“I want to believe they are true. But I can’t until someone shows me the real proof.”

Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is no stranger to the sky. A four-time spaceflight, a Space Shuttle pilot, and a three-time International Space Station commander, Kelly was part of the first public meeting of a NASA research group formed to examine data on unidentified anomalous events (UAP). term for the observation of objects or phenomena in the sky, underwater or in spacecannot be immediately explained or identified.

At a meeting Wednesday, May 31, experts from many fields presented both analyzes of UAP observations and recommendations on how NASA and other government agencies can better collect data to help shed light on the issue of UAP.

At one point in the meeting, after almost silence, Kelly, a former US Navy captain, stood up to share a UAP experience he had gained while flying an F-14 Tomcat. “I remember once flying through warning zones near the Virginia Beach military district,” Kelly said. “And my RIO officer [офіцер-перехоплювач радара] she thought—the man sitting behind the Tomcat—convinced that we were flying past a UFO. So I didn’t see it. We turned and went to see him.

“The balloon turned out to be Bart Simpson.”

Space.com caught up with Kelly after the meeting to ask what the former NASA astronaut and Navy fighter pilot thought of the current UFO/UAP buzz and what the observation might mean for the safety of our skies and the search for intelligent life.

We asked Kelly what he thought of the many ex-pilots, intelligence officers, and government advisers that have come out in recent years. television news programs and TV series claiming that the US government knows objects or ships that defy conventional wisdom about aerodynamics, motion, and physics. .

“What did Carl Sagan say: ‘Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence’?” You know, they have the right to make extraordinary claims, but without extraordinary evidence, they’re just allegations,” Kelly said. In science, this is part of a hypothesis. “Oh, we can see!” Let’s go investigate.”

Kelly said the extraordinary claims surrounding some reports of UAP observations that have become popular in the media in recent years or were mentioned at Wednesday’s meeting are largely due to the fact that flying over water or in space can be difficult. absence of landmarks.

“If you see something you think is an airplane and you know how big the planes are, you can tell the relative distance,” Kelly said. “But whether you’re flying in space or over water, when you have no reference points, it’s just a medium that’s really prone to optical illusions.” Kelly added that not only is the human eye susceptible to misperception, but many sensors on fighter jets and other aircraft suffer from the same problems. Source