[Sportschosun Reporter Jang Jong-ho] "They made contact with alien beings on the Moon."
Claims are drawing attention that astronauts who took part in the Apollo lunar missions of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) systematically concealed photos and evidence related to alien beings. However, these claims have not been officially verified, and NASA continues to maintain its long-standing position that it has never confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial life.
The Daily Mail reported that physicist Manelli Derakhshani, who studies anomalies on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars, recently made the claim during an appearance on the YouTube program "American Alchemy."
Derakhshani claimed that some photos taken during the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s showed objects that appeared to be unidentified flying objects (UFOs), but that the images were altered before being released to the public.
He pointed to a photo of astronaut Edgar Mitchell standing on the lunar surface during the Apollo 14 mission. In the original scan held by the Lunar and Planetary Science Institute under NASA, the lunar sky appears completely black, but in the same photo maintained by Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and Arizona State University, a blue sphere is clearly visible above Mitchell, he said.
He also claimed that some photos taken during the Apollo 17 mission captured three blue lights in the blackness of space, and that when the brightness is increased for analysis, the lights appear to be connected to a single large object.
Derakhshani also said that among the UFO-related materials NASA released in May, the explanation for the photo included a note that experts had conducted a special investigation to examine the possibility that it was part of a large object in space.
He further claimed that other photos taken during the same mission also showed metallic blue traces, which, when enlarged, appear like insect-shaped objects leaving engine exhaust trails.
However, experts including astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson have argued that such phenomena can be sufficiently explained by cosmic rays, camera noise, and lens reflections.
Derakhshani also cited testimony from former NASA official Ken Johnston Senior. He claimed that Johnston was ordered to discard original film containing anomalies from the early Apollo missions, but preserved some of it and made it public.
He also said that stories have long circulated that Neil Armstrong, the first person to land on the Moon, and Eugene Cernan, who carried out the final lunar mission, were warned by alien beings not to return to the Moon.
However, these claims have not been confirmed by the official records of the people involved or by NASA documents, and most are based on third-party testimony or stories that have circulated online for years.
NASA and the United States Department of Defense maintain that no evidence proving the existence of extraterrestrial life has been found in any of the publicly released Apollo mission materials or UFO-related records.
Meanwhile, NASA is pushing ahead with the Artemis Program, aiming for a crewed lunar orbit mission under Artemis III in 2027 and a subsequent lunar landing mission. It is targeting a crewed Moon landing in 2028, about 56 years after Apollo 17.
Jang Jong-ho, bellho@sportschosun.com
This article has been translated by GripLabs Mingo AI.
