Given that we exist, then the universe should be just barely habitable according to naturalism, since the number of barely habitable universes should far outnumber the number of highly habitable universes in any one of the many multiverse scenarios offered up by cosmologists..
“The more interesting question concerns the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). If we discover ETI comparable in intelligence to a dog or a monkey, then I don’t think the implications would be significant. However, the common view among opinion makers today seems to be that Christians should worry about the discovery of an advanced ETI. Space.com blogger Clara Moskowitz wrote recently on MSNBC.com, ‘Christians, in particular, might take the news hardest, because the Christian belief system does not easily allow for other intelligent beings in the universe, Christian thinkers said at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [DARPA] to discuss issues surrounding traveling to other stars.’”
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Quote from the above link:
“This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”
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“In 1912 in South Africa a giant human-like footprint was found in solid granite. The footprint is of a left foot and is approximately four feet long and eighteen centimeters deep. It is distinct enough to clearly show where mud had squished up between the toes. The footprint is estimated to be about a million years old.”
“Here is another one nobody wants to touch. In a riverbed in Paluxy, Texas, archaeologists have found both dinosaur tracks and human footprints together. Both made at the same time. And, not just one track, but dozens. All the tracks are the same age, about 140 million years old, and they were made together. From the spacing of the footprints, it is clear the ancient person was clearly tracking the dinosaur. Several scientists have said it is not possible; however, those that say this have never gone to visit the prints themselves.”
“But if they’re not demons or angels, and since Catholicism leaves little theoretical room for ‘neutral’ spirits, perhaps what Balducci is getting at is that these entities are physical beings, with bodies of some kind. His other statements about other ‘children of God’ in the cosmos definitely imply that.”
“PAZUZU…Ancient Mesopotamian Monster…Pazuzu is a demon – monster originating from ancient Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), mentioned in tales from ancient cities, Sumer, Babylon, etc. Pazuzu has characteristics of human and animals, like a canine – like head, (also depicted as having a head of a lion) two set of wings, talons for feet & and has serpentine sexual organ. He has the power to cause destruction, but it is also the protector of the west winds.
“The title says it all really. Part of a cycle of books in the late 1960s and early 70s purporting to interlink and explain the mysteries of the ancient world as a function of extraterrestrial intervention (the most famous of which remains Erich von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods). Dione’s shtick is to meld Ufology with Biblical doctrine, claiming that God is not a supernatural being but rather the most technologically advanced entity in the universe.”
Quote from the above article.
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“New archaeological discoveries show us that history may not be exactly as we learned in school.
“Rather than thinking about history as a picture, try visualizing it as a puzzle that lacks all of its pieces. For centuries, researchers have been trying to put together a consistent timeline of history, but new findings make it difficult to keep that consistency for long. History, although it belongs to the past, is very much alive, and it changes with new archaeological discoveries.”
“A skull unearthed in Petralona Cave near Thessaloniki in Northern Greece is not a new discovery. It was found in 1959 or 1960, and at first, it was believed that this is an ordinary hominin skull, aged somewhere between 100.000 and 120.000 years. If this information was true, Petralona would fit right into the existing puzzle of the development of humankind. Since then, information surfaced that the remains might be 350.000-year-old while others claim that the skull is 700.000-years-old! This makes Petralona cave the oldest human settlement we know of. Another layer of mystery was added when a scientist claimed that the skull doesn’t belong to any of the hominin groups that migrated from Africa to the European continent. Where did Petralona men come from? When were they extinct? It remains unclear. However, this discovery entirely changes the timeline of the evolution of humankind.”
“Klarfeld summarizes that The Enuma Elish Epic predated the Hebrew Book of Genesis, and is the bases for the Genesis creation account. It is the originalcreation story that was transmitted orally from the Anunnaki. The Epic came to rest eventually in the form of seven cuneiform tablets.”
“A popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both.”
James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman, political theorist and the fourth President of the United States.
“There are two things I know with certainty about the UFO phenomena. One is that the phenomenon is real,” says author Robert Salas, “that is, real objects of unearthly origin are visiting our airspace. My second certainty is that the phenomenon of people being abducted by sentient begins who are operating these unknown craft, is also a reality. These conclusions do not come hypotheses, guesses, theories, or concepts that I used to convince myself of these realities. They come from my life experiences.”
Robert Salas in Uniform
(Unidentified:The UFOPhenomena, Robert Salas, the Career Press, Inc., 220 West Parkway, Unit 12, Pompton Plains, NJ 07444, www.careerpress.com, 2015, pages, $15.99.)
SHUTDOWN
That stentorian statement is backed by Robert Salas’ 32 years he had worked for the government, seven years on active duty as a graduate of the U.S Air Force Academy, a weapons controller, launch officer for intercontinental ballistic missiles, Air Force propulsion engineer at Martin-Marietta on the Titan III Program, and 21 years for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) as an aircraft structure engineer.
Nothing, however, gives him as much spiritual and etheric power to speak on the topic as to when he was a witness to a March 24, 1967 shutdown of 10 ballistic missiles that went dead – 20 shutdowns in a week – a “crap out” from their alert status.
MARCH 16, 1967
(“UFOs were seen more frequently around areas vital to the defense of the United States. The Los Alamos-Albuquerque area, Oak Ridge, and White Sands Proving Ground rated high.” Ruppelt, Edward J. The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects, Ace Books, Inc., 1956, page 155.[Captain Ruppelt was Chief of the Air Force’s “Project Blue Book” from 1951 to Sept. 1953, an operation of the “Air Technical Intelligence Center” [ATIC]. On 21 May 1951, the United States Air Force established ATIC as a field activity of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence].)
A Missile Launch Command Center
Salas recounts events that “Airman Smith” (a pseudonym) participated in an invasion when he worked at Echo Site on March 16, 1967, as a targeting technician. Smith was notified that the missiles “had gone down” as they were working on the Echo Flight LF. At some point into the acquisition of the autocollimator, a failure occurred.
“About this time, the top side security guard shook the ladder and motioned for Airman Smith to come up the ladder,” says Salas. “When he reached ground level, he could see a large, glowing, orange-colored sphere, stationary at about 30 degrees from the horizon, in the direction of the gate and close to the site.”
Airman Smith notified the team chief who was visibly frightened by the sight of the object. Smith ordered the “shaken” guard to report the sighting to the Wing Command Post through the Sensitive Information Network (SIN), but the line would not connect. Smith and two other team-members tried the startup procedure several times, only to “crap out” at collimator acquisition.
The object was still above the site while this was happening. Smith observed the object to pulsate and give off a low hum and he felt an electrostatic energy coming from the object.
“The object was present for at least an hour; however, the guard told him later that it would periodically move away for a short time and then return,” says Salas. “After considerable inhibiting the startup, it left the area; the missile was then brought back to Alert status with no anomalies whatever during collimator acquisition.”
Nuclear Missile in Silo
Salas also relates an incident of a technician called “Tex” (this may have also been ‘Smith’) to UFO researchers Sean Casteel and John Weigle (October 29, 2013). They related the tale:
“Further confirmation came from a source called ‘Tex,’ who prefers to remain anonymous since he is currently the vice president of a prominent aerospace company. Tex said that he was working through a checklist to bring an Echo Flight missile back online when a guard called him to the surface to see a UFO hovering over the site. He returned to his work and started to bring the missile back up.
“He gets to a certain point in the checklist,” Salas said, “and the missile shuts down again. This object is still up there. In fact, he can feel the electrical energy coming down the tube right where he is. He said he felt almost like he was immersed in static electricity. But he tried this many, many times, he said, trying to bring the missile back up on alert using his checklist. When he got to this particular point on the checklist, he said, the missile shut down again.
“To Tex, whatever it was knew exactly how the missile system worked and knew it in great detail.”
A similar scenario took place when Salas was on duty on March 24, 1967.
Salas received a call from the flight security controller (FSC) reporting strange “lights” about the facility observed by several security personnel. The lights moved erratically and would sometimes hover and reverse direction, often at high speeds. The FSC called again and agitatedly told that an object was hovering over the front gate. Salas ordered them to stand ready with weapons and to let no one enter.
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Artist Depiction of UFOs over Military Base
Salas alerted Colonel Fred Meiwald as they began to get audible alarms and indicator lights on their status board. “All of our missiles were indicating NO-GO; they were all disabled.”
Fred Meiwald phoned in the NO-GO status at Oscar Flight to the Wing Command Post. Meiwald stated: “The same thing happened at another flight!” Salas later discovered the Oscar Flight incident was not mentioned in any of the reports of the Echo Flight investigation.
Lieutenant Robert Jamison was a targeting officer assigned to the 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron. He stated in his affidavit that he was called out one evening to restart Oscar Flight – all ten missiles were NO-GO. Jamison testified that he had to wait about three hours before he was given the go-ahead to proceed to Oscar Flight. Jamison told of the following facts:
# All targeting teams received a “special UFO briefing” prior to each dispatch for the next two weeks after the March incident.
# They were to report any UFO activity to the Missile Command Post and to take self-defense measures if necessary.
# Jamison was told about the Echo Flight shutdowns and UFO encounters.
Despite multiple witnessing and much evidence, Lieutenant Colonel Lewis Chase of the Air Force Chief of Staff and the Foreign Technology Division at Wright-Patterson (TDET) concluded the incident as having “no equipment malfunctions and abnormalities.” (p. 59)
“These are blatantly false statements,” says Salas, “I and others can attest that were ordered not to talk to anyone about our incident and that our equipment certainly did malfunction.”
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A Minuteman Missile at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in 1960s
CONDON TRICKERY
Salas recounts his meeting with the infamous University of Colorado UFO Study Group (headed by Edward U. Condon). The Condon Committee, as it also became to be called, was eventually exposed as a negative, contrived and “orchestrated” study. Condon Committee investigator Dr. Roy Craig was asked to investigate at Malmstrom on October 9 to 14, 1967.
“The report of the shutdowns was cloaked in secrecy even before Craig arrived at Malmstrom,” says Salas, “the depth of that secrecy would soon be escalated after his arrival.”
Craig turned over what limited information he was given by the Air Force to co-investigator Condon Deputy Robert Low. It was Low that wrote in an August, 1966 memo: “The trick would be, I think, to describe the project so that, to the public, it would appear a totally objective study, but to the scientific community, would present the image of a group of nonbelievers trying their best to be objective, but having an almost zero expectation of finding a saucer.”
Largely because of his experience with UFOs, Salas becomes acquainted with the growth of the Military-Industrial-Complex and its skeleton of secrecy that smothers and is tyrannical. He traces the creation of the U.S Air Force Project Sign, watches it grow into an uglier Project Grudge, blossom again into a brighter Project Bluebook, only to be crushed beneath the CIA Robertson Committee Panel of the January, 1953 and its “disinformation campaign to discredit the phenomena…keeping the UFO question in the realm of incredulity…” (p. 25.)
Also pivotal to Salas and the UFO situation was the Manhattan Project and the creation of the atomic bomb: this strengthened the structure of “holding a secret (as having) always been a way of having some sort of power over others.”
THE LONG WALK
Salas speaks of the September 1948 Top Secret “Estimate of the Situation” that states that UFOs were spaceships:
“In fact, the highest levels of our government did know for certain that these were interplanetary,” says Salas, “because they had already recovered extraterrestrial craft and beings from the 1947 Roswell crash in New Mexico.” (p. 22)
Quickly following the 1947 UFO events began a series of happenings whose momentum in negativity has become nonstop ever since:
# The 1949 Project Grudge two-phase approach: explaining all UFO reports and, secondly, convincing the public, which Grudge pursued wholeheartedly.
# The “hardening” of the government’s seeming “negative approach” following the July, 1952 UFO buzzing of the nation’s Capital in Washington, D.C.
# The forming of the January 1953 CIA Robertson Committee Panel “to establish a disinformation campaign to discredit the phenomena.”
“Here in the United States this excessive secrecy has been ongoing for such a long period of time that many abuses by various government agencies,” says Salas, “have and continue to degrade the conversation of our democratic principles – government of, by, and for the people.”
# A 2010 information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) report indicated there were 76.8 million classification decisions, a more than 40 percent increase from 2009; a cost of $10.2 billion in 2010.
# To combat the UFO situation, governments have formed “a secret organizational structure, a cabal,” devoted to a huge zero-sum game with the public. “As long as there is no public disclosure about the UFO reality, the game goes on and there are no absolute winners or losers.” One side, the public (so-to-speak) would attempt to represent more credible UFO evidence; the cabal, on the other hand, consists of disinformation, debunking, silencing, intimidation, and ridicule. As the readers will see, Salas goes through several examples.
“Clearly there is a cover-up of the UFO phenomena,” says Salas, “and clearly the forces in favor of disclosure are at a disadvantage in winning this game. The prize is the entire pie. We want total disclosure and the other side wants to keep completely hidden.” (p. 97)
THE CABAL
Salas points at noted individuals in the cabal such as the late engineer Wilber Smith, the late Dr. Vannevar Bush, the late Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter, and Salas presently includes a CORE group with “the highest security rating and priority.” That team is also called the “SecretGroup” by researcher Raymond Fowler. Salas charts what he believes to be the general flow and organization of the CORE group. Salas outlines what CORE may have learned about UFO activity: invisibility and the control of natural energy sources are two characteristics.
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The nature of the “enemy” is highlighted by one specific incident:
A principal Civil Aviation Administration air traffic controller, Harry Barnes, distinctly felt that the 1952 UFOs over Washington, D.C could read his thoughts as they darted about over the Capitol. A pilot reported that he “heard his first name called out by a strange voice transmission. Military radio transmissions between aircraft do not use first names of pilots!”
COMPILATION OF INTERESTING SIGHTINGS
Salas portrays several favorites, little-known and unusual sightings that he feels support the reality of the phenomena. Some are large triangular UFOs, others flew over nuclear missile bases.
A typical case was that of Josie Zwinanberg who spotted a UFO near the Soesterbuerg, Netherland’s 32nd Tactical Fighter Squadron on February 2 and 3, 1979. The object had a number of brilliant but mystically blue lights that shone from it as the object buzzed the airfield. On the 3rd, the object emitted a beam of light to the ground. It was seen by many airmen at the base.
Thirty-one years later in the summer of 2011, while Zwinenberg vacationed in Ireland, she was approached by a “Tom” – a total stranger – who related details of her sightings, even tiny items and intimate information (such as the rustling of leaves) that only Zwinenberg knew.
Part of Salas’ chronology of events, in the latter part of the book, concerns the human abduction phenomena, which Salas naturally includes in his array of UFO events. Salas extrapolates findings from researchers such as Dr. Budd Hopkins, Dr. John Mack and Yvonne Smith of the Close Encounter Research Organization.
Hypnotherapist Yvonne Smith
“Essentially all abductees seemed to be given some information, messages, special abilities, direction, or some special ‘mission’ to perform upon their return,” says Salas. “While there is little doubt that some sort of hybridization program is on-going, there is also little doubt that ETs are trying to somehow ‘improve’ our species.”
NUCLEAR DETERRENCE AND SALVATION
One of the greatest concerns about the ETs must be, says Salas, that of nuclear deterrence, human destruction, and the secrecy surrounding these topics commanding “fairness, honesty, equal treatment, mutual respect, openness, and accountability to the people.” Salas concludes:
“If we do nothing, we allow excessive secrecy, we allow corruption to take hold, we allow unnecessary wars to happen, we allow a few to control us and our lives withoutourconsent, and we allow a few to decide how we will interact with extraterrestrial life.”
CRITICS AND THE AFTERMATH
Salas’ quest, however, has not been without its critics and problems. Critic Tim Hebert (a former SAC missile crew commander and staff officer, currently in the healthcare field with a RN, BASN and MSA), however, even detailed UFO activity surrounding and prior to the Malmstrom case:
“Jan 9, 1967: Malta, MT at 9 p.m., on family farm. Family alerted by dog, family saw a large rectangular object with glowing red light along the bottom and large amber light on top moving at high speed. The object landed in a field for approximately one hour. Object suddenly disappeared as if it took off at a high rate of speed. The next day, family went to the field were the object had landed. There were no tracks in the snow and no sign that anything had been there. (BillingsGazette, 1-20-67.)
“Jan 26, 1967: Havre, MT at 8:15 p.m. A man saw a yellow sphere with blinking yellow body lights which circled a mountain and flew off (nicap.org).
“Feb 9, 1967: Chester, MT, 6:30 a.m., Railroad foreman saw a saucer (disk) with bright body of light hovering over the railroad depot. The depot was engulfed in light, the object departed straight up. (SpokaneSpokesman–Review, 2/12/67.)
“Feb 23, 1967 Glasgow AFB, MT, reported sighting by NICAP (no details listed).
“Mar 22, 1967: Newspaper article (UPI), ‘UFOs Seen in Great Falls Vicinity,’ TheDailyInterLake. Tuesday night, 7:45 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., several persons reported seeing unidentified flying objects over the Great Falls, Vaughn, Fort Benton, and Manchester. White lights, big with a little one on top. The object was moving east to west then north to south.
“Mar 23, 1967: Great Falls, MT, 9 p.m.: Sheriffs deputies saw a yellow object with a red glow coming from top to bottom. Object hovered then flew away; Many sightings throughout the state (Great Falls Leader, 3/24/67).
“Mar 24, 1967: Belt, MT, 9 p.m., Truck driver outside of Belt, MT sees a dome-shaped object showing bright lights and landing in a nearby ravine (Investigated by Project Blue Book).”
Hebert, a confessed debunker, unfortunately, did not feel the UFO activity connected with any missile failures on the two major missile fiascos of March 16 and 24, 1967. Herbert gives a short summary of events on his website (dated November 26, 2010):
“The letter in its basic meaning set in motion for OOMA, Boeing, Autonetics and 15th AF to provide support to evaluate the situation and find a cause and correction as detailed in the 341st SMS Wing’s history.
“We must have an in-depth analysis to determine cause and corrective action…..
“The UFO theory backers have used the Malmstrom Incident to foster the notion that a portion of the U.S. nuclear arsenal was neutralized by a UFO. True, ten ICBMs were off alert for one to two days, but no damage was done to the ICBMs themselves. And most importantly, the RVs remained under positive control! There was no ‘Broken Arrow’ called either by the 341st SMW or by SAC!
“So far, I’ve shown that of the 10 Echo Flight ICBMs in question:
“1. Shutdowns occurred due to a then never seen electrical anomaly.
“2. This anomaly was thoroughly evaluated by SAC, 15th Air Force, 341st SMW, Boeing, Autonetics, OOMA (Hill AFB), and AF Systems Command.
“3. Due to the on-going investigation a serious weapon system vulnerability was discovered (EMP susceptibility)
“4. A fix was implemented force-wide.
“5. After 16 Mar 1967, this type of anomaly would never again occur in any Minuteman wing/system.”
Supporters of Hebert tended to agree with him that the shutdown was caused by an electronic flux and that the reported UFOs started out as a practical joke. Other criticisms that Hebert held are that Salas mentions maintenance personnel seeing the UFOs: this was not possible as they are usually inside the LF/silo and the names and identities of witnesses to the UFOs are not given.
James Carlson, whose father was an intimate witness in 1967, took an even stronger stance on February 3, 2013, when he said:
“There were only two witnesses at Echo Flight in March 1967: the commander of the flight, Captain Eric D. Carlson, and the deputy commander, Colonial Walter Figel, Jr. Both men have publicly affirmed that there was no UFO. Robert Salas and Robert Hastings are both merely agitators — one liar and the other a fraud — who have repeatedly misrepresented the claims of the men involved in these incidents. They started utilizing these methods years ago, found out that it made their claims convincing to a few ignorant people, and continued this path of slander and disruption as a result of their minor and isolated successes. They are petty con-man and fraudulent hucksters — nothing more.”
Salas’ book is largely a response to these criticisms. Prior to the book, however, famed UFO researcher Richard Dolan spoke in defense of Robert Salas on his website (October 7, 2010, The Malmstrom UFO Event: Did it Really Happen?):
“Furthermore, since I believe Bob Salas is truthful – despite some early mistakes in his telling of the story – I have no reason to doubt him when he said he heard of the same thing at another location, indicating that there may well indeed have been a UFO over Echo.
“No doubt my own examination of this case will not please the critics, but I sincerely thank them for bringing it to my attention. I hope that they understand that, whatever I have said, I have done so in a spirit of discovery and collegiality.
“I want to add that when I began looking into the allegations, I did not do so with a preconceived conclusion in mind. I tried very hard to let reason, not emotion, be my guide. I admit that the allegations about Salas disturbed me, but I was determined not to let that guide my own analysis. There is no use investing yourself in a bad case. Everyone makes mistakes at one point or another. No one is immune to that fate, and the best solution is simply to prevent you from becoming emotionally attached to any conclusion. Therefore, when we learn new information, we can always modify our position.
“At this stage, I remain of the opinion that there was indeed one or more UFO events connected with the shut-down of missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base. The case is not the slam-dunk that many of us had assumed, but I believe it is stronger than the critics have argued. And I certainly am not persuaded that key promoters of the case are liars.
“Sorting out precise dates and sequences years after the fact is always going to be messy. It has happened many times and will continue to happen. Added to this is the fact that the U.S. Air Force, as well as every segment of the U.S. defense and intelligence establishment, has never cooperated on the release of UFO-related information — for reasons that one may defend or attack. In such a situation, it is not realistic to expect claimants of a case to provide the smoking gun that skeptics demand.”
“By the way, all the studies and repairs were necessary and could have been conducted under the guise of it being strictly electronic in nature without having to introduce the UFO into the solution matrix. However, one could infer that their mention of the EMP, as the impetus behind the fail, was simply a convenient way to describe the UFO’s involvement without there being any need to be strictly overt about it.”
Salas amply points out that there were no nuclear-atomic-explosions during that period – and for many months surrounding the missile failures from March 10 to April 4, 1967.
DIVERGENCE OF ENCOUNTERS
Such “disabling” UFO encounters are not new to UFO history. We can only point out a few (because of space limitations) that are typical:
In the spring of 1965, two female college students were driving outside of Springfield, Missouri when a “light” approached them and hovered near their car. Suddenly, the car died in the middle of the road but started again as the UFO moved away.
Levelland, Texas, November 2, 1957, patrolman A.J. Fowler began to receive reports of brilliantly illuminated torpedo-shaped objects that interfered with auto and truck engines. Pedro Saucedo and Joe Salaz reported their truck headlights went out and their engine died as the UFO passed overhead.
On August 16, 1954, about 5:00 p.m., approximately 200,000 residents and Edward Campagnac (director of Air France) saw an “electric green ball” as a “lens-shaped plasma” made several passes over the town of Tananarive, Madagascar. As the object silently circled above, the farm animals and dogs began to panic and bark. Public and private lighting would die out and return once the UFO left the area.
November 4, 1957, two sentries were badly burned by an approaching orange disk that slowly descended over the military fort at Itaipu, Brazil. The UFO issued a buzzing sound and all communication devices ceased operating at 2:30 a.m. (though they were set to alarm at 5:00 a.m.). The guards received 2nd and 1st degree burns. All power systems failed, including elevators and weapons. A full Brazilian Army investigation ensued.
In 1977 the Brazilian island of Colares and the area of the Amazon delta were visited by flying objects of an unknown source. Nearly all kinds of UFOs were seen as big, some small, saucer-shaped, cigar-shaped, barrel-shaped, and luminous objects. They arrived generally from the Northern sky every day, and also sometimes from underwater. The activity lasted for months as some Island inhabitants were targeted by the objects beaming strange lights at them resulting in injury. The Air Force came, investigated, observed and reported. The bizarre rays wounded thirty-five people. Civilians fled from entire villages.
Photographed UFO in Operation Prato in Brazil
“During the months of September through December 1977, the Brazillian Air-Force under the command of a Captain Uyrang Hollanda, was sent to the island of Colares to investigate a series of incidents in which over 80 people reported being attacked bybeamsoflight from UFO’s, paralyzing two of them and leaving puncture and burn marks on their skin. The investigation was codenamed ‘OperationSaucer.’ This operation collated over 15 hours of film, 500 photos, and hundreds of documents with detailed drawings and interviews with over 3000 witnesses.
“The files were to remain classified by the Brazilian Government until 1997 when UFO investigator’s A. J. Gevaerd and Marco Petite of UFOMagazine were allowed partial access. They were also contacted by the then retired Captain Hollanda who gave them a vivid recollection of the whole series of events”
Salas presents a chronology of incidents where UFOs buzzed nuclear bases on pages 194-195.
FRIEND OR FOE: UFOs?
Donald A. Johnson, Ph.D., noted researcher into the geographic occurrences of UFO sightings, concluded: “So we are left with a somewhat troubling finding. Apparently UFO reports do occur more frequently in the vicinity of nuclear sites, after controlling for population and the region of the country. Given that the motives of the intelligences behind UFOs, assuming that UFOs are intelligently controlled, are not well known, we should be concerned. Given the long history of UFO incursions at sensitive, highly-restricted nuclear facilities; and given that the events of September 11, 2001 have drawn attention to the vulnerability of nuclear power plants to terrorist acts; it would seem to behoove national security agencies to re-direct some attention to the issue of UFOs entering restricted air space over nuclear facilities. No matter how possibly benign the motives of the UFO occupants may be, were I the new Director of Homeland Security I would certainly be paying attention to this matter.”
1: A long wandering or voyage usually marked by many changes of fortune
2: An intellectual or spiritual wandering or questan odyssey of self- discovery
3: A spiritual odyssey from disbelief to faith
Many sailors and travellers have experienced trials, tribulations and travails in long odysseys on long voyages and dangerous expeditions like those of the Greek hero, Odysseus (Ulysses), and his sometimes harrowing 20 year journey to return home after the Fall of Troy.
However, never in the history of the world has there ever been a longer, more dangerous, more arduous, and I may say, “lucky” odyssey than that of Apollo 13 and the 3-man crew of Aquarius (LM-7) Commander James A. Lovell Jr., Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise Jr., and John L. Swigert Jr., Command Module Pilot of Odyssey (CM-109)
Apollo 13:
Odyssey & Aquarius
Launch Sequence
Launch of Apollo 13 – Courtesy CBS newsJames A. Lovell Jr., Commander (Left) Fred W. Haise Jr., Lunar Module Pilot (Right) John L. Swigert Jr., Command Module Pilot (Center)
“Houston, we’ve had a problem…”
Compiled & Edited
By NASA Content Administrator & Robert D. Morningstar
The Apollo 13 explosion: “Houston, we’ve had a problem…”
Mission Objective
Apollo 13 was supposed to land in the Fra Mauro area. An explosion on board forced Apollo 13 to circle the moon without landing. The Fra Mauro site was reassigned to Apollo 14.
Mission Highlights
At 5 1/2 minutes after liftoff, John Swigert, Fred Haise and James Lovell felt a little vibration. Then the center engine of the S-II stage shut down two minutes early. This caused the remaining four engines to burn 34 seconds longer than planned, and the S-IVB third stage had to burn nine seconds longer to put Apollo 13 in orbit.
Days before the mission, backup lunar module pilot, Charles Duke, had inadvertently exposed the crew to German measles. Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly had no immunity to measles and was replaced by backup command module pilot, John Swigert.
Ground tests before launch indicated the possibility of a poorly insulated supercritical helium tank in the lunar module, or LM, descent stage, so the flight plan was modified to enter the LM three hours early in order to obtain an onboard readout of helium tank pressure.
The No. 2 oxygen tank, serial number 10024X-TA0009, had been previously installed in the service module of Apollo 10, but was removed for modification and damaged in the process. The tank was fixed, tested at the factory, installed in the Apollo 13 service module and tested again during the Countdown Demonstration Test at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center beginning March 16, 1970. The tanks normally are emptied to about half full. No. 1 behaved all right, but No. 2 dropped to only 92 percent of capacity. Gaseous oxygen at 80 pounds per square inch was applied through the vent line to expel the liquid oxygen, but to no avail.
An interim discrepancy report was written, and on March 27, two weeks before launch, detanking operations resumed. No. 1 again emptied normally, but No. 2 did not.
After a conference with contractor and NASA personnel, the test director decided to “boil off” the remaining oxygen in No. 2 by using the electrical heater within the tank.
The technique worked, but it took eight hours of 65-volt DC power from the ground support equipment to dissipate the oxygen. Due to an oversight in replacing an underrated component during a design modification, this turned out to severely damage the internal heating elements of the tank.
Apollo 13 was to be the third lunar landing attempt, but the mission was aborted after rupture of service module oxygen tank. Still, it was classified as a “successful failure” because of the experience gained in rescuing the crew. The mission’s spent upper stage successfully impacted the moon.
During the first two days, the crew ran into a couple of minor surprises, but generally Apollo 13 was looking like the smoothest flight of the program. At 46 hours, 43 minutes Joe Kerwin, the capsule communicator, or Capcom, on duty, said, “The spacecraft is in real good shape as far as we are concerned. We’re bored to tears down here.” It was the last time anyone would mention boredom for a long time.
At 55 hours, 46 minutes, as the crew finished a 49-minute TV broadcast showing how comfortably they lived and worked in weightlessness, Lovell said, “This is the crew of Apollo 13 wishing everybody there a nice evening, and we’re just about ready to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back for a pleasant evening in Odyssey. Good night.”
Nine minutes later, oxygen tank No. 2 blew up, causing the No. 1 tank to also fail. The command module’s normal supply of electricity, light and water was lost, and they were about 200,000 miles from Earth.
The message came in the form of a sharp bang and vibration at 9:08 p.m. April 13. Swigert saw a warning light that accompanied the bang and said, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.” Lovell came on and told the ground that it was a main B bus undervolt.
Next, the warning lights indicated the loss of two of three fuel cells, which were the spacecraft’s prime source of electricity. With warning lights blinking, one oxygen tank appeared to be completely empty and there were indications that the oxygen in the second tank was rapidly depleting.
Thirteen minutes after the explosion, Lovell happened to look out of the left-hand window and saw the final evidence pointing toward potential catastrophe. “We are venting something out into the… into space,” he reported to Houston. Capcom Jack Lousma replied, “Roger, we copy you venting.” Lovell said, “It’s a gas of some sort.” It was oxygen gas escaping at a high rate from the second, and last, oxygen tank.
The first thing the crew did, even before discovering the oxygen leak, was try to close the hatch between the CM and the LM. They reacted spontaneously, similar to a submarine crew, closing the hatches to limit the amount of flooding. First Swigert, and then Lovell, tried to lock the reluctant hatch, but the stubborn lid wouldn’t stay shut. Exasperated and realizing that there wasn’t a cabin leak, they strapped the hatch to the CM couch.
The pressure in the No. 1 oxygen tank continued to drift downward; passing 300 pounds per square inch, then headed toward 200 pounds per square inch.
Months later, after the accident investigation was complete, it was determined that when the No. 2 tank blew up, it either ruptured a line on the No. 1 tank or caused one of the valves to leak. When the pressure reached 200 pounds per square inch, the crew and ground controllers knew they would lose all oxygen, which meant that the last fuel cell also would die.
At one hour, 29 seconds after the bang, Lousma said after instructions from Flight Director Glynn Lunney, “It is slowly going to zero, and we are starting to think about the LM lifeboat.” Swigert replied, “That’s what we have been thinking about too.”
Ground controllers in Houston faced a formidable task. Completely new procedures had to be written and tested in the simulator before being passed up to the crew. The navigation problem had to be solved; essentially how, when and in what attitude to burn the LM descent engine to provide a quick return home.
With only 15 minutes of power left in the CM, Lousma told the crew to make their way into the LM. Haise and Lovell quickly floated through the tunnel, leaving Swigert to perform the last chores in the command module. The first concern was to determine if there were enough consumables to get home. The LM was built for only a 45-hour lifetime and it needed to be stretch to 90. Oxygen wasn’t a problem. The full LM descent tank alone would suffice. In addition, there were two ascent-engine oxygen tanks and two backpacks full of oxygen that would never be used on the lunar surface. Two emergency bottles on top of those packs each had six or seven pounds in them. At LM jettison just before re-entry 28.5 pounds of oxygen remained, more than half of what was available after the explosion.
Power also was a concern. There were 2,181 ampere hours in the LM batteries. Ground controllers carefully worked out a procedure where the CM batteries were charged with LM power. All noncritical systems were turned off and energy consumption was reduced to 1/5, which resulted in having 20 percent of LM electrical power left when Aquarius was jettisoned. There was one electrical close call during the mission. One of the CM batteries vented with such force that it momentarily dropped off the line. Had the battery failed, there would have been insufficient power to return the ship to Earth.
Water was the main consumable concern. It was estimated that the crew would run out of water about five hours before Earth re-entry, which was calculated at around 151 hours.
Color images (above): Apollo 13 showing damaged LOX tanks exposed after the exploision and loss of side panels
However, data from Apollo 11, which had not sent its LM ascent stage crashing into the moon as in subsequent missions, showed that its mechanisms could survive seven or eight hours in space without water cooling. The crew conserved water. They cut down to six ounces each per day, 1/5 of normal intake, and used fruit juices; they ate hot dogs and other wet-pack foods when they ate at all. The crew became dehydrated throughout the flight and set a record that stood up throughout Apollo: Lovell lost 14 pounds and the crew lost a total of 31.5 pounds, nearly 50 percent more than any other crew. Those stringent measures resulted in the crew finishing with 28.2 pounds of water, about 9 percent of the total.
Removal of carbon dioxide also was a concern. There were enough lithium hydroxide canisters, which remove carbon dioxide from the spacecraft, but the square canisters from the command module were not compatible with the round openings in the lunar module environmental system. There were four cartridges from the LM and four from the backpacks, counting backups.
However, the LM was designed to support two men for two days and was being asked to care for three men for about four days. After a day and a half in the LM, a warning light showed that the carbon dioxide had built up to a dangerous level. Mission control devised a way to attach the CM canisters to the LM system by using plastic bags, cardboard and to tape all materials carried on board.
One of the big questions was, “How to get back safely to Earth?”
Apollo 13 Views of the Moon in 4K
The LM navigation system wasn’t designed to help in this situation. Before the explosion at 30 hours, 40 minutes, Apollo 13 had made the normal midcourse correction, which would take it out of a free-return-to-Earth trajectory and put it on a lunar landing course. Now the task was to get back on a free-return course. The ground computed a 35-second burn and fired it five hours after the explosion. As they approached the moon, another burn was computed; this time a long five-minute burn to speed up the return home. It took place two hours after rounding the far side of the moon.
The command module navigational platform alignment was transferred to the LM, but verifying alignment was difficult. Ordinarily the alignment procedure uses an onboard sextant device, called the Alignment Optical Telescope, or AOT, to find a suitable navigation star. Then with the help of an onboard computer, it verifies the guidance platform’s alignment.
However, due to the explosion, a swarm of debris from the ruptured service module made it impossible to sight real stars.
An alternate procedure was developed to use the Sun as an alignment star.
Lovell rotated the spacecraft to the attitude Houston had requested and when he looked through the AOT, the sun was just where it was expected. The alignment with the sun proved to be less than 1/2 a degree off. The ground and crew then knew they could do the five-minute P.C. + 2 burn with assurance, cutting the total time of their voyage to about 142 hours. At 73 hours, 46 minutes into the mission, the air-to-ground transcript describes the event:
Lovell: OK. We got it. I think we got it. What diameter was it? Haise: Yes. It’s coming back in. Just a second. Lovell: Yes, yaw’s coming back in. Just about it. Haise: Yaw is in…. Lovell: What have you got? Haise: Upper-right corner of the sun…. Lovell: We’ve got it! If we raised our voices, I submit it was justified.
Flight Director Gerald Griffin, a man not easily shaken, recalled:
“Some years later I went back to the log and looked up that mission. My writing was almost illegible, I was so damned nervous. And I remember the exhilaration running through me: My God, that’s the last hurdle – if we can do that, I know we can make it. It was funny because only the people involved knew how important it was to have that platform properly aligned.”
Yet Griffin barely mentioned the alignment in his change-of-shift briefing:
“That check turned out real well” is all he said an hour after his penmanship failed him.
The trip was marked by discomfort beyond the lack of food and water. Sleep was almost impossible because of the cold. When the electrical systems were turned off, the spacecraft lost an important source of heat. The temperature dropped to 38 degrees Fahrenheit and condensation formed on all the walls.
The most remarkable achievement of mission control was quickly developing procedures for powering up the CM after its long, cold sleep. Flight controllers wrote the documents for this innovation in three days, instead of the usual three months. The command module was cold and clammy at the start of power-up. The walls, ceiling, floor, wire harnesses and panels were all covered with droplets of water.
It was suspected conditions were the same behind the panels. The chances of short circuits caused apprehension, but thanks to the safeguards built into the command module after the disastrous Apollo 1 fire in January 1967, no arcing took place. Lovell recalled the descent to Earth, “The droplets furnished one sensation as we decelerated in the atmosphere: it rained inside the CM.”
Four hours before landing, the crew shed the service module; mission control had insisted on retaining it until then because everyone feared what the cold of space might do to the un-sheltered CM heat shield. Photos of the service module showed one whole panel missing and wreckage hanging out, it was a mess as it drifted away. Three hours later, the crew left the lunar module Aquarius and then splashed down gently in the Pacific Ocean near Samoa.
After an intensive investigation, the Apollo 13 Accident Review Board identified the cause of the explosion. In 1965, the CM had undergone many improvements that included raising the permissible voltage to the heaters in the oxygen tanks from 28 to 65 volts DC. Unfortunately, the thermostatic switches on these heaters weren’t modified to suit the change. During one final test on the launch pad, the heaters were on for a long period of time. This subjected the wiring in the vicinity of the heaters to very high temperatures (1000 F), which have been subsequently shown to severely degrade teflon insulation.
The thermostatic switches started to open while powered by 65 volts DC and were probably welded shut. Furthermore, other warning signs during testing went unheeded and the tank, damaged from eight hours of overheating, was a potential bomb the next time it was filled with oxygen …
That bomb exploded on April 13, 1970 when Apollo 13 was 200,000 miles from Earth beginning the longest Odyssey home that Mankind has ever known.
Crew James A. Lovell Jr., Commander Fred W. Haise Jr., Lunar Module Pilot John L. Swigert Jr., Command Module Pilot
Backup Crew John W. Young, Commander Charles M. Duke Jr., Lunar Module Pilot John L. Swigert Jr., Command Module Pilot
Payload Odyssey (CM-109) Aquarius (LM-7)
Prelaunch Milestones 6/13/69 – S-IVB ondock at Kennedy 6/29/69 – S-II ondock at Kennedy 6/16/69 – S-IC ondock at Kennedy 7/7/69 – S-IU ondock at Kennedy
Launch April 11, 1970; 1:13 p.m. CST Launch Pad 39A Saturn-V AS-508 High Bay 1 Mobile Launcher Platform-3 Firing Room 1
Orbit Altitude: 118.99 miles Inclination: 32.547 degrees Earth Orbits: 1.5 Duration: five days, 22 hours, 54 minutes, 41 seconds Distance: 622,268 miles
Apollo 13 Re-entry Live Coverage
on British Television
Landing April 17, 1970 Pacific Ocean Recovery Ship: USS Iwo Jima
Apollo 13 Crew safely board USS Iwo Jima after Splahdown and recovery in the Pacific Ocean
(BERGDAHL WAS RELEASED IN EXCHANGE FOR 5 TALIBAN GENERALS IN ORDER TO COVER UP THE OBAMA/HILLARY STINGER MISSILE SALES TO LIBYA.)
BENGHAZI AND THE MATCHING SERIAL NUMBERS…..
So here’s the REAL story: Ambassador Stevens was sent to Benghazi to secretly retrieve US made Stinger Missiles that the State Dept. had supplied to Ansar al Sharia in Libya WITHOUT Congressional oversight or permission.
Sec State Hillary Clinton had brokered the Libya deal through Ambassador Stevens and a Private Arms Dealer named Marc Turi, but some of the shoulder fired Stinger Missiles ended up in Afghanistan where they were used against our own military. On July 25th, 2012, a US Chinook helicopter was downed by one of them. Not destroyed only because the idiot Taliban didn’t arm the missile. The helicopter didn’t explode, but it had to land and an ordnance team recovered the missile’s serial number which led back to a cache of Stinger Missiles kept in Qatar by the CIA.
Obama and Hillary were in full panic mode, so Ambassador Stevens was sent to Benghazi to retrieve the rest of the Stinger Missiles. This was a “do-or-die” mission, which explains the Stand Down Orders given to multiple rescue teams during the siege of the US Embassy.
It was the State Dept., NOT the CIA, that supplied the Stinger Missiles to our sworn enemies because Gen. Petraeus at CIA would not approve supplying the deadly missiles due to their potential use against commercial aircraft. So then, Obama threw Gen. Petraeus under the bus when he refused to testify in support of Obama’s phony claim of a “spontaneous uprising caused by a YouTube video that insulted Muslims.”
Obama and Hillary committed TREASON!
THIS is what the investigation is all about, WHY she had a Private Server, (in order to delete the digital evidence), and WHY Obama, two weeks after the attack, told the UN that the attack was the result of the YouTube video, even though everyone KNEW it was not.
Furthermore, the Taliban knew that the administration had aided and abetted the enemy WITHOUT Congressional oversight or permission, so they began pressuring (blackmailing) the Obama Administration to release five Taliban generals being held at Guantanamo.
Bowe Bergdahl was just a useful pawn used to cover the release of the Taliban generals. Everyone knew Bergdahl was a traitor but Obama used Bergdahl’s exchange for the five Taliban generals to cover that Obama was being coerced by the Taliban about the unauthorized Stinger Missile deal.
So we have a traitor as POTUS that is not only corrupt, but compromised, as well and a Sec. of State that is a serial liar, who perjured herself multiple times at the Congressional Hearings on Benghazi. Perhaps this is why no military aircraft were called upon for help in Benghazi: Because the administration knew that our enemies had Stinger Missiles; that, if used to down those planes, would likely be traced back to the CIA cache in Qatar and then to the State Dept.’s illegitimate arms deal in Libya. HTTPS://www.politico.com/search…
Share this again and again and again until everyone reads the true story of Benghazi. More than half of US citizens DO NOT Know.”
The UFO Spotlight On... 