Apollo-16 'saucer' identified -- NOT a 'flying saucer'

Msnbc.com (Oberg): How to crack weird space cases

Lone sleuth uses the Internet and his wits to solve UFO mysteries

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7822879/



NASA photo This photo from the Apollo 16 moon mission seems to show a
flying saucer.

What does the image actually show? (Answer on Page 2.)



By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC

Updated: 6:48 p.m. ET May 12, 2005



HOUSTON - When a space station astronaut made an offhand remark about an
unusual formation of lights he saw passing in front of him during a
spacewalk, the report had all the earmarks of an unsolvable space mystery.
But it didn't take long to crack the case, thanks to the power of the
Internet and one amateur space sleuth's passion to find out.

.....



NBC News space analyst James Oberg is a lifelong enthusiast and "sympathetic
skeptic" regarding UFO phenomena, and has investigated and solved many
pseudo-UFO sightings. He first publicized the Apollo 16 saucer image but was
unable to reach the correct explanation that Smith found.



Other links on 'astronaut UFO sightings':

Astronaut UFO Mythology debunked:
http://www.debunker.com/texts/astronaut_ufo.html

NASA engineers were worried that 'moon pigeons' seen outside Apollo
vehicles might be signs of problems (many were) and in 1971 did a special
study: http://members.aol.com/moonpigeons/

Alternate link:
http://web.archive.org/web/200401221...om/moonpigeons
/

The space shuttle's hundred propellant valves often leaked fuel that
froze into space blizzards
(http://www.space.com/sciencefiction/...os_991213.html).

Specific cases he http://www.jamesoberg.com/ufo.html

In one tragic oversight, the crew of Columbia in January 2003 failed to
spot a broken piece of their heat shield drifting away a day after they
reached orbit (http://www.msnbc.com/news/887192.asp?0cv=TA01), thus missing
a chance to realize how badly their spaceship had been damaged during
launch.

Jim Oberg wrote:

Msnbc.com (Oberg): How to crack weird space cases

Lone sleuth uses the Internet and his wits to solve UFO mysteries





I note that the Kecksburg UFO has been tracked down as a meteor or
bolide that passed over the horizon, giving the appearance of having
landed in the woods (they tracked it down on a meteor observing movie
camera, and plotted its course.)
My favorite are the amateur astronomers who keep reporting sighting
small glowing objects visible near the Moon's surface and dark ones
passing over its visible disk under high magnification...without ever
realizing that they are seeing moths and other night-flying insects of
varying sizes flying at fairly high altitude (for moths at least- say a
couple thousand feet) and passing near and in front of the moon as seen
through their telescopes. :-D

Pat