Saljut VI Mission 1981
COSMONAUT MAJOR GENERAL VLADIMIR KOVALYONOK:
Russian cosmonauts have seen phenomena that exceeds far beyond the experiences of ordinary people here on Earth. For ten years Major Kovalyonok never spoke about what he saw. This encounter happened to him on May 5, 1981, at about 6 PM, during the Saljut VI Mission.
Sketch of object seen
His Story
At that time we were over the area of South Africa, moving towards the area of the Indian ocean. I had just finished doing some gymnastic exercises, when I saw in front of me, through the porthole, an object which I could not explain. It is impossible to determine distances in Space. A small object can appear large and far away or quite the opposite. Sometimes a cloud of dust appears like a large object. Anyway, I saw this object and then something happened that I just couldn’t explain, something quite impossible according to the laws of Physics. The object had this shape, elliptical, which flew along side us. From a frontal view it looked like it would rotate in flight direction.
It only flew straight, but then an unusual explosion of golden light occurred, it was very beautiful to watch. This was the first part. Then, several seconds later, a second explosion followed, in a different location two spheres appeared, golden and very beautiful.
After this explosion I just saw white smoke, then a cloud-like sphere. Before we entered the darkness, we flew through the terminator, the twilight-zone between day and night. We flew eastwards, and when we entered the darkness of the Earth shadow, I could not see them any longer. The two spheres never returned.
Source:
Michael Hesemann, International UFO Congress (2002)
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Intriguing!