Walter Cronkite asked Gordon Cooper about UFOs in 1962

A newly released NASA audio file captures Walter Cronkite asking Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper a direct question in November 1962: did he still think there might be something to the stories about unidentified flying objects?

Cooper did not give a saucer speech. He said a large number of well-qualified people had seen objects without a logical explanation, and that he would not rule out the possibility that some could be connected to life beyond Earth.

The two-minute exchange is now public through NASA-UAP-D023, posted to DVIDS as part of PURSUE Release 03. The interview was recorded before Cooper's Mercury-Atlas 9 flight would make him the last American to orbit Earth alone.

Why Cooper had an answer

Cronkite's question did not come out of nowhere. Cooper already had a public history with the subject before the interview.

Cooper later said his first major UFO experience came in 1951, when he was flying F-86 Sabres from Neubiberg Air Base near Munich. He described formations of metallic, double-lenticular objects over West Germany that pilots could not reach or identify.

He also carried the Edwards Air Force Base story. Cooper said that in 1957, while he was managing aircraft test work at Edwards, a camera crew reported and filmed a disc-shaped object near the dry lake bed. Cooper said he sent the processed film through military channels to Washington and never saw it again.

Those accounts are Cooper's own recollections, not released Air Force case files. But they explain why Cronkite could ask the question so directly in 1962, and why Cooper could answer it without treating the subject as a joke.

What the tape says

DVIDS identifies the clip as NASA-UAP-D023, Interview Excerpt with Astronaut Gordon Cooper, 1962. The page lists the date taken as November 1, 1962, the category as briefings, and the length as 2:03.

Cronkite opens by calling Cooper "Gordo" and frames the question plainly: Cooper had once shown interest in UFOs and the possibility that there might be something to the stories. Did he still feel that way?

Cooper's answer has two parts. First, that many well-qualified people had reported objects without explanation. Second, that with the number of planets likely to have livable atmospheres, he would not rule out some type of life elsewhere, or the possibility that some unexplained objects were connected to that.

Cronkite then asks whether Mercury's relatively short reach, about 100 miles up, would be enough to make observations in this area. Cooper says no.

The interview turns briefly to the "fireflies" seen during Mercury flights and whether Schirra and Carpenter's frost-from-the-capsule theory accounted for them. The exchange shows a divide already forming in 1962: some orbital sightings were getting ordinary spacecraft explanations, while Cooper was still keeping the larger UFO question open.

One claim needs a correction

Cooper is frequently included in lists of astronauts who saw UFOs in orbit, usually through a story that a glowing green object approached his Faith 7 capsule during the 1963 Mercury-Atlas 9 mission.

Cooper rejected it. He stood by his Germany and Edwards stories, but denied reports that he had seen a UFO during his Mercury flight.

NASA-UAP-D023 is a pre-flight interview, recorded months before Faith 7. It is not evidence of an orbital UFO encounter.

What the file doesn't include

NASA-UAP-D023 is not a sighting file.

It contains no radar data, photographs, witness names, or case package behind Cooper's remarks. It is an interview excerpt, not a release of the reports Cooper had in mind.

That limit matters. A famous astronaut saying qualified people saw unexplained objects is historically important. It is not the same as releasing the objects, the cases, or the evidence trail.

Why it matters in 2026

The clip carries weight because of who is in the room. Cronkite was one of the most trusted broadcast journalists in American history. Cooper was not an anonymous witness. He was a NASA Mercury astronaut speaking on record, before his own orbital mission.

NASA's release puts the exchange back into circulation 64 years later, alongside an Apollo 16 debriefing that includes an "alien starbase" remark and earlier Mercury audio in which Cooper describes "John's fireflies."

None of that makes NASA a hidden UFO office. It does show why astronaut audio keeps moving online: the voices are familiar, the setting is official, and the questions being asked in 1962 are close to the ones still being asked in public hearings now.

Cooper's 1962 answer is not proof of anything. It is a two-minute tape in which a Mercury astronaut says the question deserves to stay open.

Related UAP Logbook notes

• PURSUE Release 03: CIA files, FBI orbs, and a 1949 flying saucer study
• NASA's Apollo 16 audio has an "alien starbase" line
• NASA audio, particles, and the UFO word that would not stay quiet
• AARO and PURSUE UAP files topic hub

Sources

• DVIDS: NASA-UAP-D023, Interview Excerpt with Astronaut Gordon Cooper, 1962.
• DVIDS transcript download for NASA-UAP-D023.
• NASA image S63-00581: Gordon Cooper at a 1963 preflight press conference.
• NASA: Mercury-Atlas 9, Faith 7 mission page.
• Transcript: Gordon Cooper interview on UFO experiences.
• Gordon Cooper with Bruce Henderson, Leap of Faith: An Astronaut's Journey Into the Unknown, 2000.
• PURSUE Release 03 local index: NASA-UAP-D023, DVIDS video ID 1010337.