Congressional, White House, UFO-related Constituent Correspondence, 1998

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Publisned n~wsp!per story on UFSs captions this p11oto:"Theso two UFOs wo, u
photographed on July 19, 1969-the day before Apo:lo's historic: moon landing­
during Buzz Aldrin'• scheduled lunar photo session. Noto the similarity to the
•hot snapped throo years oarlier during Gcminl-12."
according
to
UFO sources. Saga
photos
taken
during
the?
1960s.
reports that "...at 11:47 a.m. on
Whatever it was, this "halo" appE'ared
November 24th, the spokesman for
only in the photo, and was n«?ither
Apollo 12 reported in a startled voice
seen
nor
remarked
on
by
the
that they were all' watching a bright
astronauts.
red object flashing brilliantly against
Houston radio commentator and
the earth." This incident was carefully
UFO enthusiast Frank Haley has his
analyzed by Brad Sparks of APRO (I
own theory about why the Apollo-12
am indebt£:ci to his letler to Saga of
TV camera did not work on the moon
August 28, 19i0, a letter Saga editor
(NASA says Bean accidentally pointed
ne\'er
bothered
to answer),
who
it toward the sun). Says Haley, "The
objects that "the astronauts did not
i::amera was intentionally shut off to
report that the object. they were seeing
avoid showing something on the moon
was red, and they stated specifically
that
disturbed
the
astronauts"
that 'it's a steady light', not flashing."
("Haley's Comment" newsletter, Mar.
It was seen between th"'m and the dark
22, 1976). It is only a matter of time
earth, somewhere off the coast of
before this nonsense is absorbed into
India by a guess of the cr"'wmen.
the lore of the "Apollo-12 UFOs''.
Perhaps it was a ship's searchlight,
But Apollo 12 did see some
perhaps a fire, perhaps a violent
unidentified flying objects, and NASA
lightning storm...there is no reason to
engineers were justifiably concerned
suspect that it was a craft in space.
that they could have been debris from
The astronauts lost sight of the light as
important spacecraft systems which
they turned the Apollo to take a series
might indicate unexpected failures, or
of photographs of the sunrise.
which might interfere with other
The wild fantasies printed in Saga
spacecraft
equipment.
Hence,
the
dn not end here. Beckley and Salkin
Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston
claim that the astronauts had been
(now the Johnson Space Center) gave
"startled by unaccountable seismic
a contract to Lockhe£:d to study the
disturbances on th.:- lunar surface."
objects seen on the TV pictures and on
This event never occurred; there were
some movie film.
no such earthquakes during their visit.
The Lockhc-ed report was quietly
Beckley and Salkin refer to "a
issued on March 18, 19i0, about the
mysterious blue halo encircling one of
same time that the sensationalized and
our spacemen." Sparks of APRO
fictionalized Saga story was being
consicfors thi:; lo ha,·c bE't?ll lun3r dust
printed. Titled "linidcntifhid Visual
•kicked up •.,·h1le thu crcwmt',l were
Phenomena Associated with Space
walkii;g around. Photo analyst Dick
Flight" (:-.iA$A Contract '.'i .\S 9-5191.
lind,,r·.rood sutgestect that it is a
LEC; HASO
No.
071-80-013),
the
defect in the denilopmeut of the
report documents tlw "moon pigc:Qns"
photo cuusE>d h,· thl' , l\'id solar i:larc
(a term "coi11E:d by :'\.\S.-\ enl:{inc:t.'r.; lo
oil' oi' a lii~hly ,Hl~cti,·e s11fi·ace:
dcscribu UIH!Xpcctcci 1Jbjccls seen in
Undt•rwood quil'kly located half a
operational photo1:r:iphy that ddy
do1.e11 ~imilar "ltalou5" on other space
positive identification") of .-\polio• 12.
l'o11f.r:1rl t.'lll!i111•1•r:; wen• F.D. Ul•att~
and ,I.G. !l:nrm .
"Unidenlirkd
\'bua!
plwnon:C':1.1
as~oci:ilcd
with
space flight were
rather common opc,,:tionally." rcn,aJ
lhe
authors."
but. ''. .little
or
no
clo~u111clllJli1111 ll1 p,1,~ cvc11t.; has i,e..-11
macie." Rcfore UF'O bclle,·crs jump uµ
and d1Jw11 with confim~a,ion of a
whole
new
family
of ''astronaut
sightings
of
UFO3'',
the authors
announce?
their
intention
of
demonstrating that 1'such evenl~ were
spacecraft debris associated with an
earlier pyrotechnical operation, or ice,
or window reflections. Cases for each
of these theories have been presented
and exhibits of similar occurenccs are
included. Positive identifi~ation was
not possible. . . The quality of tile
imagery precludes a precise definition
of the object under question. . . In
general,
it
takes
much
more
information to identify an object that
ifdoes to detect it."
Sixteen millim~ter color magazine
11651\1, exposed on Apollo-12. shows
three objects, called "A", "B", and
"C". The objects appeared during the
Ll\·l jettison man«?uver in lunar orbit.
"A" is believed to be a small segment
of the docking channel; "B" was
identified by engineers as a portion oi
the
docking
ring,
possibly
the
fiberglass seal; "C" was probably part
of the electrical harness. All were near
the spacecraft and were tumbling.
From this and other examinations,
Beatty and Baron concluded that
"most 'moon pigeons' have as their
source a programmed pyrotechnic
event and are the normal debris
associated with such an incident. They
are often spectacular. . . The main
thing to be learn«?d from this study is
that the event (in question) was, in all
probability, a normal result of routine
spacecraft operations. . . These data
will undoubtably be of use to the
engineering, scientific,
and
public
relations communities." The closing
reference clearly indicates that Beatty
and Baron were aware of the "Apollo•
12 UFOs" controversy and felt that
their study
would
be useful
in
demolishini: any
UFO buffs' wild
n1mor;.
unfortunately. tht? ·'moon pigeons"
rrport seems to ha\·e been tiled a\\ ay
in the :--i..\S.-\ archi,·C's. Baron. who still
wurks at the Joh11,;011 Space Cerlll'r,
told me early in H)i6 that ht! ne\ l!r
got any feedback on his report, e,·t'n
thoui:h it was fun doini,: it and it had
5.i