On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched mankind's first artificial satellite into low earth orbit. Named Sputnik (meaning traveller), the shiny metal sphere was a modest 23 inches in diameter with four external radio antennas which broadcast radio pulses. For 93 days the spacecraft circled the globe and achieved 1,440 orbits of the earth. Then on January 4, 1958, the satellite reentered earth's atmosphere and incinerated.
My childhood mind was oblivious to all of that but I've come to learn that while Sputnik was small in stature and brief in lifespan, it had a huge impact on our society. In the course of it's fleeting existence radio and television stations broadcast news reports about this first-ever device. Newspapers and magazines published articles and illustrations of Sputnik. Amateur radio operators listened intently for the radio signals emanating from the out-of-this-world contraption and soon the term Space Race was coined. In point of fact, the United States was not to be outdone and the quest for national bragging rights ushered in an era of unimaginable innovation.
All the fuss even touched my little family. One evening during supper, Dad said that the family should go out after dinner and see something never-before-seen up in the sky. The exact origin of Dad's knowledge is forever lost and the word satellite completely bamboozled my 5 year old mind and .... what are we looking for? But none of that mattered. The word Sputnik made me laugh and if Dad was going to go out into the wintry cold nightfall, it had to be a pretty good adventure.
Darkness arrives early on the Salish Sea as the days wane in the latter part of the calendar year and it was soon after we had gotten up from the table when Dad looked at his watch and announced "It should be going over pretty soon now."
I was out the back door before his words fell silent and Mom was not far behind, although I imagine that her demeanor was a bit calmer than mine. Now, our back deck was open air with a railing directly out and on this night the air was crisp and clear. Stopping just short of the rail I made sure that Mom was along side and then looked straight up. No more that five seconds past and there it was, just as Dad had promised. Then it was gone.
I immediately turned for confirmation, "Did you see it Mom?"
Mom was still looking up and out but verified, "Yes....but I don't think that was it. I'm not sure what that was."
The brief exchange left me confused for a moment but now Dad had arrived on the scene and there was no time for chit chat. He shepherded us further out into the yard where there was a wider field of vision and soon we were all staring into the heavens. Before long Dad pointed out a small, starlike light moving steadily past the other stars.
"There it is!"
I'm left with the sense that Mom and Dad were intrigued if not impressed but I must confess to a large portion of disappointment. My earlier encounter with flying objects had been far more memorable.
Some odd 66 years have past since Sputnik caused such a furor. The stars still hold wonder, as does the science that Sputnik spawned. Indeed, it is now difficult to gaze into heaven's vault for any length of time and not see a manmade satellite crossing in front of the infinite. Each observance rekindles the memory of those few seconds on the back deck. For whatever reason, Mother and I never talked about what we had or hadn't seen but it's probably not too hard to deduce the why and the wherefore of our silence - her wisdom then exceeds mine now.
Yes, my minds eye is very clear regarding the spectacle that unfolded just outside our back door that night. The images seem to be imprinted on my memory. In addition, what follows has been aided by the magic of Google Earth which has filled in some parameters that were beyond my understanding at the time.
Going through the back door found me looking directly east with an unobstructed view to the horizon, about 1.5 miles in the distance. Our house sat on a small hill. Below the skyline lay a nondescript valley filled with roof tops and random street lights in the foreground, a relatively small body of water at the bottom of the depression, and more houses sporadically spaced on the opposing terrain rising to the rim. The deck itself was about 8 feet across and as I said earlier, the view at the rail was open to the sky above. However, the field of vision looking up and back towards the west was blocked by the roof of the house. From my position near the rail there stood a fir tree about 35 feet away and 40 degrees to my right which did obstruct my view to the southeast horizon. Experience tells me that the tree was 70 to 90 feet tall.
Mom was standing at my right hand when I looked straight up. I was able to see stars and then within just a few seconds a solid, bright, fluorescent orange disc came directly over head from the west. I say disc but in fact the visualization revises that description to perfectly round without depth, i.e. a flat surface. The object covered the sky comparably to that of a golf ball being held at arms length and the disc moved with at least the speed of a fighter jet but it made no noise. Very fast but by no means a blur. The path of my UFO swept smoothly to the southeast but it's trajectory was decidedly eastward dominant. Did it reach a point above the horizon line? Doubtful, but it was definitely a good ways out when it disappeared behind the fir tree at a point about 3/4 of the way up from the ground. The whole appearance lasted 2 or 3 seconds.
Those images have sequenced in my mind hundreds of times over the years and after all this time my assessment has come to agree with my Mom's initial split-second judgement. I'm not sure what it was either....but I will say that I've never seen anything remotely like it before or since. I suspect that some people will suggest that it was a plane, helicopter, spotlight, frisbee, or weather balloon while others might theorize a meteor, dry lightning, reflection, cloud, gas vapor, or optical illusion. There are those who will call out a secret military device and I fear that a few may offer delusion, substance abuse, desire for notoriety, and/or scheme to inflate a bank account as the root of the sighting.
To all of those suspicions, with all due respect, I simply say "no". I cannot conceive of any evidence that would convince me that my UFO was in reality any of those conjectures. Which leaves us with the proverbial elephant in the room. Was it an alien, extraterrestrial craft? We'll get back to that one.
On December 25, 2021, a joint effort between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) launched the James Webb Space Telescope into orbit around the sun. The orbit is located at something called the second Lagrange point (L2) - a point in space where the gravitational pulls of the earth and sun cancel each other out, thus allowing the James Webb to stay in orbit without using any fuel. The primary mirror on the spacecraft is 21.5 feet in diameter. The mirror collects light from objects in space and reflects that light to various devices onboard, two of which collect data in the infrared spectrum which is invisible to the human eye. Infrared because that allows the instruments to "see" objects that are obscured by dust and gas. The data is then radioed to the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland where it is imaged into photos visible to the human eye. A few examples of their handiwork is in order:
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| Pillars of Creation |
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| Inner Orion Nebula |
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| "Cosmic Cliffs" in Carina |
To my eye, God didn't limit Himself to beautiful concepts here on earth when he created the universe. Nor did He confine Himself to our five senses. In like manner, the variety of creatures that He created on our planet is truly extraordinary and I would be shocked to find that He had limited His artistry of life to our world alone.
Back to that pachyderm. Yes, all those many years ago I saw it and the experience of it has proven to be a once in a lifetime happenstance. And yes, my all too human knowledge tells me that it may have been an alien spacecraft or some part thereof. But then again, I've come to appreciate that there are things beyond my senses and therefore, my knowledge and understanding as well. Which is to say that there may well be explanations for it apart from alien spacecraft. Causes beyond imagination.
We've all gazed at the stars, in wonder and in awe. In our time, science has brought us to a point where we can peer deeper into the firmament than previous generations had dared to dream. Yet, age old questions remain unanswered. Further, it could be argued that each discovery brings along a new set of unknowns and associated mysteries. Perhaps enigmas play more important roles in our individual journeys than most of us realize. With the sky, and all that's up there, mere stepping stones on our pathway.
Hebrews 11:3 - By faith we understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God, so that the things which are seen
were not made of things which are visible.
