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The Aldebaran Project
Seeking Definitive Proof of Ancient Alien Contact

21.  Secret Satellites

On October 4th 1957 – forty years to the day since the Bolshevik Revolution – Russia announced the successful
launch of the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1. The American public were shocked by this news, coming
as it did at the height of the Cold War. If the Russians could launch a satellite, they could launch a direct
nuclear strike against America. President Dwight Eisenhower, already beleaguered for “dithering” over Vanguard,
America’s own satellite programme, was severely criticised: how could America, the greatest nation on Earth,
have been beaten into space by a bunch of “commies”? To redress the balance and calm the jittery public,
President Eisenhower – formerly the Supreme Commander who had led the Allies to victory over the Nazis in the
Second World War – ordered the team of former Nazi rocket scientists led by Werner von Braun to “get America
into space as soon as possible”. In less than three months, von Braun and his colleagues did just that, and on
January 31st 1958 launched America’s first satellite, Explorer 1.
 
For decades, President Eisenhower has been portrayed as not having grasped the importance of satellites, and
was personally blamed for allowing America to be caught napping by the launch of Sputnik 1. Whilst he had
given the go­ahead for the Vanguard project in 1955, he had not seemed interested in this, and saw no urgency
in making sure America launched the world’s first satellite. Now, it has come to be understood that Eisenhower
was playing an astute tactical game with the Russians. Since the mid­1950s, the Eisenhower administration had
been working on a secret reconnaissance satellite programme known as Corona. At that time, no­one knew what
the legal ramifications would be of flying a satellite over another nation’s land. Indeed, during the late­1940s the
Russians had vehemently protested against American “spy balloons” being flown over their territory. So,
Eisenhower allowed Russia to “win” the first leg of the “space race”, thus setting the precedence of “overfly”.
Having launched Sputnik 1, Russia could not then complain about any satellites America launched, whether
these were civilian or military. Eisenhower knew he would have to take the heavy flak over America being
“beaten” by Russia, but he knew that would soon be forgotten. His real concern was in giving America the
military lead over Russia through launching “spy satellites”. 1.  Launch of Discoverer 1
 
Just under a year after launching Explorer 1, on January 21st 1959, America launched the first of their Corona
spy satellites. This satellite was very sophisticated, including as it did a three­axis gyroscopic attitude control
system and a re­entry capsule that was designed to parachute to Earth with photographs taken from orbit of
Russian military facilities. Such sophistication proves that the Corona programme had been running for some
years. Immediately after being dispatched southwards from Vandenberg Air Force Base (about 160 kilometres
north of Los Angeles) and placed into a high polar orbit, the United States Air Force (USAF) had announced the
successful launch of Discoverer 1. Though a spy satellite, the name Discoverer was chosen as a cover to imply
the mission was scientific. It was obviously impossible to hide the launch of the Thor­Agena rocket, so the public
were given a spurious story about the scientific experiments onboard the satellite. The Russians would of course
have realised that Discoverer 1 – launched from a military base into a polar orbit that would regularly pass over
Russia – was a spy satellite.
 
Discoverer 1 is shrouded in mystery, and this is not only because of the satellite’s role as the world’s first “spy in
the sky”. Very soon after the launch, the Air Force announced that the satellite was functioning properly, and
was in an orbit that would last for many months. Yet within hours of this announcement, there were doubts as 2.  Discoverer 1 Spy Satellite
to whether Discoverer 1 was actually in orbit. The origin of these doubts was that once Discoverer 1 had passed
over the South Pole, and then round the Earth and over the North Pole, the satellite ought to have been detected
by radar stations in Alaska. And, if Discoverer 1 were functioning, radio signals should have been picked up.
Neither a radar trace nor radio signals were ever detected. The lack of radio signals could have suggested that
Discoverer 1 was in orbit and had ceased to function, but the lack of a radar trace implied the satellite was not in
orbit at all. If this were the case, why had the Air Force claimed Discoverer 1 was in a stable orbit that would last
for months? It is of course possible the Air Force had their calculations wrong, but one would expect they would
have wanted to be very sure before obliquely announcing to the Russians that America had launched the world’s
first spy satellite. For a few weeks the Air Force dodged the questions, and then the very strange mystery of
Discoverer 1 was all but forgotten when on February 28th, Discoverer 2 was successfully launched into polar
orbit.
 
The only clue as to what really happened to Discoverer 1 is that radio astronomers detected a trail of plasma over
the South Pole, right at the time the satellite was due to pass there soon after having been launched. The plasma
would seem to indicate that Discoverer 1 had burned up in the atmosphere. If so, then the United States Air
Force must have gotten there calculations seriously wrong because to have re­entered so early, Discoverer 1
3.  NOTSNIK “Air­launched”
must never have been in orbit in the first place. Such an error strikes me as very unlikely, though over fifty years Rocket
later this is the “official” explanation of the Discoverer 1 mystery. What is also odd about this explanation is that
one part of Discoverer 1 – the re­entry capsule – could not have burned up because it was designed not to do that
due to being protected by a heat­shield.
 
Perhaps there is another – albeit speculative – explanation for the fate of the Discoverer 1 satellite. Perhaps the
real mission of Discoverer 1 was to investigate the Ancient Envoy at close quarters. Certainly, with its
sophisticated guidance system and powerful cameras, such a mission would have been feasible. But if this were
the case, then perhaps the Ancient Envoy – having been “attacked” ten years previously during Operation Sandy
– took no chances, fired some sort of defensive weapon, and vaporised Discoverer 1, including the heat­shield of
the re­entry capsule. If so, there would be no trace of the satellite other than a trail of plasma. I cannot of course
prove this, but as with many of the mysteries I have investigated, the facts seem to fit my hypothesis.

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  4.  NOTSNIK “Interceptor” Satellite
*    *    *
 
Until 1994, the world was kept in the dark regarding another secret satellite programme mounted by the
American military during the late­1950s. Officially known as Project Pilot, this was a bizarre attempt by the
United States Navy to launch tiny spy satellites into near­polar orbits. The satellites formed the Satellite
Interceptor Programme, the role of which was to use infrared television cameras to photograph “enemy” spy
satellites. What was bizarre about Project Pilot and the Satellite Interceptor Programme was that at the time when
the attempts were being made to launch the tiny “interceptor” satellites, there were no “enemy” spy satellites in
orbit to intercept (and nor for that matter were there any “friendly” spy satellites in orbit). What was going on?
 
In 1958, a team of engineers from the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at China Lake, California, secretly
developed a multi­stage rocket that could be “air launched” from beneath the wing of a jet fighter. The purpose of
this rocket, so the Navy initially claimed, was to launch tiny satellites that would be used to monitor nuclear
bomb tests that were to be carried out later that year. Rather confusingly, the Navy later claimed the satellites
were designed to take infrared images of the surface of the Earth. Even more confusingly, the Navy finally
claimed that the purpose of the satellites was to take infrared images of enemy reconnaissance satellites.
 
As a launch system Project Pilot was way ahead of its time, and preempted by over three decades the “air­launch”
technique used by Orbital Sciences Corporation to place satellites into orbit. A Douglas F4D­1 Skyray fighter
would carry a tiny five­stage solid propellant rocket to an altitude of 12,500 metres. Then, whilst flying at 740
kilometres per hour, the Skyray would bank at 50 degrees, and then release the rocket. After each of the five
rocket stages fired, the satellite would be placed into orbit. As a joke, the engineers and aircrew began to refer to
Project Pilot as “NOTSNIK”, a portmanteau of NOTS and Sputnik, so from now on I will refer to the project as
NOTSNIK.
 
The NOTSNIK rocket, which weighed 950 kg, was 4.4 m long and 0.73 m in diameter. The first and second
stages each consisted of two solid propellant motors mounted diagonally in parallel pairs. Three seconds after
being released by the Skyray, the first stage motors would ignite, providing 25,800 kg of thrust for five seconds.
After a coasting period of twelve seconds, the second stage motors would ignite. After burnout, the first and
second stages would be jettisoned. After coasting for one hundred seconds, at an altitude of 80 kilometres the
third stage would ignite and provide 1,250 kg of thrust for thirty­six seconds. After another coasting period of
three seconds, the fourth stage would ignite and provide 500 kg of thrust for six seconds. At this point the fifth
stage, along with the NOTSNIK satellite, would be travelling at 8.45 kilometres per second in an unstable orbit
with a perigee of 60 kilometres and an apogee of 2,400 kilometres. To put the NOTSNIK satellite into a stable
orbit, fifty­three minutes after being released from the Skyray, the fifth and final stage would ignite. Providing 80
kg of thrust for one second, this would raise the perigee to 2,250 kilometres. With these orbital parameters the
NOTSNIK satellites would have periods of 8,066 seconds, around two hours and fifteen minutes.
 
The NOTSNIK satellite, which weighed just 1.05 kg, was shaped like doughnut 20 centimetres in diameter and 8
centimetres thick. Only one instrument was included, an infrared “television” camera. This camera consisted of a
small mirror that focused light onto an infrared detector. The NOTSNIK satellite was spin­stabilised, so each
rotation caused the camera to “scan” a line of whatever scene was present. As the satellite moved forward in its
orbit, an image would be built up line by line. Though very crude, this system could produce low­definition
infrared images that distinguished differing temperatures of the scene viewed by the satellite. The images
produced by the NOTSNIK satellite would be transmitted to Earth via a simple frequency modulated radio
transmitter. Because of the small size of the satellite, the system would only operate for about three orbits before
the battery went flat.
 
Six attempts were made to launch a NOTSNIK satellite during July and August of 1958. The very first attempt,
made on July 25th, may have been successful. Navy Commander William W. West had flown his stripped­down
Skyray from the NOTS airfield at Inyokern with the NOTSNIK rocket strapped beneath his left wing. To balance
the plane, the right wing was fitted with a fuel tank filled with water. On reaching the “drop zone” over Santa
Barbara Channel, Commander West pitched the plane upwards and released the rocket on a trajectory due
south from co­ordinates (34ºN, 120ºW). The thick smoke after ignition prevented Commander West from having
a clear view of the launch. Believing the shot had failed, he returned to the airfield. However, when the tracking
station in Christchurch, New Zealand reported having received faint signals, the NOTSNIK team believed the
satellite had made it into orbit. No further signals were received.
 
The second orbital attempt, made on August 12th, was a complete failure, with the rocket exploding soon after
release. On 22nd August, the third orbital attempt seemed to have been successful. After release, the NOTSNIK
rocket performed perfectly and disappeared over the horizon. At the scheduled times, signals were received at
Christ­church during the first and third orbital passes. The Navy has never officially stated whether or not
images were obtained during this flight. The three remaining NOTSNIK launches were failures – one rocket
exploded, the next fell into the sea, and the final rocket broke up. After this final attempt the funding was
withdrawn. So ended one of the America’s earliest, strangest, and most secretive satellite projects.   
 
A thick fog of mystery surrounds Project Pilot. As a spy satellite, NOTSNIK was almost useless. Firstly, the best
the camera could do was produce blurred images that roughly distinguished temperature differences. Secondly,
the satellite was spin­stabilised so could not be pointed in any particular direction. Thirdly, the lifetime of the
satellite was no more than six or seven hours. When compared to the sophisticated Corona spy satellites that
were almost ready for launch, one wonders why the Navy were given the go­ahead to develop the primitive
NOTSNIK satellites. From both a technical and financial perspective, Project Pilot was utterly pointless.
 
Something else that doesn’t add up was the intention to launch the NOTSNIK satellites into relatively high orbits.
This doesn’t make sense if the satellites were – as according to the Navy’s second explanation – designed to take
infrared images of the Earth’s surface. Bearing in mind the primitive camera, why place the satellites in orbits of
over 2,000 kilometres? If the satellites had been in orbits of, say, 400 kilometres, then the image definition would
have been twenty­five times greater. If this had been the case, the NOTSNIK satellites could have been slightly
heavier, allowing larger batteries which would give the satellite an increased lifetime and/or a more powerful
radio transmitter. The insistence on high orbits would tend to suggest the NOTSNIK satellites were – as
according to the Navy’s third explanation – intended to photograph something that was also in a high orbit. But
as I have said, there were no spy satellites in orbit during the summer of 1958. Even if there had been spy
satellites, there is an inherent contradiction. In order to know where the NOTSNIK satellites would intercept the
spy satellites, the positions of the spy satellites would have to have already been determined by radar. So, what

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would be the point of launching a NOTSNIK satellite to look for something that was already known to exist? This
is especially so because ground­based radar would likely produce a more detailed “image” of a spy satellite than
that produced by the very primitive cameras carried by the NOTSNIK satellites.
 
Finally, there is the mystery of why specifically infrared cameras were included within the NOTSNIK satellites.
Back in the 1950s, infrared camera technology was very primitive, and the few cameras that existed were very
heavy. It follows that an infrared camera that fitted into a satellite weighing just one kilogram would be
extremely crude. On the other hand, simple “mechanically scanning” television cameras that operated in visible
wavelengths had been available since the mid­1920s. It seems to me that the only logical conclusion is that
whatever the NOTSNIK satellites were intended to photograph could only be seen in infrared wavelengths.
 
The mystery of the NOTSNIK satellites can be explained if it is realised that they were part of a deeply covert
project to intercept the Ancient Envoy. The “drop site” co­ordinates of the NOTSNIK satellites were (34ºN, 120ºW),
and their flight­paths were stated to be due south. My interest was aroused because this location is just 440
kilometres north, and 95 kilometres west of co­ordinates (30ºN, 119ºW), one of the “perigee points” of the Ancient
Envoy. As with the location of SS Midway during Operation Sandy, this seemed a bit of a “coincidence”. Why the
“drop site” was 440 kilometres north of the “perigee point” of the Ancient Envoy is easily explained. The Ancient
Envoy has an average orbital velocity of 6.9 kilometres per second, so if a NOTSNIK satellite were to intercept the
probe, the launch phase would need to begin north of the “perigee point” to allow time for the “interceptor” to
accelerate to orbital velocity. I would suggest the “drop site” was one degree – i.e. 95 kilometres – west of the
Ancient Envoy’s “perigee point” due to reasons of safety. Had the NOTSNIK rockets been released over longitude
119ºW, this would have been over the very busy shipping lanes between Los Angeles and the Panama Canal.
This, however, cast doubts on my hypothesis because launching the NOTSNIK satellites west of the “perigee
point” would cause them to “miss” the Ancient Envoy. But then a glaringly obvious fact hit me, and the orbital
parameters of the NOTSNIK satellites suddenly made sense. And, I was able to resolve a contradiction within the
data published on the orbit of the NOTSNIK satellites.
 
The NOTSNIK satellites initially entered an orbit with a perigee of 60 kilometres and an apogee of 2,400
kilometres. A 60­kilometre perigee is well below the 980­kilometre perigee of the Ancient Envoy. Some 55
minutes after the launch, the perigee was raised to 2,250 kilometres, which is well above that of the Ancient
Envoy. In each case, the NOTSNIK satellite is around 1,000 kilometres from the Ancient Envoy – hardly what
could be called an “intercept”. It then occurred to me that the interception of the Ancient Envoy was not intended
to occur at the probe’s perigee, but rather at its apogee. This is because the apogee of the NOTSNIK satellites is
2,400 kilometres – exactly the same as the apogee of the Ancient Envoy. Now, everything made sense. The “drop
site” was chosen so that the apogee of a NOTSNIK satellite would be synchronised with that of the Ancient Envoy.
Interception would occur half an orbit after the launch, when the NOTSNIK satellite and the Ancient Envoy were
over Australia, and within range of the Christchurch tracking station. This mattered because the NOTSNIK
satellites did not include recording devices to store images for transmission when the satellites were again within
range of the American tracking stations.
 
All the data published on NOTSNIK satellites states that they were launched “due south” into “near­polar” orbits.
One of these statements must be wrong because if the satellites were launched due south they would enter
“true” polar orbits. This contradiction is resolved if the scenario I have described is valid. As I mentioned earlier,
the “drop site” of the NOTSNIK satellites was one degree west of the “perigee point” of the Ancient Envoy, and if
they were launched due south from that point they would “miss” the Ancient Envoy. But if the NOTSNIK
satellites were launched in a direction of about one degree east of due south, they would intercept the Ancient
Envoy at its “apogee point”. And in this case, the NOTSNIK satellites would be in “near­polar” orbits.
 
Finally, if the NOTSNIK satellites were intended to acquire images of the Ancient Envoy, then being fitted with
infrared cameras makes sense. As I described in Chapter 9, Bracewell Probes are likely to be almost perfectly
black. By functioning as a “black body”, the Ancient Envoy would possess a stealth capability through being able
to absorb almost all wavelengths of electromagnetic energy, and then re­radiating this energy as infrared, which
would be absorbed by the Earth’s atmosphere. Hence, the Ancient Envoy could not be detected by radar, and the
only way to prove its existence would be to launch a satellite and take infrared photographs. To even to the
NOTSNIK satellites’ primitive infrared cameras, from above the atmosphere the Ancient Envoy would look like an
exceptionally bright star against the blackness of space.
 
*    *    *
 
In recent years, a very dim light has been shed on a third secret satellite programme mounted by America. Most
spy satellites are placed into relatively low polar orbits, with altitudes of no more than 500 kilometres to enable
sharper and more detailed images of the Earth’s surface to be acquired. Yet the series of Misty satellites
launched by America during the 1990s are in elliptical orbits of around 2,500 kilometres apogee, which goes
against the logic of photo­reconnaissance of the Earth. 2,500 kilometres is of course close to the 2,400
kilometre­apogee of the Ancient Envoy. What is significant about the Misty satellites is that they were designed to
be stealthy. Allegedly – and any information on this controversial and still classified project is almost impossible
to verify – the Misty satellites are “anti­satellite satellites” that can approach enemy satellites without being
detected. Perhaps yet again, America was attempting to get up­close­and­personal with the Ancient Envoy.
 
*    *    *
 
By their very nature, the truth about spy satellites is very difficult to ascertain. The launch of Discoverer 1 may
have simply been bungled, and had nothing to do with my hypothesis. However, there is no logical explanation
for the American Navy’s Project Pilot and NOTSNIK spy satellites. Even if the project had been successful at
“inter­cepting” a satellite, the infrared cameras were so primitive all they could have determined was whether the
satellite existed, but without revealing any surface features. But if my suggestion that the NOTSNIK satellites
were intended to search for the Ancient Envoy is correct, then simply proving its existence may have been all that
was required. A single piece of evidence would have been enough to demonstrate the need to mount one or more
very sophisticated operations to further investigate – or even to “acquire” – the alien space probe. As I will now
demonstrate, a series of hugely expensive and deeply covert operations were mounted by the American military
and intelligence agencies, and to this day their purpose has never been satisfactorily explained. But before
looking at these, I will describe how knowledge of the existence of the Ancient Envoy “leaked” to the public in the
form of a mysterious object that has come to be known at the Black Knight.
 
Copyrights:  (1) NASA. (2) NASA. (3) United States Navy. (4) United States Navy.
 

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