Latest UFO Sightings

Major Gordon Cooper, a NASA astronaut, wrote in his book We Seven "I also had the idea there might be some interesting forms of life out in space for us to discover and get acquainted with. I don't believe in fairy tales, but as far as I'm concerned there have been too many unexplained examples of unidentified objects sighted around this earth to rule out the possibility that some form of life exists beyond our world." Cooper went on to state "Intelligent beings from other planets regularly visit our world in an effort to enter into contact with us. NASA and the American Government know this and possess a great deal of evidence. Nevertheless, they remain silent in order not to alarm people. I am dedicated to forcing the authorities to end their silence (2)".

Cooper has a distinguished career. He was one of the seven original astronauts in Project Mercury and was the first American to sleep in orbit and he also flew the longest spaceflight of the Mercury project. Although never involved in the Apollo missions he was involved in the early Gemini project. Cooper received many awards including the Air Force Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf clusters, the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, the Collier Trophy, the Harmon Trophy, the DeMolay Legion of Honor, the John F. Kennedy Trophy, the Iven C. Kincheloe Award, the University of Hawaii Regents Medal and the Columbus Medal. He was a Master Mason (member of Carbondale Lodge 82 in Carbondale, Colorado) and was given the honorary 33rd Degree by the Scottish Rite Masonic body.

In 1978 two debates on the subject of UFOs were held at the United Nations. Cooper attended the first of these, a meeting of the Special Political Committee of the United Nations General assembly. Later that year, a letter from Cooper was read at a UN debate on UFOs held in the General Assembly: " ... I believe that these extraterrestrial vehicles and their crews are visiting this planet from other planets, which obviously are a little more technically advanced than we are here on earth. I feel that we need to have a top level, co-ordinated programme to scientifically collect and analyse data from all over the Earth concerning any type of encounter, and to determine how best to interface with these visitors in a friendly fashion. We may first have to show them that we have learned to resolve our problems by peaceful means, rather than warfare, before we are accepted as fully qualified universal team members."

Cooper added, "For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all specialists and astronauts. I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public. Why? Because the authorities are afraid that people may think of some kind of horrible invaders. So the password still is: We have to avoid panic by all means. Also I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation, generally from east to west over Europe. They were at a higher altitude that we could reach them with our jet fighters at that time (3)." In an interview with the National Enquirer on 14^th January 1997, Cooper spoke openly about alien spacecraft. He reported a massive cover-up of UFOs for nearly 50 years and insisted that the American public have the right to know. He added, "I know other astronauts share my feelings." (4).