In 1980, the famous Soviet magazine Sputnik published a long report titled, “UFOs Through the Eyes of Cosmonauts.” It consisted on the statements of ten Soviet and two American astronauts (both Apollo-Soyuz crew members). Some cases that seemed initially puzzling were mentioned, only to be explained as waste containers, space boosters and the like. While most seemed open to the idea of extraterrestrial life in the universe, only one cosmonaut, Yevgeni Khrunov, who flew in the Soyuz-5 in 1969, was prepared to recognize publicly the existence of UFOs. “As regards UFOs,” said Khrunov, “their presence cannot be denied: thousands of people have seen them. It may be that their source is optical effects but some of their properties, for instance, their ability to change course by 90 degrees at great speed, simply stagger the imagination”(...)

(...)Vladimir Alexandrov, the chief engineer at the Cosmonaut Training Center, brought a photograph of a UFO to the editorial offices of Rabochaya Tribuna. Alexandrov claimed that the flying object in the photograph, which was published in the 28 Feb. issue of RT, was the UFO reported by cosmonauts Valery Ryumin and Leonid Popov on the night from June 14 to June 15, 1980. Alexandrov claimed that the cosmonauts’ sighting had been hushed up at the time but that he was now telling RT what really happened on that night while the cosmonauts were in orbit. He said that a cluster of white, shining spots started to climb up into space from a region near Moscow and actually flew up higher than the cosmonauts’ spacecraft, Salyut-6, according to Ryumin and Popov. The UFO was observed around midnight”(...)


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Cosmonaut Valeri Kubasov

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Cosmonaut Yevgeni Khrunov

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Cosmonauts Vladamir Kovalenok and Viktor Savinykh

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A page from Cosmonaut Kovalenok's onboard journal, showing his sketch of the UFO (image credit: Boris Shurinov).

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Pavel Popovich as a young cosmonaut and as a Major General of the Russian Air Force.

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Cosmonauts Gennadiy Manakov and Gennadiy Strekalov.

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Cosmonaut Musa Manarov

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From left: Dr. Vladimir Azhazha, Antonio Huneeus, Marina Popovich


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