Phobos 2-USSR

 (3128)  Wed 12 Jun 91 11:50

By: Don Ecker

To: All

Re: Phobos 2-USSR

St:

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@MSGID: 9:1012/3 660bd26d

Having attended the World UFO Congress in Tucson, Ar. for UFO

Magazine, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Dr. Marina

Popovich who was one of the Congress speakers. Dr. Popovich is a

Soviet citizen who was here speaking on her UFO research in the

Soviet Union. Marina Popovich, Ph.D., is a graduate of the

University of Leningrad, graduated from the Military Flight School,

is a retired Colonel from the Soviet Air Force, and set over 100

aviation records of which 90 still stand unbroken. Dr. Popovich's

former husband is General Paval Popovich, the first man to

rendezvous with another space craft in orbit during the Vostok 4

flight in August, 1962.

Interviewing Dr. Popovich in Tucson, I learned of a number of

incidents that had allegedly occurred during the 1989 Soviet Phobos

2 probe, and upon returning to LA I contacted a producer that I

know for the NBC television program "Hard Copy". We ended up doing

a segment with Marina that detailed the admittedly fantastic story

of Phobos 2, ( during a JOINT US-USSR-EUROPEAN space mission ) and

what appeared to be a huge and artificial object between Mars and

her moonlet Phobos, that may have either intentionally or

unintentionally destroyed the probe Phobos 2. I can state that

because even the mission control specialists at Glavkosmos claim

that Phobos 2 was probably hit by something ( meteors and debris

dust was ruled out according to the report in the UK publication

NATURE made by the Soviets ) which caused the probe to become a

"spinner" that later completely disappeared. The Soviets then

released a photo that Phobos 2 took of a very long "ellipse"

reflected off of Mars, but the last several photos of the "object"

were never released by the Soviets. Marina then told me that this

was a high topic of discussion between President George Bush and

Secretary General Mikhil Gorbachev at the Malta Conference. She

received the information from a source of hers in the Soviet

Politburo. Still the photo showing this object remained in "limbo"

with the Soviets refusing to release it, and NASA of course, not

mentioning any of these events.

On June 7th Marina returned to the Los Angeles area to be a

featured speaker for the World Harmony Expo in Long Beach. The Hard

Copy producer, Mr. Dean Vallas, Guy Kirkwood, a former US Air Force

fighter pilot who had a UFO experience on duty and myself, met with

Marina over drinks and discussed her last trip, ongoing events in

the USSR, and then much to the surprise of us all, produced one of

the photos from Phobos 2, showing the "object". According to her,

once back in the USSR, she contacted several friends in Glavkosmos,

and they gave her the print of this "thing". It shows an object off

of the moonlet Phobos, that is approx. 25 kilometers long, approx.

1 1/2 kilometers in dia., and is a cylindrical cigar shaped

"craft?". Not being a photo analyst, I can only give my own

impressions. However, I asked for a copy of the said photo, and

upon receiving it, I intend to hand it over to some contacts at JPL

for analysis.

My feelings on the above? There is no doubt that a large degree of

"high strangeness" is present in the above events. That of course

is my own opinion. However until such time as NASA or JPL release

the information that they may have, this will continue to be an

interesting but apocryphal series of stories. I will state that I

do feel there is a basis of fact in the above series of incidents,

and will continue to investigate via my contacts to see what

additional events can be verified.

Don Ecker

--- FD 1.99c

@PATH: 104/428 422

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