer.
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Article by Tony Tran June 5, 2021 (futurism.com)
• China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is taking a closer look at the UFO phenomenon, which they term as “unidentified air conditions”, according to The South China Morning Post. “The frequent occurrence of unidentified air conditions in recent years… brings severe challenges to air defense security of our country,” said Chen Li, a researcher with China’s Air Force Early Warning Academy, in a 2019 report to the country’s top information technology scientists.
• While the U.S. is warming up to the possibility that UFOs or its technology could be of extraterrestrial origin, Chinese scientists and officials believe that most — if not all — of the UFO activities are either man-made or ‘naturally occurring’.
• One way China seems to stand out from the U.S. is their use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in order to study the unidentified craft. AI can “think outside the box” by connecting seemingly disparate pieces of data sets from various locations and times. Doing so can help the PLA scientists more quickly and concretely assess whether the UFOs are craft coming from hostile countries, a natural occurrence, or even something otherworldly.
Unidentified Air Conditions
China’s military is using artificial intelligence to research sightings of UFOs.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is taking a closer look at what it describes as “unidentified air conditions,” according to The South China Morning Post. This appears to be China’s version of the US military’s “unidentified aerial phenomena.”
“The frequent occurrence of unidentified air conditions in recent years… brings severe challenges to air defense security of our country,” said Chen Li, a researcher with China’s Air Force Early Warning Academy, in a 2019 report to the country’s top information technology scientists attained by the South China Morning Post.
Tracking UFOs with AI
One way China seems to stand out from the US is their use of AI in order to study the unidentified craft.
Li said that AI can “think outside the box” by connecting seemingly disparate pieces of data sets from various locations and times. Doing so can help the PLA more quickly and concretely assess whether the UFOs are craft from hostile countries, a natural occurrence, or even something otherworldly.
Though this is likely to fuel even more speculation about visitors from other planets, many Chinese scientists and officials believe that most — if not all — of the UFO activities are either man-made or naturally occurring. However, their counterparts in the US are starting to warm up to the idea that it could possibly be aliens.
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