Important: you need to read the update at the end of this page.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has several Geosynchronous Orbiting Environmental Satellites (GOES) in orbit watching the Earth's weather and environment. On November 21, 1999, at 14:45Z hours our satellites caught an amazing photo of a UFO at an estimated hundred miles above the Earth off the coast of the state of Washington. Russel Kirchner phoned to inform that he had obtained the satellite photos and was sending them for all to see. The University of Colorado also keeps these photos on file for reference.
One of the satellites is designed to pick up water vapor or clouds from space. When Russel caught sight of the UFO in the display he zoomed in and could see the steam coming off a UFO. It was the type we identify as a large Mother Ship. We discussed the possibility of the object image being caused by a computer error.
Similar photos taken on June 8, 1995, over South America have also been widely distributed. Philip Imbrogno studied this case and NOAA explained the image was a "moon shadow UFO." This excuse will not hold in the latest photos. This UFO was present for only a few minutes and is not seen in images taken prior or afterwards. The UFO has structure, windows, and radiates heat in the infrared spectrum.
Thanks to Russel Kirchner for this information.
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The above lines date back to January 25, 2001, when I just started to get interested in the topic of UFOS.
At March 15, 2004, Observatoire Zététique finds a very simple explanation for the object seen on photography: it is the Moon.
Russel Kirchner of the NOAA had been astonished for nothing. Meanwhile, Bob Young, amateur astronomer and UFO debunker thought of the Moon, the position of the Moon corresponded to the object in the photograph for this date and time, Nicolas Living of the Zététique Circle finds all this on Internet using Google, and publishes the explanation in the form of an article at http://www.observatoire-zetetique.org/page/dossier.php?enquete=3&enqueteId=3 on the brand new web site of the french zetetics association which has just opened, http://www.observatoire-zetetique.org
As certain ufologists were not convinced, arguing that there is a size problem relative the object and the Earth when calculated by triangulation, I chose another approach and I sought other images of GOES on which the Moon would be visible without dispute, for example being identified as such by NOAA people. It was quite difficult to find among the many satellites GOES-8,9,10,12 images some images showing the Moon, but I finally found what I looked for:
The Moon here is clearly indicated as such by the GOES-8 team. On this image of 1994, the moon is displayed with the same aspect and a size sufficiently compatible with that for the photography of 1999, including the same aspect in infra-red image, showing that it is indeed the Moon:
