UFO Update

Anonymous low-level informants have for years accused the U.S. government
of hiding crashed UFOs. Since these sources are of uncertain reliability,
the reports have been largely ignored. Now, however, ufologists must
consider the testimony of Robert Sarbacher, whose entry in WHO'S WHO
consists of more than 3 inches of tiny print, including education at
Princeton and Harvard and a stint as dean of the graduate school of the
Georgia Institute of Technology. In the years after WWII, the story goes,
Sarbacher served as a science consultant for the Defense Department's
Joint Research and Development Board. He was in his Washington office on
September 15, 1950, it seems, when he received a visit from Canadian
electrical engineer Wilbert B. Smith. According to information released
by Smith just recently, it was then that Sarbacher revealed the existence
of crashed UFOs, apparently under investigation by Vannevar Bush, the
government's top scientist.

In a recent interview, Sarbacher, now head of the Washington Institute of
Technology, confirmed those remarks. He says that during his period of
government service as one of a number of government scientists who served
largely as volunteers, he was told that the vehicles were composed of an
"extremely light and very tough" material, apparently intended to
withstand tremendous acceleration and deceleration. At one point,
Sarbacher says, he was even invited to a meeting at Wright Patterson Air
Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, where officials related their findings to
scientists connected with the Research and Development Board. Sarbacher
had other commitments and did not attend the meeting, but he says that
those who did, including Bush and noted mathematician John von Neumann,
were told that the vehicles appeared to be spaceships from another solar
system.

Asked about his reaction to the episode, Sarbacher seems oddly blase. He
admits he hasn't given much thought to a matter most people would consider
extraordinary -- he considers it simply a curious event in the course of a
long scientific career. "After all," he says, "I had -- and have -- a
great many more pressing scientific responsibilities. I wish I could
refer you to someone who was more directly involved than I was," he adds.
"Unfortunately, they're all long gone."

Writer William Moore, who has been chasing government UFO secrets for
years, considers Sarbacher's testimony significant. "It's the first time
someone with a reputation has come forward to state publicly that the
Pentagon has a recovered UFO," he says. "This isn't proof, of course, but
it fits in with information we have from other sources." Informed of these
claims, Temple University history professor David M. Jacobs, author of
THE UFO CONTROVERSY IN AMERICA, admits Sarbacher's credentials are
impressive but observes, "Until somebody can produce an actual crashed
saucer, this is hearsay evidence. And how can he talk so casually about
something that would have to be the most sensational event in all of
history?"

"Near-Miss" Space Object remains mysterious

Here is a story I read in our local paper today (Sacramento Bee-
Sacramento,CA): UFO SLIPS BY EARTH,REMAINS A
PUZZLE By David L. Chandler Boston Globe BOSTON -
The unidentified object that hurtled past Earth before dawn on
Thursday remains a mystery, astronomers said Friday, and it
apparently slipped by without them getting a good look at it.
A week ago astronomers had decided that the tiny object, which
passed slightly farther away from Earth than the moon's distance
of 240, 000 miles, was probably an asteroid - a chunk of
interplanetary rock probably less than 30 feet across. But
observations on Monday by European astronomers working in Chile
showed dramatic variations in brightness, which suggest an
irregularly shaped, tumbling object with great variations in its
surface reflectivity, much more so than expected for a natural
object like an asteroid, said astronomer Brian Marsden.
Marsden said Friday that the variation in brightness "means we
are dealing with some very peculiar object. I would say man-made. I
think it would be hard to explain this kind of variation with a
natural object, even a small one."
But Marsden and others are still puzzling over what kind of
man-made object it is.
Marsden said two weeks ago that it was probably the leftover
Centaur rocket used in 1974 to launch a solar satellite called Helios.
But more precise calculations of the object's orbit, based on the
latest observations, show that, traced backward, it never quite meets
Earth as it should if it had been launched from Earth.
There is a possible explanation for that discrepancy, Marsden
said. Centaur rockets sometimes contain leftover hydrogen fuel after
they reach orbit, and this fuel could continue to leak out, perhaps
for years. This could propel the rocket in unpredictable directions.
During its closest approach to Earth on Thursday, the object was
too far south to be visible from anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere.
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chile tried to get
pictures of it shortly after its closest approach in order to get more
precise data on its exact path and to make further measurements of its
brightness varations.
But as of Friday, they were unable to find any sign of the object
in their pictures.
Because of the difficulty of the observation and the faintness of
the object, astronomers Richard West and Oliver Hainaut at the
observatory in the Chilean Andes continued to examine their images
carefully Friday.
These observations are essential to guarantee the success of a
planned radar observation of the object when it returns to visibility
in the Northern Hemisphere next week. A successful radar observation
"would clinch it" as to whether the object is natural or artificial,
Marsden said.
Because of the uncertain movements of a rocket leaking leftover
fuel, however, it may never be possible to identify it as a specific
rocket.
If it is artificial, but not a known rocket, that might explain
the astronomers' inability to locate it in their pictures, Marsden
joked.
"Maybe that's why they couldn't be found last night," he said.
"Maybe they landed."