UFO Case Directory (IMCAT): “Skylab III Photo Incident September 20, 1973 In Orbit, Over SW Indian Ocean”

(NICAP.org)

The whole UFO case report:

“Fran Ridge:

Sept. 20, 1973; In orbit over Indian Ocean

During revolution # 1863. Astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma spotted what they described as a red ‘satellite’, which they photographed (4 color photos) and mentioned during a subsequent debriefing. We have radio conversation (transcript only) with Houston CapCom about 4.5 hours after the sighting of this object. There was no man-made satellite that could explain this sighting and hence the object was truly anomalous. This case is multiply-listed as a Cat 8 (photo), Cat 11 (sighting from air/spacecraft), and flagged as a NASA incident. 10 mins. Distance from Skylab was 25-30 miles. Estimated diameter was 800 feet.

Joel Carpenter:

One of the things that’s so darn fascinating about this case is something that Dr Maccabee and Brad Sparks bring up in the article on Maccabee’s site. One interpretation of the sighting is that the object was approaching on an orbit in a 51 or 52 degree inclination and about to intersect with Skylab’s 50 degree (but much higher) orbit. They mention that that inclination was used by the Soviets. But actually, they often used 65 degrees. 51 degrees was used for certain very specific flights: the Salyut space stations and the manned Soyuz ships that docked with them. At the time of the sighting, Salyut-1 and Salyut-2 had been flown, and both had failed. Salyut-2 was launched in April 1973 and was actually the top secret Almaz military station, the counterpart of the US MOL reconnaissance space station. Salyut-2 had recon gear aboard, but failed before it was manned for the first time, about 2 weeks after it was launched.

Brad Sparks:

Skylab-3 remains a mystery with the color photos and optical ranging yielding an approximate 800-foot size of the space UFO, much larger than the largest satellite then in space (the 150-foot Skylab-3). [Sparks interviewed Skylab-3 astronaut Dr. Owen Garriott shortly after the return to earth - Fran Ridge].”

My comment:

“There was no man-made satellite that could explain this sighting and hence the object was truly anomalous,” Francis L. Ridge writes. This means that this is one of the UFO cases that prove that UFOs are as real as airliners flying overhead.

http://www.nicap.org/730920skylabIII_dir.htm

Related posts:

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=Skylab+III

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=September+1973

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1973

The Skylab III UFO
(google.com photo)

NASA TV UFOs: 
The Skylab 3 UFO Incident, 20 September 1973

Video from the UFO documentary, “Best Evidence: Top 10 UFO Sightings”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL1v5fGWUM0

From the NICAP website (web link below):

“The 1973 UFO Chronology – A World-Wide Wave:

Skylab III Crew Encounters Strange Object In Orbit

Sept. 20, 1973; ORBIT
On the 59th day of flight Skylab III, the three-man crew saw and photographed a strange red object (see photos). Not more than 30-50 nautical miles from them, Alan Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma reported the object was brighter than any of the planets. Unexplained.”

http://www.nicap.org/waves/1973fullrep.htm

The NASA Skylab 3 mission:

Launch date: 28 July 1973 – Landing date: 25 September 1973.

Wikipedia article: Skylab:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_lab

The Skylab III UFO

(google.com photo)

UFO Case Report (E-mail): “Subject: Skylab III Case, in Orbit, over SW Indian Ocean, Sept. 20, 1973”

By Francis L. Ridge, 13 November 2012

(NICAP.org)

The whole UFO case report:

“http://www.nicap.org/docs/730920skylabIII_docs.pdf

Fran Ridge:

In 1973 we had no large orbiting space station circling the Earth at a time when one of the largest UFO flaps to hit the planet was in progress. A document that was found indicates that the location was over the southwestern Indian Ocean during revolution # 1863. Astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma spotted what they described as a red "satellite", which they photographed and mentioned during a subsequent debriefing. We have radio conversation (transcript only) with Houston CapCom about 4.5 hours after the sighting of this object. There was no man-made satellite that could explain this sighting and hence the object was truly anomalous.

Tasked with everything from maintenance to experiments both scientific and medical, the crew of Skylab III faced a number of crises during their short tenure (July 28, 1973, to September 25, 1973,) all of which were thankfully resolved and one occurrence of a possible otherworldly nature which never was explained, an unidentified object that followed the space lab purportedly undetected by NASA or NORAD.

A few days before returning to Earth and while out of radio contact, Garriott took photos of an anomalous object from Skylab's wardroom window. The first recorded mention of the incident was between the astronauts and CAPCOM some four and a half hours later:

LOUSMA: "Did you tell him about that satellite we saw?

BEAN: Yes, we saw a great satellite. We didn't know if we told you about it.

LOUSMA: The closest and brightest one we've seen.

BEAN: Huge one.

LOUSMA: We've seen several. It was a red one.

CAPCOM: No, you may have told somebody, but it wasn't this team. I don't remember hearing about it.

LOUSMA: I guess we didn't report it. It was reflecting in red light and oscillating at, oh, counting it's period of brightest to dimmest, about ten seconds. It led us into sunset. That was about three revs ago, I think. Something like that, wasn't it Owen?

(NOTE: Astronaut Owen does NOT respond to this question, and the topic of conversation abruptly changes. There is no information available regarding whether or not this sighting was brought to the attention of Mission Control prior to this radio contact 4.5 hours after the event).”

I also reported about this UFO case report on 18 November 2015.

http://www.nicap.org/reports/730920skylabIII_report.htm

Related posts:

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=September+1973

realtvufos.blogspot.com/search?q=1973

(Photo: nicap.org)

UFO Report: “Subject: Skylab III Case, in Orbit, over SW Indian Ocean, Sept. 20, 1973”

By Francis Ridge, 13 November 2012

(NICAP.org)

Quote from the report:

“Fran Ridge:

In 1973 we had no large orbiting space station circling the Earth at a time when one of the largest UFO flaps to hit the planet was in progress. A document that was found indicates that the location was over the southwestern Indian Ocean during revolution # 1863. Astronauts Alan Bean, Owen Garriott and Jack Lousma spotted what they described as a red ‘satellite,’ which they photographed and mentioned during a subsequent debriefing. We have radio conversation (transcript only) with Houston CapCom about 4.5 hours after the sighting of this object. There was no man-made satellite that could explain this sighting and hence the object was truly anomalous.”

http://www.nicap.org/reports/730920skylabIII_report.htm

The 20 September 1973 Skylab III (NASA) UFO
(google.com photo)

UFO News Article:

“Astronaut UFO sights puzzling”,
24 April 1974 (Rome News-Tribune, Georgia)

This is a news article regarding the UFOs which have been sighted during NASA space missions:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=G-8tAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UDMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4934,3424169

Quote from the article: “ ‘The men of Skylabs 2 and 3 saw some UFOs,’ says Dennis Williams, for a time the ‘voice’ of Skylab Mission Control at Houston during the three historic space missions which ended recently.”









This UFO was photographed during the Skylab III mission
on 20 September 1973 (google.com photo)