Was there a NASA space mission with a secret plan to make contact with UFOs?
Incredibly, the source for the claim is Dick Scobee the commander on the ill fated Challenger mission in January 1986, who died with his crew of six, when the spaceship exploded.
Commander Scobee made contact from beyond the grave with psychic medium Jeannie Love in a series of communications soon after the tragedy as detailed on a website which includes recordings and hundreds of pages of transcribed post mortem contact with all the Challenger crew via Jeannie and also her medium friend Regina Ochoa.
On the claimed mission to make contact with ET was Asian-American, Ellison Onizuka, who was later to die as a Challenger crew member
His STS-51-C flight - parts of which are still classified - was launched from Kennedy Space Center on January 24, 1985 - just one year before the Challenger disaster.
In the channellings, Commander Scobee revealed that on this earlier mission "they were also testing out several things for the Pentagon in dealing with UFOs. How 'bout that? You know they always deny that kind of stuff. You can believe it if you want to or you can deny it if you want to. But the Air Force and the Pentagon have files three feet thick on recorded experiences from some other dimensions of time and space that they don't know what to do with. And so they had sent some stuff and measuring equipment up there on that craft to see if they could come in contact with anything or do something. And it was some experience."
He added: "Anyway, he (Onizuka) had some real spiritual experiences while he was up there. In fact, several of them did but they couldn't talk about it 'cause they were afraid they'd be kicked out. And they wouldn't be able to be astronauts again. They related some experiences that they had, that something very much went wrong on that shuttle and nobody talked about it. It was really pretty "iffy" for a while that they could steer themselves back into the orbit they needed and then put themselves in a position of re-entry."
Whether or not the mission achieved contact with ETs is unknown but according to Scobee and Onizuka, they did communicate with another dimension - the world of the dead!
Commander Scobee claims the spirit of astronaut Guss Grissom, who died in an Apollo fire, communicated and Ellison Onizuka recorded it on tape.
The channelings document Scobee as saying: "He was one of the spirits that appeared on that shuttle that was so top secret and Ellison recorded it and had a hard time with it."
Scobee revealed that Ellison Onizuka's wife and several of his friends know about that experience.
He continued: "Ellison tells me that they'd be very willing to talk about it if someone approached them about it. The reason why I'm telling you is that it may not come out right now. It may not come out in six weeks. It may take six months to a year but sooner or later, somewhere down the line you're going to hear about some of this and you're going to say, it really was what they said it was."
Information from the channelled sessions with the Challenger crew was not made public until 2017.
I checked out some of schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe's channeled words who said: "I am screaming. But really, now that I look at it, we were already out of our body but we weren't out of the ship."
Later she added: "I realized that we had all blown apart, scattered all over the heavens. Why in the world did that have to happen to us? To me? I had such great plans"
She said: "I miss eating and I miss being close to my husband. But they say you can learn how to do that on the other side in a different way. I can't wait for that"
She claims to have met John Lennon who is "such a good friend for all of us - he really watches over me"
She described John giving a guided tour of all the Beatles earthly homes saying "It was spooky being a spook in a big old mansion"
Mediums Jeanne and Regina say they are still in touch with the Challenger crew.
Jeanne said: "The connection still continues to this day. My dear friend, Regina Ochoa and I hear from them from time to time. They tend to show up when we have family events."
She added: "As far as we know the remarkable amount of material given to us those first few years after the Challenger exploded has been unmatched. However, really good mediums tend to keep their work close to their hearts because of the difficult scrutiny the American culture has dumped on this type of communication. Regina and I have talked about writing our own book about our experiences with this material and what it took for us personally and professionally to carry this responsibility".
Said Jeanne "They were particularly prolific in 2018 and 2019 when Regina and I were working with scientists. That is when they came through the most. Even after all these years they needed to free themselves of the trauma."
The two mediums have also channelled the spirits of the Columbia shuttle which disintegrated upon re-entry into the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana in February 2003.
She explained that the Challenger crew helped the Columbia crew adjust to life on 'the other side'
"The Challenger crew knew exactly how to help them as they had already been there and experienced similar trauma. We are currently putting together our experiences with each crew for our book. It is our turn to tell our part of the story as we have walked through the various stages of healing with them"
My attempts to contact relatives of Ellison Onizuka for comment or confirmation of the UFO mission flight, have failed.
Transcripts and recordings of the Challenger and Columbia discarnate communications can be found here: https://challengercc.org/