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The Skylab-Area 51 Incident
IZ Reloaded writes "The Space Review has an interesting story written by Dwayne Day about the 1974 incident when astronauts onboard Skylab took photos of a facility that did not exist in the US called Area 51. From The Space Review: What the memo indicates is that there was a difference between the way the civilian agencies of the US government and the military agencies looked at their roles. NASA had ties to the military, but it was clearly a civilian agency. And although the reasons why NASA officials felt that the photo should be released are unknown, the most likely explanation is that NASA officials did not feel that the civilian agency should conceal any of its activities. Many of NASA's relations with other organizations and foreign governments were based on the assumption that NASA did not engage in spying and did not conceal its activities."
Better sooner then later, we don't want the server to crash as well as the UFOs, do we? http://www.thespacereview.com.nyud.net:8090/articl e/531/1/
Firehed - Unfortunately, thanks to medical breakthroughs, common sense is not as common as it once was.
One small quibble.
Not necessarily 'captured'. We were given several MiG's and Sukoi's in 1990/91 by the German AF, after they merged with the former East German AF.
RTFA. The photo is still classified, even if the fact that it exists is not.
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While I've heard we were given some MiGs in the past, I also heard this rumor once.
That at once point (probably a while ago) we did "capture" a MiG or whatever. I think it went along the lines that he had to land for mechanical failure or we forced him to land or something.
In any case, what makes the story stand out is that we eventaully sent the MiG back in several boxes (ie, after we'd taken it apart to see what it had).
Any idea if this is true?
They had MiGs there long before the reunification of Germany. Many were presents from the Israelis who captured them in their various wars. Some came after Israel signed the peace deal with Egypt - Egypt got modern western aircraft, and the US got a bunch of their old Soviet equipment. And some where flat-out purchased from non-aligned nations.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
From what I've read, when the US had "obtained" equipment from the Soviets (and vice-versa), they had to return it if the other side knew of it and could prove it. In the time they had to return it they would certainly pick it appart and gather as much data as they could before sending it back in whatever state they are willing to lie that the aircraft was when it "crashlanded" or "got trashed during shipping". I guess they had to return the vehicules otherwise it would have been considered and act of war. PS: Planes where also obtained by the way of defecting pilots. Whether the planes where returned or not is not certain, I'm guessing that they where.
"You superiour intellect is no match for our puny weapons" - The Simpsons
I know people who have worked at Area 51. Let me just say you conspiracy freaks need a more productive and useful hobby. Put down your Art Bell "end of the world" book and go out and get some sun.
>at once point (probably a while ago) we did "capture" a MiG or whatever
Yes, there was a Russian pilot who defected by flying his jet to Japan.
* On 6 September 1976, a Soviet pilot, Lieutenant Viktor Belenko, decided to defect to the West. He flew his aircraft, a Mikoyan "MiG-25" interceptor, from Siberia to Japan. The "Foxbat", as it was known in the West, was one of the most advanced aircraft fielded by the USSR to that time, and it had figured prominently in the nightmares of Western military officials.
http://www.vectorsite.net/avmig25.html
There was also this program that attempt to steal a combat-ready Russian MiG-15 Fighter for one hundred thousand dollars
http://www.psywarrior.com/Moolah.html
The canopy opened, and from the plane stepped a cocky young lieutenant in a blue flying suit. While the American pilots watched in open-mouthed wonder, the Red pilot tore up a photograph of North Korean dictator Kim il-Sung, and handed his pistol to a nearby F-86 pilot in a jeep on the way to the 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing Headquarters. Early reports were that he had torn up a picture of his girlfriend, but North Korean pilots were not allowed to have girlfriends during the war. They were warned that many girls were South Korean spies.
After a few moments of shock, the defector was rushed to intelligence while his MiG Fighter was placed in a well-guarded hangar. The North Korean Lieutenant, No Kum-Sok, explained his motives to the officers assigned to interrogate him.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Under due process of law of a reasonable government, detention and eavesdropping are fine. We don't have due process of law or a reasonable government at the moment, but yes, that's not an arguement against detention and spying in toto.
Torture, on the other hand, is not only illegal, immoral, a greate recruiting tool for the enemy, and , but it doesn't work as a reliable source of information. People will say anything to make it stop, tell you what they think you want to hear.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
. . . PLUS taxing corps up the wazoo . . .
The hell they do.
Corps do *not* get taxed out the wazoo. The tax burden has been shifting to the individual since the advent of federal income tax.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
http://www.pictometry.com/ does some neat stuff at 6 inches-per-pixel. the downsides are: access to the photos comes at a quite expensive price-tag, and the images are very oblique (which is actually not a downside at all, and in fFact extremely remarkably useful)
in case you were wondering, 6 inches per pixel, covering about half of the US, requires about 2 petabytes of storage.
"Groom Lake" (AKA Area 51) is a dry lake bed.