Documents / FOIA release
This Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) record, dated 21 May 1991, is an unclassified transcript of a Moscow Central Television "Vremya" newscast. Correspondent P. Orlov reports that a strange phosphorescent object was filmed floating around the Mir station while the Soviet-British crew, including Helen Sharman, was aboard. Musa Manarov doubted it was a UFO, saying he saw it come off the craft during docking. The report says its nature was still unclear and calls it interesting and possibly alarming.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
*** BEGIN MESSAGE 31 *** SERIAL=LD2105203291 UDN=Y(23502) CLASS=UNCLAS 30/PMU/SUP SPACE UNCLAS 30/PMU/SUP SPACE SERIAL: LD2105203291 COUNTRY: USSR SUBJ: OBJECT DISCOVERED FLOATING AROUND MIR STATION SOURCE: MOSCOW CENTRAL TELEVISION FIRST PROGRAM NETWORK IN RUSSIAN 1800 GMT 21 MAY 91 TEXT: // ((FROM THE "VREMYA" NEWSCAST)) ((EXCERPTS)) THE FLIGHTS OF THE SOVIET-BRITISH CREW ONBOARD THE MIR STATION IS CONTINUING. THERE ARE ALREADY PRIMARY RESULTS FROM THE JOINT WORK. NOT ALL OF THEM CAN BE UNEQUIVOCALLY INTERPRETED, HOWEVER. OUR CORRESPONDENT REPORTS: ((BEGIN RECORDING)) ((CORRESPONDENT P. ORLOV, IDENTIFIED BY CAPTION, VOICE OFF SCREEN)) ((PASSAGE OMITTED ON SHARMAN'S INITIAL IMPRESSIONS OF WEIGHTLESSNESS)) YESTERDAY EVENING, DURING THE LATE COMMUNICATION SESSION, A STRANGE OBJECT WAS FILMED. YOU CAN SEE IT, THERE, AT THE VERY CENTER OF THE SCREEN. ((VIDEO SHOWS THE MIR STATION IN SPACE AND A PHOSPHORESCENT OBJECT HOVERING AROUND IT)) IF IT IS A UFO, SO BE IT. BUT MUSA MANAROV, WHO WAS FILMING THE CRAFT DURING DOCKING WITH THE STATION, HAS DOUBTS, SAYING THAT HE SAW HOW THAT THING WAS COMING OFF THE CRAFT. OF COURSE, THERE IS NOTHING CHEERFUL IN THE FACT THAT AN OBJECT OF QUITE A CONSIDERABLE SIZE IS FLYING AROUND THE STATION, EVEN IF IT IS NOT A PART OF THE SOYUZ CARGO CRAFT. ((UNIDENTIFIED VOICE OFF SCREEN)) MOVE CLOSER, PLEASE. ((ORLOV)) LET US RECALL THAT HELEN SHARMAN IS THE FIRST WOMAN ON BOARD THE MIR STATION, SOMETHING TO MAKE SEAMEN ENVIOUS. JOKING ASIDE, IT IS STILL NOT CLEAR WHAT IT IS THAT IS ACCOMPANYING THE STATION. ((END RECORDING)) WELL, WE WILL WAIT FOR FURTHER REPORTS. THE FACT IS QUITE INTERESTING INDEED AND, PERHAPS, FAIRLY ALARMING. (ENDALL) 211800 21/2049Z MAY BT #4982 NNNN NNN (1) (3) 57
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FOIA release, from the cia-readingroom collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 1 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.