1981: Russian Cosmonaut sees UFO while aboard Salyut-6 Space Station

THINK ABOUTIT SIGHTING REPORT

Date: May 5, 1981

Sighting Time: 6 PM

Day/Night: Space

Location: In Earth orbit (Salyut-6 Space Station)

Urban or Rural: Space over the area of South Africa

Hynek Classification: NL (Nocturnal Light) Point or extended luminous source observed at night.

Duration:

No. of Object(s):  1 to 2

Size of Object(s):

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): elliptical

Color of Object(s): of golden light

Number of Witnesses: 1

Source: Michael Hesemann, International UFO Congress (2002)

Summary: Cosmonaut Major General Vladimir Kovalyonok, had an encounter during the Saljut VI Mission in 1981. “I just made some gymnastic exercises, when I saw in front of me, through a porthole, an object which I could not explain… I saw this object and then something happened I could not explain, something impossible according to the laws of Physics.”

Full Report

Kovalyonok’s sketch of the object he saw in space on May 5, 1981, aboard Salyut. (credit: Michael Hesemann)

Cosmonaut Major General Vladimir Kovalyonok.

COSMONAUT MAJOR GENERAL VLADIMIR KOVALYONOK:
Saljut VI Mission 1981

Many cosmonauts have seen phenomena that are far beyond the experiences of earthmen. For ten years I never spoke on such things. The encounter you asked me about happened on May 5, 1981, at about 6 PM, during the Saljut Mission. At that time we were over the area of South Africa, moving towards the area of the Indian ocean. I just made some gymnastic exercises, when I saw in front of me, through a porthole, an object which I could not explain. It is impossible to determine distances in Space. A small object can appear large and far away and the other way around. Sometimes a cloud of dust appears like a large object.

Anyway, I saw this object and then something happened I could not explain, something impossible according to the laws of Physics. The object had this shape, elliptical, and flew with us. From a frontal view, it looked like it would rotate in flight direction.

It only flew straight, but then a kind of explosion happened, very beautiful to watch, of golden light. This was the first part. Then, one or two seconds later, a second explosion followed somewhere else and two spheres appeared, golden and very beautiful.

After this explosion, I just saw white smoke, then a cloud-like sphere. Before we entered the darkness, we flew through the terminator, the twilight-zone between day and night. We flew eastwards, and when we entered the darkness of the Earth shadow, I could not see them any longer. The two spheres never returned.

Russian Astronaut Says He Saw A UFO In Orbit

Source: Pravda (Russia), Aug 17, 2004

Summary: Soviet astronaut, USSR Hero Vladimir Kovalenok spent 217 days of his life living in space. “When I was working at the Salyut orbital station, I saw something strange in a porthole one day. The object was the size of a finger. I was surprised to see it was an orbiting object,” Kovalenko said at a press conference in Moscow.

Soviet astronaut, USSR Hero Vladimir Kovalenok spent 217 days of his life living in space. The astronaut does not exclude the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. “When I was working at the Salyut orbital station, I saw something strange in a porthole one day. The object was the size of a finger. I was surprised to see it was an orbiting object,” Kovalenko said at the press conference in Moscow on Friday.

The astronaut added he called his partner Viktor Savinykh to take a look at the unidentified object in space. “It was hard to determine the size and speed of an object in space. That is why I can not say exactly, which size it actually was. Savinykh prepared to take a picture of it, but the UFO suddenly exploded. Only clouds of smoke were left. The object split into two interconnected pieces. It was reminiscent of a dumb-bell. I reported about it to the Mission Control immediately,” the astronaut said.

Vladimir Kovalenok said they had not managed to photograph the object, Interfax reports.

“The Soviet press headlined the event widely. Soviet newspapers and magazines published a lot of articles and messages about it, but they were mostly critical articles. Journalists excluded the existence of the extraterrestrial reason,” Kovalenok was quoted as saying. The astronaut said nobody knows, what happened that day when he saw the strange object in space. “It was probably a UFO, but it was definitely not mysticism – two people watched it at the same time,” said he.

When on Earth, Kovalenok learned specialists had registered considerable radiation emission the day the astronaut saw the object. “I do not believe it when astronauts say they have never seen anything extraordinary in space,” concluded Kovalenok.