| QuestionMarks | |||||||||||||||||
| About me | I am Panos Coliopoulos, a writer and self-styled historian. I live in the island of Hydra, Greece. I studied Painting and History in Geneva and Paris (a long time ago) and now I am writing fiction and doing research on the paranormal phenomena. | ||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||
|
QuestionMarks This is a forum of the Unexplained. I intend to place here as much information as I can about all these phenomena and/or rumors that remain still to this day without any plausible and acceptable explanation. Alien Contacts, UFO, Space Mysteries, Conspiracies, Lost Civilisations, Strange Historical Facts, Legends and Myths of the Gods, Cryptozoology and many other subjects of interest to the student of the Mysterious Unknown. Any suggestions or feedback are always welcome. Please feel free to e-mail me. The Black Knight, a non terrestrial satellite It seems that we are not the first to set an artificial satellite in orbit around our planet. In 1953, four years before the launch of the soviet Sputnik Dr Lincoln La Paz recorded at the University of New Mexico a series of inexplicable echoes which reflected radio waves from space. As there wasn't any man-made machine yet orbiting up there the logical conclusion should be that the signals were not of terrestrial origin. Immediately the American Department of Defense set up a committee under Dr Clyde W. Tombaugh, the discoverer of planet Pluto. It goes without saying that the contents of the committee's report were never made public for reasons of ?national security?. In December 1957 a Venezuelan astronomer working for the National Communications Ministry was photographing the soviet Sputnik II, launched in November 1957. When he developed the photos he saw an unclear image of a second object following closely behind the soviet satellite. Again several investigations were instigated but no official explanation was ever divulged to the public. Until this time all of our satellite launches had been equatorial, that is orbiting from east to west and even by 1960 no one had managed to achieve a polar orbit, that is from north to south. Therefore it came as a great surprise when on 4th January 1960, two massive object, estimated to weigh at least 15 tons each, were detected in earth polar orbit. We must say here that the largest American satellite to date was less than 500 lbs, whilst the Soviet were less than 3000 lbs in weight. The military funded American National Space Surveillance Control (NSSCC) had to admit formally that an unidentified satellite was in polar orbit. Although it was implied that a rational explanation would be forthcoming in the months ahead, this story also died without any official resolution. There were many mentions of the advent in the Press though. Time, Life, Newsweek, Washington Post and New York Times gave repeated coverage to this amazing story. It was The New York Times that started to refer to the mysterious object as ?Black Night?, a name that caught well. Since the early 1960's several short return echoes have been return, suggesting that at least one large object is orbiting the Earth. But, what seems even stranger, the object inexplicably disappears before the observers have time to put up some sophisticated sensors to trace it. The fact is that there is something out there, circling our planet and probably observing, something that was not manufactured on Earth and therefore cannot be controlled by us. For more information look at issue 1 of Enigma magazine. Yuri Gagarin was not the first We all know that man reached the frontier of space for the first time in April 12, 1961. The hero was a 27 years old Soviet pilot named Yuri Gagarin and his exploit was celebrated throughout the wold as Man's greatest historical achievement so far. Question is, was he truly the first? William Shelton in his extraordinary book Space Exploration - The first Decade, implies that over a dozen Soviet Cosmonauts lost their lives in pre-Gagarin flights. He believes that many of them did managed to reach the space only very few were able to return and of those who did none was in a fit state to meet the Press. In the late 60s, certain Czechoslovakian journalists were beginning to make allegations that Gagarin was not the first man launched in space. They claimed that Sergei Ilyushin, son of the famous aircraft designer, had already managed to orbit the Earth three times during a flight that took place before Gagarin. It is said that Ilyushin survived but just barely. Either due to inadequate training or because of technical problems during the flight, or both, Ilyushin returned to Earth in a coma and close to death. Some sources say that he had to be permanently hospitalized. It was of course unthinkable then, in the middle of the cold war, for the Soviets to claim such a disastrous first. Furthermore two radio ham from Turin, the Judica-Cordilla brothers, claimed that they had, one more than one occasion, intercepted frantic pleas for help from pioneering cosmonauts marooned in space. This claim was confirmed by the Bochum Observatory in Germany who reported having intercepted signals of declining pulse and respiratory rates from a point beyond Earth's atmosphere. The Soviets denied everything vehemently of course but by March 1961 those rumors started to make their way into the Press and names such as Valentin Bondarenko, Pyotr Dolgov, Yevgeny Andreyev and Sergei Ilyushin were mentioned with increasing frequency. Soviet Space historian Peter Smolders in his 1971 book Soviets in Space recounts the rumor surrounding Sputnik 4 (launched 15th May 1960, almost a year before Gagarin). It is said that this craft have carried three cosmonauts into space and successfully orbited the Earth for four days. This crew would have been safely returned home, but for the braking rockets firing in the wrong direction, which lifted Sputnik 4 into a higher orbit and eventual destruction. The Soviets confirmed the failure of this mission but denied the existence of a live crew in it. For more information read: William Shelton, Soviet Space Exploration - The First Decade (Arthur Baker Ltd. London, 1968) Peter Smolders, Soviets in Space (Lutterworth Press, London, 1973) Enigma magazine, issue 1, December 1966 This site is still under construction. | My interests | ||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||
| Favourite links | ||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||