Moonwalker Edgar Mitchell Sept. 17, 1930 – January 5, 2016

Astronaut Edgar Mitchell—one of 12 moonwalkers—died Friday. He lived just a few miles from us in suburban Lake Worth, Florida. We didn’t know Mitchell personally, but saw him speak some years ago in an appearance in Boca Raton.

When I read the Palm Beach Post’s story about his life, I noticed there was no mention of Mitchell’s controversial belief and comments about UFOs and aliens. They did, however, mention that he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which explores paranormal phenomena. Mitchell also performed telepathy experiments on his return trip from the moon—a very cool thing to do, we think!

So to fill in the gap about Mitchell’s interest in UFOs, here’s a portion of an interview from 2013 that Mitchell gave to James M. Clash, author of The Right Stuff: Interviews with Icons of the 1960s.

Clash:  You’re also known for your views on UFOs. What’s your experience regarding the Roswell, New Mexico, incident of 1947?

Mitchell: After my space flight, I was contacted by descendants of the original Roswell observers, including the person who delivered the child-sized coffins to the Air Force to contain alien bodies. Another was one of the children of the deputy sheriff who was patrolling traffic around the site.

There was also a military officer who was a friend of the families not involved in that particular operation, but who did share office space there. They all seemed credible with their stories that the bodies found were alien.

Clash: If that’s the case, why has it been hushed up?

Mitchell: Initially I think there was justification in that leadership officials thought people weren’t ready to handle it. But we are well past that now. Frankly, and this is just personal opinion, remember what (President) Eisenhower said in his final speech: “Beware the military industrial complex.” I suspect that’s what we’re talking about.

But it’s not just military. It’s a cabal of organizations primarily for a profit motive. We invented aircraft at the beginning of the 20th century.

Twenty years later, we had an airline industry. Think of what that could mean in terms of space travel with control of UFO machinery, technology. There’s a lot of money involved.

Clash: Have you ever seen a UFO yourself?

Mitchell: I consider myself fairly well informed, although I have not seen one personally. I’m not out there looking — I’m pretty busy.

Clash: Have you been threatened by anyone about your outspokenness on the subject?

Mitchell: No, but they wouldn’t be very successful with me if they tried.

Clash: Are you disappointed that America last visited the moon back in 1972 and has only sent astronauts into low earth orbit since?

Mitchell: There is no question we have to continue with human space development to other planets. But we also need to get our economy running. Then we have to get the world organized to work on this because it is really too much for any one country.

We need a community of nations capable of space flight because we all have to be off this planet sometime in the future. Our sun is going to burn out eventually, and we are not in a sustainable situation.

P.S. Go find them, Edgar, whatever and whoever they are. And check in periodically  to let us know, okay?