Astronauts aboard the Gemini 7 space mission more than 60 years ago reported seeing a “bogey” unidentified object, with one describing it as a “brilliant body … with trillions of particles on it,” according to files released by the Pentagon Friday.
NASA astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell detailed the rare sighting to mission control, and their observations were recorded in a transcript made public for the first time.
“We have a bogey at 10 o’clock high,” Borman radioed on Dec. 5, 1965, according to the transcript.
When a NASA official questioned whether Borman was describing the Gemini craft’s own booster rocket or describing a “natural sighting,” the astronaut answered: “We have debris up here. This is an actual sighting.”
After confirming with mission control that he could also see the booster, Borman continued: “We have very, very many, ah — it looks like hundreds of little particles going by to the left out about three or four miles.”
In his next message, which the transcript shows was partially garbled, Borman indicated the particles were “at 90 degrees” from the “path of the vehicle” and had begun “going into polar orbit.”
“Were these particles in addition to the booster and the bogey at 10 o’clock high?” mission control asked.
At that point, Lovell — best known for commanding the abortive Apollo 13 mission five years later and being played by Tom Hanks in the 1995 movie of the same name — chimed in with what he saw.
“I have the booster on my side,” he radioed back before describing the UFO: “It’s a brilliant body in the sun against a black background with trillions of particles on it … it’s ahead of us at two o’clock, slowly tumbling.”
The Department of War unveiled its new website dedicated to UFO files, releasing an initial cache of 162 documents in response to a February executive order by President Trump.
“The American people can now access the federal government’s declassified UAP files instantly. The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place – no clearance required,” the Pentagon said in a post on X broadcasting the file dump.
“While past administrations sought to discredit or dissuade the American people, President Trump is focused on providing maximum transparency to the public, who can ultimately make up their own minds about the information contained in these files.”
The Pentagon has already been working on declassifying documents related to UFOs for years, with Congress creating an office in 2022 to process and release material.
