(Photos and mission patch above from Cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev's last space flight, Soyuz Taxi flight TM-33 to the International Space Station in October 2001.)

Direct quotes from the dialogue of the 1990s television series SIGHTINGS:

In April of 1979, Cosmonaut Victor Afanasyev lifted off from Star City to dock with the Soviet Solyut 6 space station. But while en route, something strange happened. Cosmonaut Afanasyev saw an unidentified object turn toward his craft and begin tailing it through space. "It followed us during half of our orbit. We observed it on the light side, and when we entered the shadow side, it disappeared completely. It was an engineering structure, made from some type of metal, approximately 40 meters long with inner hulls. The object was narrow here and wider here, and inside there were openings. Some places had projections like small wings. The object stayed very close to us. We photographed it, and our photos showed it to be 23 to 28 meters away."

In addition to photographing the UFO, Afanasyev continually reported back to Mission Control about the craft's size, its shape and position. When the cosmonaut returned to earth he was debriefed and told never to reveal what he knew, and had his cameras and film confiscated. Those photos and his voice transmissions from space have never been released. It is only now, with the collapse of the Soviet Union that Afanasyev feels that he can safely tell his story. "It is still classified as a UFO because we have yet to identify the object."

This incident used to impress me. I took it at face value until I started doing some digging. A few years ago, this alleged UFO sighting in space was presented on the American television program known as Sightings, a sort of on the air tabloid magazine. The description of the incident is chock full of glaring technical inaccuracies. The fact that Afanasyev stated that he was ordered NEVER to reveal "what he knew", and then did, does not speak well of his character as a Russian military officer and Cosmonaut.

At left is Afanasyev himself telling his story of a U.F.O. encounter in April 1979 aboard Soyuz 33. A mockup of a Soyuz (Interactive - requires java enabled) craft is hanging directly behind him.

I recorded this program at the time of its broadcast in the mid-1990s, so I had access to these images from the tape.

This is a drawing of the April 1979 U.F.O. Afanasyev says he saw from Soyuz 33 whilst on orbit.

Supposedly, he drew this picture himself from memory. Remember, he claimed that his photos were confiscated by the Soviet government.

A strange coincidence is seen in this illustration. It is the box cover artwork from a plastic model from the Testors™ company, which claims to portray the object which is said to have crashed at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. This plastic model kit was release in 1997, the same year Afanasyev was on American television with his story of a U.F.O. in space. (The model kit is still available in re-release with new box art)

Notice that Afanasyev's drawing is an almost exact duplicate?

Is it really a coincidence?? One is given to wonder...

Because the Soyuz 33 mission is the nexus of the entire U.F.O. story related on American TV by Cosmonaut Viktor Afanasyev, we will take a close look at it. It included one of the rarest events in the history of human space flight; a mechanical failure on the part of a Soyuz vehicle.

Soyuz 33 launched without trouble atop a Starsem booster from Baykonur Cosmodrome on 10 April 1979. After about nine minutes of powered flight, it reached orbit without incident. In command was Cosmonaut Nicolai Rukavishnikov, a veteran of two previous Soyuz missions. His Flight Engineer, the first Bulgarian in space under the Intercosmos program, was Georgi Ivanov. (Intercosmos was a program allowing Communist bloc countries to send thier own Cosmonauts into space with Russians) As the Soyuz vehicles of that era were only certified for 3 months at a time, this flight was basically a "ferry" mission to replace the Soyuz 32 docked to Salyut, and was only to last seven days with Ivanov carrying out a science regimen on behalf of his native Bulgaria.

After about six hours and four orbits, they achieved rendezvous with space station Salyut 6. It was at this point something went terribly wrong. During one of the course correction maneuvers in preparation for rendezvous, the main engine failed, making any further attempt to approach the station far too dangerous to continue. Ground Control (TsUP) telemetry readings, pilot "feel", and visual observation by Salyut 6 crew Valeri Ryumin and Vladimir Lyakhov, proved that the main engine had experienced a burn out. This event meant there could be no docking to the station as planned. Instead, Soyuz 33 was forced to use the emergency back-up engine to effect an emergency return to Earth on 12 April, 1979. The total flight time of Soyuz 33 was 1 day 23 hours 1 minute. It landed some 180 miles (288 km) from the usual area, in Dzhezkazgan. The two Cosmonauts were lucky to get home alive.

It was necessary to launch the unmanned Soyuz 34 craft in June 1979 in order for the Salut 6 Expedition Crew 3 of Valery Ryumin and Vladimir Lyakhov, to be safely returned to Earth on 28 August 1979.

One simply must ask, WHERE is Viktor Afanasyev in all this?