Going to space is a rare and monumental experience. Only a handful of people ever get to leave Earth and explore the unknown.
So it’s no surprise that astronauts sometimes witness things that the rest of us can only imagine.
According to the wife of one Apollo astronaut, her husband told her about unexplained encounters he had during his missions.
Anita Mitchell, widow of astronaut Edgar Mitchell – who became the sixth person to walk on the moon back in 1971 has shared his incredible experiences.
She said: “He always felt that there were UFOs out there, because so many of the pilots and astronauts had seen something.”
She added that some of Mitchell’s fellow space travelers, including Apollo astronaut James McDivitt, had reported spotting unidentified objects, including unusual spacecraft.
“He said, ‘Listen, we have nothing that goes that fast and goes that high’.”
Gordon Cooper, who took part in NASA’s pioneering Mercury and Gemini programs, was among those who shared similar stories.
She was married to Mitchell from 1973 until 1984. He passed away in 2016, but his openness about extraterrestrial life continues to spark curiosity.
Throughout his life, Mitchell remained vocal about his belief in alien encounters and even called on the US government to disclose what it knows about UFOs.
At the time, he told The Guardian: “We are being visited. It is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence. I call upon our government to open up … and become a part of this planetary community that is now trying to take our proper role as a spacefaring civilisation.”
According to Anita, she shares her late husband’s belief, adding: “Do you really think we are the only intelligence in the universe? Because if we are, the universe is in trouble.”
After leaving NASA, Edgar Mitchell went on to establish the Institute of Noetic Sciences, where he explored topics like extrasensory perception and even telepathic metal bending.
