In the mid 1950’s predating the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite another orbiting object was detected. Prior to 1957 there should have been no such artificial satellite. Yet, astronomers, eye witness accounts, and pilots reported that an unknown object seemed to be in an orbit that was difficult to track. Ufologist, Donald Keyhoe, was the first journalistic source to make mention of it. The former US Marine Aviator and assistant to Charles Lindbergh had built up a following having authored some of the most widely read articles in history, all about flying saucers. In 1954, Donald Keyhoe’s article was quoted by a newspaper as there being one and maybe two unidentified artificial satellites orbiting earth from unknown origins.

Eyes to the sky

In 1960 major defense contractors realized along with the US military that an unidentified orbital object was being observed, but that it must have an irregular orbit.  This alert was also happening during the same time as Frank Drake’s radio astronomy Project Ozma, the first incarnation of SETI, a more ambitious and better funded search for extraterrestrial life with large arrays of radio telescopes probing the universe for intelligent signals from elsewhere. In the book entitled “Aliens in Space” by Donald Keyhoe, one of the original Mercury program astronauts made visual contact with an unidentified satellite that reportedly had mechanical arms during the two manned Gemini mission while in space. Was this the same mystery satellite? At that time in the 1960’s there were no manmade orbital satellites with mechanical arms.

Amazing observation

In 1998 the US space shuttle “Endeavour” crew spotted an orbiting object appearing to be a black satellite of bizarre configuration that was photographed. Due to its dark coloration and the background of space detail in the photos was indistinct but lent credence the theory that a monitoring or surveillance satellite would be painted or coated with a dark pigment to make discovery difficult. With better photos now being taken, it appears that the shape or design defy what the typical geometry of a human built satellite would consist of.

What they think of us

Supposedly signals from the “Black Knight” satellite have been decoded. If the decryption is correct it appears this orbiting anomaly is 13,000 years old! The question is now who has been watching events on the earth’s surface for such a long time dating back to very ancient human development? Some speculation is that an advanced civilization is curious to see what the potential of the Homo sapiens species is and if we can keep from destroying ourselves before we tackle the task of interstellar space travel. Are we a candidate for contact or maybe a warring species better left alone?

Long history of denial

Another debunking theory was posited by a NASA astronaut who claimed the photos of the Black Knight are merely an insulated thermal cover that broke loose off the Shuttle bay while it was deploying a conventional satellite. Of course, we know that NASA has been debunking UFO’s, having artistic specialists air brushing controversial images from space photos, and even hiding documents containing possible disclosure files. Yet, for 100 years there have been reports that an unknown object has been maintaining an orbit around earth. We do know from Al Chop, spokesperson for NASA in the early years and a veteran of the Project Blue Book staff of the early 1950’s that not only does NASA know of true UAP existence, but they have gone to great lengths to cover that forbidden knowledge up.

The effects of Alien influences?

Well known author John A. Keel, whose book “Mothman Prophecies” was turned into a movie, wrote about the possibility of ancient astronauts leaving devices behind that could electronically cause human development or sociological evolution as in his book “The Eight Tower” where he asks what would happen if an ancient black box were signaling human consciousness to develop in ways it might not or might take much longer to acquire without the advanced if not secretive existence of an unknown hand? After all, there are many archaeological structures hidden on earth requiring much more technical advancement than the official scholarly timeline would suggest. Is the “Black Knight” just one more piece to the puzzle?

Keep your mouth shut!

Going back to the 1954 revelations of unknown orbiting objects Donald Keyhoe had gotten his information from the missile proving range at White Sands, New Mexico. You might recall that US Navy Missile Officer R. B. McLaughlin had given Life Magazine in an interview information in 1949 that had revealed that White Sands crews had observed high speed high altitude unknown targets entering the atmosphere apparently under intelligent control. That got R. B. McLaughlin re-assigned to an Artic destroyer patrol mission. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t one of the most cherished duties that a naval officer would have requested.

LGM’s

It is notable that Nikola Tesla and Marconi, the Italian radio pioneer received transmissions from outer space that they thought might have been of intelligent origin, but years later were found to be waves emitted by a Pulsar, a rapidly spinning collapsed star that pulsed a predictable burst of radiation that could be interpreted as being intelligent. This was not discovered until 1968 when astronomers jokingly labeled these as “LGM’s (Little Green Men). The Black Knight satellite has been suspected of orbiting retrograde as well as being on a polar orbital path, these two directions were technically impossible during the late 50’s and early 60’s.

Sequestering of the forbidden files

Jacques Vallee, a prominent UFO researcher and scientist developed data on the Black Knight mystery and had his files confiscated by his employer. Grumman Aircraft, the US federal contractor tasked with tracking the Black Knight in 1960 had all of their report documents commandeered by the NRO who was also conducting the first generation of spy satellites at the time. Despite reports by the New York Times and other publications about the existence of unknown objects orbiting the earth prior to US or Russian launched satellites the routine release of such shocking evidence didn’t seem too disturbing to the general public as it was quietly released to them. This, as the space race between the Soviet Union and the US continued.

What more do we know now?

Does NASA now have the technology to rendezvous with or capture the Black Night satellite? Can we even bring it down safely for examination? Yes. There’s only one question. We could have done it quite some time ago, but didn’t? Perhaps we already have and after opening up the mysterious craft experts didn’t like what they found, maybe felt there could be a threat from what some hoped would be an interstellar hand shake from an alien civilization from Arcturus seeking to establish diplomatic relations or at least a welcome. As of today, we are not sure. We are only sure that something made by someone else a long time ago has been in an apparent polar orbit that would be best for observing the greatest area of the surface of our planet.