Former NASA astronaut Dr. Leroy Chiao reported a close encounter with unidentified flying objects during a private flight over Texas in August. In a new interview, Chiao detailed his experience of encountering two large metallic spheres that came alarmingly close to his airplane. "I got a good look at 'em, only for a second," he said, according to the New York Post. "It happened so quick there wasn't even a chance to get scared, but it could've been a bad result if they had actually hit me."
Chiao, who served as the commander of Expedition 10 to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2004 and 2005, was flying his private airplane from Colorado to Houston when the incident occurred. The spheres, approximately three feet in diameter, flew within twenty feet of his aircraft at an altitude of about 9,000 feet. Despite the proximity, neither his radar nor air traffic control registered the objects. "I don't know what it was," he remarked, according to Vice News. "My first guess is that it's some kind of military program, a drone of some kind, but it's hard to say, right?"
The experience left Chiao both puzzled and concerned. He described the encounter as "mysterious" and "disconcerting."
"At first blush, to me, it seems like some kind of a military program, our military," he speculated, according to The Economic Times. "And if it's not that, then it gets a little more scary."
"Whoever was operating them likely didn't know I was there," he added, according to Republic World.
The lack of information about the origin of the orbs prompted him to call for greater transparency. "They could tell us what they know. And if they really don't know, that's a little more disconcerting," he said, according to Vice News.
Chiao noted that the metallic spheres he observed resembled the so-called Mosul Orb, a spherical object filmed in 2016 by a US spy plane over Mosul, Iraq, as reported by Bild.
Similar flying or hovering spheres without recognizable propulsion systems have reportedly been observed multiple times by US military personnel and aircraft. According to Index, these phenomena remain among unresolved questions and are still classified as unexplained. In recent years, military personnel have increasingly shared their experiences with unexplained flying objects, leading to heightened public interest and government attention.
The US government has launched initiatives such as the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) Task Force to categorize and analyze UFO occurrences. NASA has intensified efforts to investigate unidentified aerial phenomena, often attributing sightings to natural or man-made causes, as reported by Republic World. However, many researchers speculate whether recent UFO sightings could be attributed to military drone technology rather than extraterrestrial origins.
There has been an uptick in reports of drone sightings in the northeastern United States. Since mid-November, emergency services have received over three thousand reports of drones "the size of a car" spotted at night over New York and New Jersey. Despite public concern, officials say there's no evidence of a national security or public safety threat, as noted by The Economic Times.
Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder denied military contractor involvement in these sightings. "There are no military operations, no military drone or experiment operations in this corridor," he stated, according to T-Online. He added that the Department of Defense is not operating the drones and that it is unlikely they are involved in intelligence gathering "given how loud and bright they are," according to The Economic Times.
The article was written with the assistance of a news analysis system.