A NASA astronaut recalled the eerie moment that he saw “snakes” floating around during two missions in space.
The thought of spending time in outer space can be a pretty lonely idea, with no atmosphere, there’s little to see when you’re not facing the Earth.
So, the last thing you expect to find are snakes floating around in space.
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Well, that’s exactly what Franklin Story Musgrave described seeing during his missions as a NASA astronaut.
Musgrave went on six space missions during his career, which included nearly 27 hours of Extravehicular Activity (EVA), which refers to activities performed by space-suited astronauts outside their spacecraft while in orbit.
In total, the astronaut spent 1,281 hours, 59 minutes, 22 seconds in space.
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And it was during his time above the Earth’s atmosphere, that Musgrave recalls some pretty bizarre sightings.
In fact, in the 1990s, he started to give interviews where he shared stories about seeing “snakes” that appeared to be “swimming” in space.
In an interview with Omni in August 1994, Musgrave said: “All kinds of debris come off space ships, especially at the back end after the main engines shut down and you open the doors: ice chips, oxygen or hydrogen, stuff dumped from the engines.
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“On two flights I've seen and photographed what I call ‘the snake’, like a seven-foot eel swimming out there. It may be an uncritical rubber seal from the main engines. In zero g it's totally free to maneuver, and it has its own internal waves like it's swimming.”
In 1995, Musgrave appeared in a documentary, Sightings, where he was quoted as saying: “On two of my missions, and I still don't have an answer, um, I have seen a, a snake out there, six seven eight feet long. It is rubbery because it has internal waves in it and it follows you for a rather long period of time.”
He claimed that he had seen this supposed “alien snake” on two separate missions, however that doesn’t mean there isn’t a rational explanation.
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NASA was irked to find out that Musgrave was sharing these tales because he hadn’t officially reported it to them at the time.
Although, the astronaut himself admitted that it might not have been quite what it seemed.
Musgrave speculated that the object he referred to as “the snake” could actually have been a rubber seal.
Although, the truth behind what he saw has never been confirmed.