Inside NASA's $1 BILLION plan to destroy the ISS: As the latest leak sparks evacuation fears, experts reveal how the doomed space station will be destroyed in 2030

• READ MORE: Russian cosmonauts SAW through ISS amid air leak crisis

By WILIAM HUNTER, SENIOR SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Over 25 years since the first astronauts floated aboard the International Space Station, time is now running out for Earth's orbiting outpost.

Last week, NASA astronauts were ordered to prepare for an emergency evacuation while Russian cosmonauts attempted to repair a 'worsening' leak.

While no escape flights were ultimately necessary, this near miss has sparked concerns that the ISS has reached the end of its useful lifespan.

Now, experts have revealed the step–by–step details of the $1 billion plan to bring the doomed station crashing down to Earth.

Speaking at the ASCEND 2026 aerospace conference, Ryan Landon, director of Operations at NASA Johnson Space Centre, said that the ISS would be allowed to start falling to Earth sometime in 2028.

With a mass of 450,000 kilograms, about the same as 280 family cars, the ISS will slowly fall out of orbit if it isn't being periodically boosted upwards.

However, simply letting the station's orbit 'decay' naturally would result in an uncontrolled re–entry that would scatter potentially deadly debris across Earth.

This means that NASA will push the station out of orbit, bringing the remaining material down at a remote location in the Pacific Ocean.

After Russian attempts to fix a leak on the International Space Station trigger an evacuation scare, experts have revealed the $1 billion plan to bring the doomed station down to Earth 

The ISS and its crew of seven astronauts from around the world orbit at an altitude of 250 miles (400km) above the Earth.

To maintain this relatively low orbit, the station has to move incredibly fast, travelling at speeds of 17,500mph (28,000km/h) and whizzing over our heads 16 times a day.

Normally, the station maintains its speed by using propellant to thrust back up into orbit and avoid tumbling into the thicker layers of the atmosphere.

However, starting from 2028, NASA plans to simply let this process take its natural course.

According to the latest plans published in 2024, the station will still be operational during this time, and on–board activities, including research, will continue as normal.

Left unchecked, this process would eventually bring the station crashing into the atmosphere, where most of the materials would be burned up by friction.

But this type of uncontrolled re–entry is far too risky for an object as large as the ISS.

Dr James Beck, space debris expert and director of UK–based space consultancy Belstead Research, told the Daily Mail: 'It is certain that parts will reach the surface of the Earth, and most likely quite a lot of parts.

Last week, NASA astronauts were forced to take shelter in their SpaceX Dragon capsule (pictured) in case of a disaster aboard the orbiting station 

How will the ISS be brought back to Earth?

1. Starting from 2028 the ISS will be allowed to gradually fall from 250 miles to 200 miles above Earth.
2. In 2029, the last human crew will depart the ISS and take anything of historical importance they can carry.
3. As the ISS falls from 200 miles to 175 miles, a modified SpaceX Dragon capsule will dock with the station.
4. Once the station hits the point of no return at 175 miles, the Dragon capsule will begin to guide the ISS into an elliptical orbit.
5. When the time is right, the space tug will deliver one last kick and push the station into Earth within less than half an orbit.
6. The ISS and tug will hit the atmosphere at 17,000 mph and be destroyed.  

'The open question is how many, and whether there can be sufficient control over where this occurs.'

Dr Beck explains that there is an internationally agreed 'casualty risk limit' of one in 10,000 for any re–entry.

This limit is typically reached once a spacecraft gets to a mass of around 500 to 1,000 kg, whereas the ISS weighs 450 tonnes.

Dr Beck says: 'It should be expected that a few hundred objects which could cause casualties on the ground would be produced.'

The space agency can't limit how much debris reaches the ground, so they need to control exactly where this debris ends up so that no one gets hurt.

This requires boosting the station backwards, slowing it down at a precise point in its orbit so that it eventually falls in an uninhabited area in the Pacific called Point Nemo.

Known as the 'Spaceship Graveyard', Point Nemo is the furthest location from any inhabited location anywhere on Earth, which significantly reduces the danger of space debris.

According to NASA's calculations, the ISS will need to change its speed by about 127 miles per hour (204 km/h), which is a tiny fraction of its total speed.

NASA plans to use a modified Dragon capsule to push the ISS out of orbit (artist's impression), so that it falls within an uninhabited part of the Pacific Ocean 

The International Space Station: Key facts

Length: 356ft (109m)

Weight (in Earth gravity): 419,725kg

Average altitude: 250 miles (400km)

Average speed: 17,500mph (28,000km/h)

Earth orbits per day: 16

Maximum docking capacity: Eight spacecraft

Permanent crew size: Seven astronauts

Maximum crew capacity: 13 

However, this will consume about nine tonnes of propellant, which is far more than the ISS's own thrusters can provide.

In 2024, NASA awarded Elon Musk's SpaceX a contract worth slightly under $1 billion (£749.69 million) to build a 'tugboat' capable of delivering that push.

This will be a modified version of the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule used to deliver astronauts and cargo that will dock with the station before firing up its motor and pushing the ISS down to Earth.

This vehicle will need to carry six times as much propellant and produce three to four times as much power as the current generation of SpaceX spacecraft.

NASA officials now say that the last cargo capsule will depart the ISS around mid–2029, ahead of the official end of operations in 2030.

Once the last crew have gone, the station will continue to fall over several months until it reaches the 'point of no return' at an altitude of 175 miles (280 km).

Roughly 18 months before the ISS crashes down in 2031, the modified Dragon capsule will dock with the station and prepare to deliver the finishing blow.

Speaking at a press conference in 2024, Dana Weigel, NASA’s ISS manager, explained that the tug would do this over several stages over 18 months.

NASA estimates it will cost $1bn (£800m) to convert a Dragon capsule (pictured) into a vehicle capable of pushing the ISS out of orbit 

Ms Weigel said: 'At the right time, it will perform a complex series of actions... over several days to deorbit the space station.

'First, the deorbit vehicle will perform orbit shaping burns to put the station in a low elliptical orbit, and then, eventually, it will perform a final re–entry burn'.

NASA expects that most of the space station will be destroyed, but 40 to 100 tonnes of denser materials could still make it through the atmosphere.

Once the space station hits thicker air at an altitude of around 150 miles (250 km), there is also a risk that the tugboat could lose control of the station and begin to tumble.

Read More

• The 'Son of Concorde' is about to take to the skies: NASA readies its $247 million supersonic jet 

In 1979, NASA's 75–tonne space station, Skylab, tore itself apart as it crashed through the atmosphere during a planned re–entry, sending debris falling over parts of Western Australia.

However, NASA's assessment found that leaving the ISS in orbit is far more dangerous than attempting to bring it down intentionally.

The agency's 2024 assessment concluded: 'The International Space Station requires a controlled re–entry because it is very large, and uncontrolled re–entry would result in very large pieces of debris with a large debris footprint, posing a significant risk to the public worldwide.

'Ensuring the space station is well maintained continues to be the safest operational approach while also planning for deorbit at the space station’s end of life.'

EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SITS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH

The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000. 

Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts. 

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expended with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems 

Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.

ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.

The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.

So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.

There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station beyond 2025, when it is thought some of the original structure will reach 'end of life'.

Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around then, with Axiom Space, a private firm, planning to send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station at the same time. 

NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, that would also include a base on the surface. 

The End of The International Space Station

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

A mysterious object initially described as a possible UFO and shot down by a $500,000 missile under former president Joe Biden's administration has since been identified as a Boy Scout balloon. 

In February 2023, F-16s scrambled to confront an octagonal object hovering 20,000 feet above Lake Huron before blasting it from the sky with an AIM-9 Sidewinder missile, according to video released last month by the Department of War.

The 45-second clip captured a black, orb-like object in US airspace, with a dangling string visible in the fighter jet's crosshairs moments before it was blown apart. 

The shootdown, carried out by a Minnesota Air National Guard F-16 Viper, was ordered by former President Biden 'out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of military leaders.'

But Sean Kirkpatrick, former head of the federal All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), revealed that the object actually belonged to a Boy Scout troop. 

'The balloon had circumnavigated the globe eight times before we shot it down with a half-million-dollar missile,' he said at a conference in April.

Kirkpatrick added that the orb in question was part of an ongoing, unspecified research project. 

'You can imagine the response on the Hill when I briefed that,' he said.

An object initially described as a possible UFO and shot down by a $500,000 missile under the Biden administration in 2023 was revealed to have been a Boy Scout balloon 

In February 2023, F-16s scrambled to confront an octagonal object hovering 20,000ft above Lake Huron before blasting it from the sky

During an April press conference, Sean Kirkpatrick, former head of the federal All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), said the orb was part of an ongoing, unspecified research project

The shootdown was ordered by former President Joe Biden 'out of an abundance of caution and at the recommendation of military leaders'

The Boy Scout orb was destroyed amid the Chinese spy balloon incident, as criticism grew over the government's delay in acting while public concern spiked and citizens became 'freaked out,' according to an congresswoman who spoke to CNN.

In the span of just two weeks, US fighter jets shot down three other high-altitude objects over North American airspace, beginning with one off the South Carolina coast on February 4, 2023. 

FBI analysis of the recovered wreckage found that the balloon was part of a Beijing surveillance network with antennas used to collect and locate communications over US missile bases. 

'It's not a major breach. Look, the total amount of intelligence gathering that's going on by every country around the world is overwhelming,' Biden said at the time. 

In the following days, one object was shot down off the coast of Alaska and was later identified as a hobbyist balloon belonging to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, as reported by The Guardian.

The group reported one of its hobby balloons 'missing in action' on February 11, 2023 - the same day a US F-22 shot down an unidentified airborne object using a $439,000 missile. 

Meanwhile, the hobby balloon itself was estimated to be worth only about $12. 

Then came the object downed over the Great Lakes at around 2.42pm on February 12, 2023, which again cost the US government nearly $1 million in missiles to destroy. 

Tim Phillips, a former interim director of AARO, told The New York Post: 'After the Chinese spy balloon embarrassment, DOD was shooting at every (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) they detected'

The 45-second clip captured a black, orb-like object with a dangling string visible in the fighter jet's crosshairs moments before it was blown apart

It was revealed that a US Air Force F-16 missed its first attempt before firing a second AIM-9X Sidewinder missile that struck the target 

Tim Phillips, a former interim director of AARO, told The New York Post: 'After the Chinese spy balloon embarrassment, DOD was shooting at every (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) they detected.'

Kirkpatrick described another incident during April's conference in which a US fighter pilot reported encountering a UFO with 'stealth-like capabilities' and was authorized to fire a missile. 

But what was ultimately destroyed was a star-shaped Mylar balloon from Walmart that read 'Happy Birthday.' 

Many of the military's alleged UFO videos, including some released by the Trump administration, actually show ordinary manmade objects that were misidentified by Reaper drone operators. 

'They've been on mission and they've got to get back to base to rearm and refuel. And you've got a bored operator looking around. And they pick something up and aren't sure what it is,' Phillips told the outlet.

'We're actually seeing, good reporting coming out of the fleet, coming out of the operation wings and squadrons, where they're willing to report this stuff,' he added.

'And this is part of that outreach where we get our scientists to talk to the Reaper operators and actually go side by side and try to do some education.'

Shortly after the Lake Huron shootdown, it was revealed that a US Air Force F-16 missed its first attempt before firing a second AIM-9X Sidewinder missile that struck the target, according to Fox News. Each missile costs around $400,000. 

In the span of just two weeks, US fighter jets shot down three other high-altitude objects over North American airspace, beginning with one off the South Carolina coast on February 4, 2023

FBI analysis of the recovered wreckage in South Carolina waters found that the balloon was part of a Beijing surveillance network 

Kirkpatrick described another incident during April's conference in which a US fighter pilot reported encountering a UFO with 'stealth-like capabilities,' only for it to be a $12 balloon from Walmart

The mission over the Great Lakes came as the White House continued to laugh off suggestions that aliens are involved in the UFO sightings

Despite a Pentagon memo describing the flying object as a 'small, metallic balloon', audio of conversation from inside the jets showed that the pilots went back and forth over how to define the UFO. 

'I wouldn’t really call it a balloon… I don’t know what… I can see it outside with my eyes,' one of the pilots can be heard saying. 

Military officials later described the object as an 'octagonal structure', which was shot out of the sky because it was 'a safety flight hazard and a threat due to its potential surveillance capabilities.' 

But audio recordings, released by The Drive, shed light on the puzzling nature of the military operation as it erupted over US airspace. 

After coming-face-to-face with the object, one of the pilots noted: 'I wouldn't really call it a balloon. I can see it outside with my eyes.' 

'Looks like something… there’s some kind of object that’s distended… it’s hard to tell, it’s pretty small,' he added. 

The mission over the Great Lakes came as the White House continued to laugh off suggestions that aliens are involved in the UFO sightings, amid increased pressure for officials to explain recent developments. 

The barrage of downed high-altitude objects also prompted the White House to announce the creation of a new UFO task force to study the security threat posed by unidentified objects entering US airspace. 

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

Something Dark Is Going On At Los Alamos: Melissa Casias’ Mysterious Death Joins Chilling List Of Scientists Linked To UFO & Secret Tech Programs

The UFO and secret-technology angle comes mostly from online speculation and broader interest in a separate wave of “missing scientists” theories. The Wall Street Journal reported that a fringe conspiracy theory about missing scientists had attracted FBI attention, but also noted that investigators and critics had not found evidence proving a coordinated plot.

 Scientific American likewise argued that basic statistics can explain why clusters of cases can look connected even when they are not. In other words, the pattern may feel suspicious without being proof of a hidden project.

Chris Cuomo on NewsNation discussed the possibility of conspiracy, classified work, and UAP-related secrecy, but it also includes caution from Morgan Wright that people should not jump from evidence to narrative too early. It also says Casias was an administrative assistant, not a scientist with nuclear-program access, and that she had no access to restricted data or “anything dealing with nukes” according to the guest’s explanation. That matters because it weakens the idea that she was deep inside a secret technology project.

CNN writes Casias was last seen walking southbound on State Road 518 in June 2025, and that her personal items were left at home. People reported the same broad facts and added that a handgun was found next to the remains. None of those reports provide evidence of aliens, black-budget technology, or clandestine experimentation.

A key point is that the cause of death was not established in the initial reports. That leaves room for uncertainty, but uncertainty is not the same as proof of a cover-up. People often treat unresolved details as a doorway to huge conclusions. In reality, unresolved details often stay unresolved because investigators are still collecting and testing evidence.

The public timeline also matters. Casias disappeared on June 26, 2025, and her remains were found on May 28, 2026, in Carson National Forest. That delay is troubling and understandably painful for her family, but delay alone does not establish a secret-program explanation.

Why the UFO link spread

The UFO connection appears to be more about surrounding culture than about the case itself. Los Alamos has long been associated in public imagination with nuclear history, advanced  science, and secrecy, so any employee from there can quickly become part of a larger mystery story. That association is powerful even when the person involved worked in an administrative role rather than a technical one.

NewsNation interview with Morgan Wright touches this point. It says the government should be more transparent about “the UAP phenomenon,” and suggests that secrecy creates a vacuum that conspiracy theories rush to fill. That is a fair description of how online narratives grow. Once a case sits near a lab, a weapon program, or a classified site, people begin connecting unrelated dots because the setting feels dramatic.

Claims about “secret technology” are especially weak here because the known facts do not show that Casias held a  scientific or technical role connected to classified research. NewsNation reports that Casias was an administrative assistant and that she likely had only limited clearance consistent with administrative work, not access to restricted technical material. If true, that would make her much less likely to be involved in any hidden weapons or advanced propulsion project.

Read also:

• Inside Dan Burisch’s Claim That J‑Rods (Grey-Type) Were Actually Sick Time‑Travelling Humans
• This German Scientist Claims Advanced Civilizations May Survive Only About 5,000 Years Before Dying Out
• This Man Claims an Alien Being Named Bashar Says Humanity Is Going Through a Reset in 2026

This is where sensational stories become misleading. They often blur “worked at a sensitive place” into “must have known something huge.” That move sounds exciting, but it collapses under scrutiny. The public record here does not show Casias was connected to any hidden aircraft, reverse-engineered non-human craft, or black-site program.

There is no public evidence that links Casias’s death to non-human intelligence. No report cited in the available sources says investigators found materials, witnesses, signals, or physical traces suggesting aliens or anomalous technology. What exists is a death investigation, a recovered body, and a lot of online interpretation.

The interview brings up UFO files, classified labs, and missing people in New Mexico in the same conversation, which makes the topic feel unified even when the facts are not. That style works well for television because it is emotionally sticky, but it is not evidence. A compelling story is not the same thing as a proven one.

Even the more cautious sources about the broader “missing scientists” wave do not support an alien angle.  Scientific American argued that statistical clustering and selective attention can make ordinary cases appear linked. That same logic applies here. A tragic case near a famous lab can be folded into a UFO narrative because people already expect secrets there.

There are still unanswered questions in Casias’s case, and those questions are legitimate. The exact cause and manner of death were still under investigation in the public reports. The reason for the handgun’s presence, the circumstances of her final hours, and the full forensic findings were not established in the early coverage.

Those unknowns create space for speculation, but speculation should stay separate from fact. A missing person case can involve suicide, accident, foul play, or a mix of confusing circumstances. Without a completed forensic conclusion, any single theory is premature. The interview transcript itself warns against deciding too early and says the biggest danger is going from evidence straight to narrative.

That warning is useful here. People want a clear explanation, especially when a person worked near a famous lab and the story already sounds unusual. But unusual does not automatically mean extraordinary. Sometimes a mysterious-looking case turns out to be a human tragedy with no hidden dimension.

Melissa Casias was a Los Alamos administrative employee who went missing, was later found dead, and became the subject of online speculation because her case sat inside a broader moment of fascination with secrecy, labs, and UFOs. That broader moment helped push her case into a larger conspiracy frame. But the evidence made public so far does not prove any connection to secret technology or non-human intelligence.

That does not mean people invented the concern from nothing. Some details, like the recovery of remains far from where she was last seen and the presence of a handgun, naturally invite questions. It is also true that secrecy around government work creates public suspicion. Still, suspicion is only the beginning of inquiry, not the end of it.

So the responsible conclusion is simple. The case is tragic and still serious, but the UFO and hidden-project angle remains unproven and speculative. At this point, the story is about a death investigation, not confirmed alien contact, not confirmed black-budget technology, and not confirmed non-human intelligence.

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

Brazilian Influencer Gains 2.2 Million Followers After UFO Video, Now Says He’s Terrified

News articles say he lives alone on a small farm in an isolated area with no neighbors nearby, no tap water, and no mobile signal. On Sunday, May 31, 2026 what should have been a normal day of taking care of the animals turned into something he describes as a possible UFO encounter.

He first noticed that the animals were very nervous and running around the property. Worried that it might be a wild animal, such as a jaguar, he grabbed his bow and arrows and went to investigate.

At the edge of his land, he found the electric fence down and heard strange noises that frightened him. He says the sound was hard to describe. It was like metallic tones layered on top of each other, a sort of crack, roar, or snapping sound, as if a single source was making several metallic noises at once. He recorded two Instagram Stories with the audio of these sounds.

Later that afternoon, he says he heard another sound above his house, like a ratchet or gear mechanism, similar to a very large ship or boat passing overhead. At that moment, he already felt he might be going crazy, but he kept filming so that at least his followers could hear what he was hearing.

He describes the experience as if he had “received” the sounds in his head, not just heard them with his ears, and this impression keeps replaying in his mind and makes it hard for him to sleep.

Around nightfall, from his veranda, he saw strange lights on a mountain ridge visible from the house. He says the lights were neither high enough to be above the hill nor low enough to touch the ground, and that the object appeared to be hovering over the trees near a river.

He filmed the scene using maximum zoom on an iPhone 15, capturing a bright object with grouped lights on the distant slope. According to him, the object stayed there for about 20 to 40 minutes before the lights went out and disappeared. After the lights vanished, he remained outside talking to his followers on live video.

He then says he saw something very large finishing a pass over his house, which made him feel he had been in front of “something that was not from here,” an intelligence he believes was greater than ours

Encouraged by a follower, he drew what he saw to try to represent the shape of the supposed craft. He did not go to the site of the lights because it is more than three kilometers away, with rough terrain, dense forest and a river, and he was afraid. He insists he did not edit the videos in any way.

Before this episode, he had about 46,000 followers. As the stories and videos spread, they went viral, with one of the videos alone reaching more than two million views. His audience jumped to more than 950,000 followers in a short time, and the case became one of the most talked-about topics on social networks in Brazil.

He describes the experience as both scary and beautiful and says it is one of the most intense things he has ever lived through. At the same time, he reports that he has been unable to sleep properly for two days because of the fear and the flood of messages he receives.

Reaction online has been mixed. Many people support him and send messages saying they have had similar experiences or believe he really saw a UFO. Others attack him, insult him and even threaten him. Some accuse him of creating a hoax for self‑promotion or to help promote a science‑fiction film about aliens that is about to be released.

There are also people saying the lights could be drones, but Mayk says locals in the area do not have that kind of equipment. With the case going viral, he says he has received messages from all over the world. According to him, ufologists have offered to visit the farm, examine the place and analyze the original, unedited videos.

He is crying as he explains that he is emotionally shaken and scared by everything that happened after he filmed the strange lights and the supposed UFO, and by how this is affecting his life.

In the interviews and lives, he says he has not been able to sleep properly for about two days, both because of fear of what he saw and because of the huge number of people contacting him. He explains that the sounds he heard in the forest and above his house were very disturbing and feel like they are still “inside his head,” as if he had received a kind of vibration or communication instead of just hearing a normal noise.

Read also:

• Inside Dan Burisch’s Claim That J‑Rods (Grey-Type) Were Actually Sick Time‑Travelling Humans
• This German Scientist Claims Advanced Civilizations May Survive Only About 5,000 Years Before Dying Out
• This Man Claims an Alien Being Named Bashar Says Humanity Is Going Through a Reset in 2026

Plox, a Brazilian online news portal, reports that the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) says that its radars did not detect any object in the area of Campo Largo at the time of the video. They state that the monitoring and control of Brazilian airspace in that region were completely normal, with nothing out of the ordinary showing up in their systems.

According to Mayk Leao, the incident began when he noticed an unusual behaviour among the nearly 280 animals living on his rural property, many of which had been rescued through an animal welfare NGO he supports, reports Mixvale.

Concerned, he went outside to investigate and found a section of the property's electric fence down. Soon after, he heard what he described as a series of metallic clicking sounds and loud noises unlike anything he had experienced before.

Leao said that he began recording the sounds and later spotted mysterious lights hovering above the treeline near a mountain range. He also used the maximum zoom on his iPhone 15, he captured the footage of flashing lights he claims remained visible for roughly 20 to 40 minutes before moving in the direction of his house. Then its just disappeared.

The story quickly gained attention online, largely because Leao had never previously been associated with UFO-related content. Known for sharing videos about rural life and animal rescue, he saw his social media following surge from around 46000 to more than 950000 in just a matter of days.

Days later, Mayk Leao posted the clip; he shared another footage of himself in a mental breakdown condition, claiming that his life changed dramatically after he filmed what he believes was a UFO near his rural property.

According to the influencer, an unfamiliar black vehicle with heavily tinted windows began appearing near his home. Leao has since shared the emotional videos online, saying the incidents have left him fearful for his safety and increasingly concerned about who may be watching him.

As soon as the couple of videos surfaced on social media, it quickly sparked a debate. One user wrote on X, "TF!! Are these things even real?!! Sometimes I don't know what to believe on these socials!!

While one asked, "Who tf is Mayk Leão?" "Someone famous in his neighbourhood?"

"This is ridiculous. Spotting a UFO is nothing to any government. Now when you actually have an encounter with the beings inside the UFO, that’s when they’ll start coming around. Stop this fearmongering."

"Look at this shit; if that UFO shows up in the middle of the Penha Complex, there wouldn't be any drama, but it goes and shows up to the Freddie Mercury of Paraná, and then it's all this little drama," one added.

"And with all his fear, he thought a video for the public might be the best idea? 😂😂😂"

While one joke, "At least he’s handling it well."

"Not buying this; it gives me the vibes of that guy that has aliens manifest in his living room, but it’s always the same angle," and more.

Image credit : X | Who is Mayk Leão, the man behind the viral footage of mysterious lights that sparked UFO speculation worldwide?

However, IndiaTimes cannot confirm on the viral claims by Mayk Leao as the story is completely based on the social media buzz.

Who is Mayk Leao?

Mayk Leao is a 31-year-old Brazilian content creator and nursing technician who gained international attention in June 2026 after sharing a video of mysterious lights that he alleged were linked to a UFO sighting.

Prior to his sudden rise in popularity, Leão led a relatively low-profile life in the rural outskirts of Campo Largo, which is located in the metropolitan area of Curitiba in Paraná, Brazil. Through his Instagram account, he regularly documented everyday life on his small farm, where he cared for around 280 rescued animals.

Conclusion

I am no expert here. I read an explanation on Metabunk where people argues “UFO” in Mayk Leão’s video is probably something ordinary on the ground, not an alien craft, and that the whole case is strongly influenced by social media hype and  movie marketing vibes.

Other users on the site say the lights in the video do not move like an object in the sky and appear clearly below the distant ridge, which fits something on the hillside rather than in the air. Some speculate it could be construction equipment, emergency vehicles or a convoy, not a craft hovering over the river as Mayk believes. One user points out that Mayk did not know there was a campsite and homesteads in that direction, which could make distant vehicle lights look mysterious to him.

I do not know if that’s the case. You decide.

{ https://howandwhys.com/ }

Ancient Alien Base Found Under The Ocean Between Japan and Taiwan, UFO UAP Sighting News.

Date of discovery: June 6, 2026

Location of discovery:  29° 5'17.31"N 129°19'36.70"E

Source: Google map

Size of base: 23 miles long by 2.3 miles wide

 

I was searching for an alien base in the ocean using Google Map and I discovered this long structure that is made of many smaller pieces all tied together. It was clear to me this was something created by intelligent beings long ago and may even be inhabited today. The However, if we saw them, would we recognize them as an intelligent species? Probably if they wanted us too, I mean what if they were light entities that could only be seen during the night time? Then day time rules seeing them, and night such light entities have been seen in China, Japan and Taiwan, this location is at its center...and since I myself saw at midnight about 13 years ago hundreds of light entities flying over our apartments when I was out front entering the outside area of the apartments, where me, my son and my wife all saw several hundred glowing lights we can see through that looked like transparent tear drops passing over us at about 100 miles per hour, after they passed by, a few must have noticed us because about 7-9 came back and began circling over us (New Taipei City). They were curious about us, and my son was scared, about 8 years old at the time, cried after a few minutes thinking they were ghosts and my wife led him into the house. The lights united in a few minutes into a sphere large like the moon and then I went in the house. The whole thing lasted about 7-10 minutes. I took some video, but the lights were so faint that they just barely showed up on video. So...light entities are a real thing. I can now recognize similar videos that had the same entities in them...which has happened around the globe but always dismissed as city lights, but...they are wrong. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Giant Black Sphere Seeds Clouds With Mini Orbs! Nov 23, 2020 UFO UAP Paranormal Sighting News.

Date of sighting: Nov 23, 2020

Dept of War, US Gov:

• https://www.war.gov/ufo/?releaseDate=Release+02#DOW-UAP-PR055-Spherical-UAP-over-AFG-in-and-out-of-clouds-23-Nov-2020

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Glowing orange sphere sends fisherman into full panic mode, UFO UAP alien sighting news

Date of sighting: June 1, 2026

Location of sighting: Haverhill, Massachusetts, USA

Source: NUFORC website

 

A person and his friend were fishing in a pond near a river and saw this glowing red sphere coming over the edge of the mountain top causing them to have a total mental meltdown. UFOs are known for frequently being seen over and around ocean areas, and this is more evidence of such an event. Also compounded by the eyewitness description of a haze around the object, which Bob Lazar of Area S4 said is caused by the propulsion system of alien craft. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

 

Eyewitness states: 

Lights on object, Aura or haze around object.  Was fishing and a bright light appeared in the sky and was moving and then went below the horizon, super bright. Super Bright light way brighter than any star or satellite or rocket, it was moving around in the sky. Then set like the sun. Lit up the sky. 

Glowing orange sphere sends fisherman into full panic mode, UFO UAP paranormal alien sighting news

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Ancient Face Found On Mars In Curiosity Rover Photo, Sign Of Intelligent Life, UFO Sightings News.

Date of discovery: June 5, 2026

Location of discovery: Mars Sol 327 Curiosity

Source NASA photo: 

• http://www.midnightplanets.com/web/MSL/image/00327/0327MH0003050000104151C00_DXXX.html

Now I found this interesting NASA photo just yesterday. Sure it was taken back in Jan 1, 2000 but its quality and ancient artifacts are much more authentic and detailed than today's 2026 photos which look air brushed out. 

 

Why do I look for faces? Because there is no other evidence of intelligent alien life than a face carving, which is seen in all human cultures around the world. The face I found above looks similar to the native Indian tribes that are found on Earth. It has a pronounced chin, darker lips, normal size nose, but between the nose and the eyes it's more slanted and longer. Its eye ridge is larger than humans and its ear  is larger but similar to humans. Other than meeting an alien face to face, there is no other greater evidence of intelligent life out there than this. It doesn't look terrifying like movies would like you to believe, it looks instead like an interesting person who you might sit down with and have a beer with chatting about life. 

 

I also noticed other objects, but I will share the screenshots below this post. NASA tried to hide the objects by placing the photo upside on the website in a hidden archive most people never visit. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Spielberg's 'Disclosure Day' nears release amid UAP revelations

©Getty Images

Spielberg's 'Disclosure Day' nears release amid UAP revelations

• Sci-fi return: Spielberg’s Disclosure Day is his first sci-fi film in eight years, reuniting him with screenwriter David Koepp and featuring an ensemble cast.
• Real-world parallels: Its release follows a historic U.S. directive declassifying UFO evidence, echoing the film’s themes of government secrecy and alien contact.
• Cultural timing: Arriving durin the 2026 World Cup, the film aims to tap into global attention and ongoing public intrigue over extraterrestrial phenomena.

References

• Steven Spielberg credits "The Age of Disclosure" doc with 'raising awareness' for new alien thriller "Disclosure Day" | Entertainment Weekly
• Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' stellar thriller is quietly one of the best in the genre | Collider
• Disclosure day is Steven Spielberg's big return to sci-fi | CBR
• The best sci-fi director comes back to the big screen this summer | MovieWeb
• What Steven Spielberg's wealth says about his enduring power | Auto Review Hub

©Photo by Xavier GALIANA / AFP via Getty Images. US director Steven Spielberg poses upon arrival for the premiere of "Disclosure Day" at the Grand Rex in Paris on June 2, 2026.

(Photo by Xavier GALIANA / AFP via Getty Images)

Steven Spielberg credits 'The Age of Disclosure' documentary for raising awareness
Steven Spielberg stated that the documentary 'The Age of Disclosure' played a role in raising awareness. He linked this influence to the development of his new alien thriller 'Disclosure Day'.

References

• Steven Spielberg credits "The Age of Disclosure" doc with 'raising awareness' for new alien thriller "Disclosure Day" | Entertainment Weekly

©Photo by Neil Mockford/Getty Images. LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 04: Director Steven Spielberg attends the UK premiere for "Disclosure Day" at Cineworld Leicester Square on June 04, 2026 in London, England.

(Photo by Neil Mockford/Getty Images)

Steven Spielberg's first science fiction film in eight years
Steven Spielberg is returning to the science fiction genre with the release of 'Disclosure Day', marking his first sci-fi project in eight years. This film reconnects him with the genre he explored in earlier works such as 'Firelight' and 'Close Encounters'.

References

• Steven Spielberg credits "The Age of Disclosure" doc with 'raising awareness' for new alien thriller "Disclosure Day" | Entertainment Weekly
• Disclosure day is Steven Spielberg's big return to sci-fi | CBR

©Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage. LONDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 04: (L-R) David Koepp, Wyatt Russell, Eve Hewson, Colin Firth, Emily Blunt, Director Steven Spielberg, Josh O'Connor, Kristie Macosko Krieger and Colman Domingo attend the UK premiere for "Disclosure Day" at Cineworld Leicester Square on June 04, 2026 in London, England.

(Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

David Koepp as screenwriter for 'Disclosure Day'
The screenplay for 'Disclosure Day' was written by David Koepp. Koepp has previously collaborated with Steven Spielberg on other projects, bringing his writing to this new science fiction film.

References

• Steven Spielberg credits "The Age of Disclosure" doc with 'raising awareness' for new alien thriller "Disclosure Day" | Entertainment Weekly
• Disclosure day is Steven Spielberg's big return to sci-fi | CBR

©Photo by Pierre Mouton/Getty Images for Universal Pictures. PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 02: Steven Spielberg is seen on stage during the Paris premiere of "Disclosure Day" at the Grand Rex on June 02, 2026 in Paris, France.

(Photo by Pierre Mouton/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)

Plot of 'Disclosure Day' involving government-alien conspiracy
'Disclosure Day' follows interconnected characters who are engaged in a race to expose a conspiracy involving the government and aliens. The narrative intertwines personal stakes with revelations that could have global consequences.

References

• Steven Spielberg credits "The Age of Disclosure" doc with 'raising awareness' for new alien thriller "Disclosure Day" | Entertainment Weekly
• Disclosure day is Steven Spielberg's big return to sci-fi | CBR

©Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images for Universal Pictures. PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 02: (L-R) Josh O'Connor, Colman Domingo, Steven Spielberg, Emily Blunt and Wyatt Russell attend the Paris premiere of "Disclosure Day" at the Grand Rex on June 02, 2026 in Paris, France.

(Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)

Cast of 'Disclosure Day' including Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and Colman Domingo
The cast of 'Disclosure Day' features Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, and Colman Domingo in leading roles. These actors portray characters navigating both personal challenges and world-altering discoveries.

References

• Steven Spielberg credits "The Age of Disclosure" doc with 'raising awareness' for new alien thriller "Disclosure Day" | Entertainment Weekly
• Disclosure day is Steven Spielberg's big return to sci-fi | CBR

©Photo by Pierre Mouton/Getty Images for Universal Pictures. PARIS, FRANCE - JUNE 02: Steven Spielberg greets fans during the Paris premiere of "Disclosure Day" at the Grand Rex on June 02, 2026 in Paris, France.

(Photo by Pierre Mouton/Getty Images for Universal Pictures)

Disclosure Day release scheduled during 2026 World Cup
The film 'Disclosure Day' is strategically scheduled for release during the 2026 World Cup. This timing is intended to coincide with a period of heightened global attention. The release strategy aims to maximize audience reach by leveraging the international event's large viewership.

References

• The best sci-fi director comes back to the big screen this summer | MovieWeb
• What Steven Spielberg's wealth says about his enduring power | Auto Review Hub

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/ }

This has led some researchers to speculate about the possibility of advanced technologies or even civilizations operating deep beneath Earth's oceans. While such ideas remain speculative, the notion is not entirely implausible when one considers that an estimated 90 percent or more of the deep ocean has never been directly explored or observed by humans or submersibles. 

The 1982 Sokolov UFO incident is one such case, prompting an intriguing question that continues to challenge researchers: who or what could be operating beneath the vast, largely unexplored depths of our oceans? 

In May 1982, near the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Soviet Far East, a Soviet naval officer identified in some accounts as A. Sokolov, along with two fellow crewmen, reportedly witnessed an extraordinary object emerging from the Pacific Ocean. 

According to their account, a massive cigar-shaped craft rose silently from the water, displaying four bright lights at its rear. The object then climbed rapidly into the sky, accelerated, and vanished from sight without producing any noticeable sound. 

The Sokolov incident is frequently cited alongside other alleged military encounters involving unidentified objects entering or leaving the world's oceans. UFO researchers argue that such reports point to a technology capable of high-speed underwater operation, seamless transitions between water and air, and silent propulsion. 

In this presentation, Richard Dolan explores this little-known Cold War-era USO (Unidentified Submerged Object) case, examining its Soviet naval context and its significance within the broader mystery of unidentified objects reportedly operating in and around Earth's oceans.

  

{ https://ufosightingshotspot.blogspot.com/ }

UFO over India bounces as it shoots across sky, May 31, 2026, UAP alien sighting news 

Date of sighting: May 31, 2026

Location of sighting: Kolkata, West Bengal, India

Source: NUFORC

 

This UFO is bouncing up and down as it shoots through the sky. The eyewitness had the camera on a tripod at the time and this means the movement is 100% the UFOs only. Wow, just amazing raw footage of an alien craft really having fun up there. This UFO is having way too much fun up there. 

Scott C. Waring - UFO Sightings Daily 

 

Eyewitness states: 

{ https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/ }

Eindelijk weten we waar mysterieuze radiopulsen uit de ruimte vandaan komen

  Andrei Stiru - Redacteur

{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/astronomie-ruimtevaart/ }

Mogelijk is een van onze planeten verdwenen. Dat kan verklaren waarom ons zonnestelsel er nu zo uitziet

  Jeannette Kras - Redacteur

{ https://scientias.nl/nieuws/astronomie-ruimtevaart/ }

A pair of filmmakers believe they may have captured the strongest evidence yet of one of America's most enduring monster mysteries lurking beneath the waters of Lake Champlain.

The creature, known as Champ, is a legendary lake monster said to inhabit the 125-mile-long body of water that stretches between New York, Vermont and Canada.

Often compared to Scotland's Loch Ness Monster, Champ is typically described as a massive serpent-like beast or a prehistoric plesiosaur with a long neck, humped back and dark body, which some have dubbed 'America's Nessie.'

Despite decades of sightings, no one has ever produced definitive proof that the monster exists.

Now, filmmakers Richard Rossi and Kelly Tabor told the Daily Mail that they may have stumbled across exactly that while shooting a family movie inspired by the legend.

The pair discovered footage showing what appeared to be a large unidentified creature moving through the water behind their boat, a detail they did not notice until reviewing the video nearly two years later.

What Tabor believed she saw was a shape unlike any fish she had encountered on the lake. 'When I saw it, I saw it was like a skinny neck, and that the body got larger,' Tabor said. 'It looked like the skinny neck was oscillating back and forth, as if it was grazing underwater. My eyes were just popping out.'

The footage was captured during the production of Lucy and the Lake Monster, a children's film centered on the mystery of Champ.

The creature, known as Champ, is a legendary lake monster said to inhabit the 125-mile-long body of water that stretches between New York, Vermont and Canada. A woman claimed to have taken a picture of the monster in 1977

(pictured)

The footage remained hidden in plain sight for nearly two years after filming wrapped.

It was only while reviewing footage during the editing process in 2025 that Tabor spotted something unusual trailing behind their 11-foot wooden boat.

Rossi recalled receiving an excited phone call from his longtime friend.

'I was skeptical at first. But then Kelly, in the editing process, called me one day, and she said, "I have the footage up on my large screen TV. You've got to take a look behind the boat."'

According to Rossi, Tabor told him: 'There's a large creature swimming behind the rope.' When he reviewed the footage himself, he was stunned. 

While stories linking strange creatures to Lake Champlain stretch back centuries, the first widely documented modern sighting occurred in 1819.

According to local lore, Captain Crum reported seeing an enormous black creature in Bulwagga Bay.

Richard Rossi and Kelly Tabor caught a glimpse of the monster while filming a children’s film ‘Lucy and the Lake Monster’

The captain reportedly described a snake-like animal measuring roughly 187 feet long with eyes resembling a peeled onion.

Since then, hundreds of sightings have been reported around the lake.

Believers have suggested Champ could be anything from a surviving plesiosaur to a zeuglodon, an ancient whale ancestor that lived millions of years ago.

Others argue the sightings are likely the result of misidentified fish, floating logs, waves or optical illusions.

The mystery has become deeply woven into the culture of the region, as Port Henry, New York, markets itself as the home of Champ.

Businesses, festivals and tourist attractions celebrate the creature, while locals regularly share stories of unusual encounters on the water.

Tabor grew up in nearby Crown Point and spent much of her childhood searching for the elusive monster.

'Our town, Crown Point, borders Port Henry, and Port Henry is known as the home of Champ, because in that area there have been over 300 eyewitness accounts of the Lake Champlain monster,' she said, adding that her fascination began early.

'My family spent summers there,' Tabor said. 'We had a boat that we would go out in, and so I was always scanning the lake, trying to get my chance to see Champ.'

'As many times as I looked as a child, I never saw it.'

She believes she may have experienced something unexplained years later while attending college.

The pair discovered footage showing what appeared to be a large unidentified creature moving through the water behind their boat, a detail they did not notice until reviewing the video nearly two years later

One evening, she and several others were sitting on the porch of her family's lakeside cabin when they noticed an unusual disturbance on the otherwise calm water.

'There was a big stirring out a little ways from the front porch,' she said, explaining that the group watched as a wake appeared and moved directly toward them.

'It wasn't going from the left or the right. It wasn't bearing up and down. It was a straight wake, at least an inch high, coming straight at us.'

Everyone waited for whatever was causing the disturbance to surface. Instead, the object suddenly changed direction.

'It came right towards the cabin, and it made a 90-degree turn,' Tabor said.

'It went off to the left of the next point across the bay, and it never surfaced.'

Because Lake Champlain's water is often murky due to its clay-rich bottom, nobody could determine what had caused the wake.

'I like to believe that I actually saw the effects of Champ,' she said.

After discovering the new footage, Rossi shared it with scientists and researchers for analysis.

The clip eventually attracted the attention of The UnXplained, the History Channel series hosted by William Shatner.

According to the filmmakers, producers told them the footage represented the strongest evidence of Champ since a famous 1977 photograph taken by tourist Sandra Mansi.

That image appeared to show a long-necked creature emerging from the water and remains one of the most famous pieces of alleged Champ evidence.

Unlike the Mansi photograph, Rossi notes that the new footage includes a boat in the frame, providing viewers with a reference point for scale.

The video has since generated hundreds of thousands of views online and sparked renewed debate among believers and skeptics alike.

For Rossi and Tabor, the discovery has only deepened their fascination with the mystery.

The pair are returning to Lake Champlain this summer for the annual Champ Day festival and are already working on two additional films exploring the legend.

Whether the footage ultimately proves anything remains uncertain.

But more than 200 years after the first reported sighting, Champ continues to capture imaginations and keep people watching the waters of Lake Champlain for signs that something enormous may still be swimming below the surface.

RELATED VIDEOS

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

Scientists issue first-contact plan as they await message from alien civilization

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

Scientists have issued a new blueprint for the day Earth receives a message from an alien civilization.

Released Friday, the eight-point plan lays out how researchers should handle a potentially world-changing signal from deep space, laying it out like a playbook for humanity's most extraordinary moment.

Scientists are instructed to treat any potential alien signal with extreme caution, verify it through multiple independent teams and keep unconfirmed findings tightly controlled to avoid false alarms.

If evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life is confirmed, researchers must rapidly inform the public, the scientific community and even the United Nations (UN) while releasing the underlying data for scrutiny.

The protocols also call for protecting the signal from interference, preserving all records in secure archives around the world and creating a dedicated international team to help manage the fallout from the discovery.

Researchers are warned not to send a reply to any alien civilization without first consulting the international community through bodies such as the United Nations.

The plan further acknowledges the dangers of the social media age, urging scientists to combat misinformation, respond quickly to rumors and protect researchers who could find themselves at the center of one of the biggest stories in human history.

With the Trump administration releasing dozens of UFO files in recent weeks, the creators of the plan say they want to prevent the world from being thrown into chaos by a false alarm. 

Newly released FBI files have revealed an alleged message from 'outer space people' containing chilling warnings for humanity (stock) 

The plan lays out a detailed roadmap for what should happen if scientists believe they have detected evidence of an intelligent alien civilization.

Under the protocols, researchers for Astrophysics and the chair of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) committee for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) are instructing other experts not to rush to announce a discovery to the world.

SETI is an acronym standing for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, a scientific field dedicated to scanning the cosmos for artificial radio and laser signals. 

Researchers said that any mysterious signal must undergo extensive scrutiny, with independent teams, observatories and organizations using different instruments and methods to determine whether it is genuine or merely a false alarm.

Scientists are warned that initial findings could be incomplete, misleading or impossible to interpret, meaning the verification process could take months or even years.

If the evidence survives that scrutiny and researchers become convinced it originated from an extraterrestrial intelligence, the protocols call for an immediate public announcement. 

The discovery would be shared not only with the scientific community but also with the United Nations and a network of international organizations involved in astronomy, space exploration and communications.

The plan also requires the release of the underlying evidence, allowing scientists around the world to inspect the data, challenge the conclusions and attempt to independently verify the finding.

Recognizing the dangers of the social media era, the guidelines devote significant attention to controlling misinformation and rumors. 

With the Trump administration releasing dozens of UFO files in recent weeks, the creators of the emergency plan say they want to prevent the world from being thrown into chaos by a false alarm. Pictured is an image from a release taken  during the Apollo moon missions

Researchers are encouraged to communicate openly and honestly with the public while clearly labeling speculation and unconfirmed claims.

The protocols also acknowledge that a scientist who discovers evidence of alien intelligence could suddenly become one of the most famous people on Earth. 

Institutions are urged to protect researchers from harassment, security threats and professional fallout while ensuring accurate information continues to flow to the public.

In the event a signal is confirmed, every piece of evidence must be preserved and archived in multiple secure locations around the world. 

The data, analysis methods and computer code used to study the signal would be stored so that future generations of scientists can revisit the discovery.

The plan even includes measures to protect the signal itself. If the evidence arrives in the form of radio transmissions or other electromagnetic signals, scientists are encouraged to seek international agreements to safeguard the frequencies from interference or disruption.

An international post-detection committee would then be assembled to help interpret the discovery and guide the world's response. 

The group would include experts in science, ethics, law, communications and social sciences tasked with helping humanity navigate the implications of learning we are not alone.

Perhaps the most striking provision concerns what happens next.

Even if humanity receives a message from an alien civilization, scientists are explicitly instructed not to answer.

Instead, any decision about responding would first require international consultations involving the United Nations and other global organizations. Until those discussions are completed, no reply should be sent.

The final section emphasizes that any discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life must be handled with transparency, integrity and a sense of responsibility to all of humanity, recognizing that such a moment would rank among the most profound events in human history.

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

Avi Loeb questions rejection of positive results from Viking probes on Mars

Mysterious triangular aircraft spotted over Area 51 sparks secret tech theories

By STACY LIBERATORE, US SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY EDITOR

A mysterious aircraft was reportedly spotted near the highly classified Area 51 base, sparking speculation that it could be a secret military prototype.

A thermal image appears to show a triangular-shaped craft flying close to the infamous testing facility in Nevada, long associated with some of America's most closely guarded aerospace programs.

The image was shared online by the Project Fear YouTube channel, which described it as 'a craft the public has never seen before.'

Some observers believe the object could be a classified X-plane, a highly experimental aircraft used to test advanced technologies before they enter military service.

For decades, Area 51 has served as the premier testing ground for these secretive 'black projects,' including spy planes and stealth aircraft that remained hidden from the public for years.

The unusual shape of the craft has fueled speculation that it may be linked to a next-generation military aircraft. Among the theories circulating online is that it could be the Boeing F-47, the future centerpiece of the US Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance program.

Others have suggested it could be an entirely separate classified aircraft being developed for future military operations.

While no official explanation has been provided, the sighting has reignited debate over what exactly is being flown behind the fences of America's most secretive air base.

A thermal image appears to show a triangular-shaped craft flying close to the infamous testing facility, long associated with some of America's most closely guarded aerospace programs

Several groundbreaking military programs, including stealth and reconnaissance aircraft, were flown at the remote Nevada facility years before they were publicly acknowledged. 

Read More

EXCLUSIVE

• I'm a pastor who attended a secret UFO disclosure meeting. We saw images of 'translucent beings' that chilled me to the bone... the files could fulfil a dark biblical prophecy 

Project Fear said on X that the image was captured using a 10-micron thermal scope. 

While the identity of the aircraft remains unknown, some observers have speculated that it could be Boeing's F-47, the centerpiece of the US Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program.

The sixth-generation fighter is expected to serve as a flying command hub, coordinating swarms of AI-powered drones alongside piloted aircraft in future combat operations.

Reports have suggested that prototype aircraft are already under development, with operational deployment anticipated in the early 2030s.

The speculation comes just days after the Air Force requested $5.03 billion for the F-47 program in its Fiscal Year 2027 budget, citing growing concerns over China's rapidly advancing next-generation military aviation capabilities.

The image has fueled intense debate online, with one X user writing: 'Any unidentified aircraft near Area 51 automatically creates more questions than answers.'

Among the theories circulating online is that it could be the Boeing F-47, the future centerpiece of the US Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance program

Area 51 is a highly classified US Air Force facility located within the Nevada Test and Training Range, approximately 83 miles north-northwest of Las Vegas

Area 51 has long been the stuff of alien lore, with whispers of crashed UFOs and extraterrestrial autopsies behind its barbed-wire-laced fence.

The base, established in 1955, remained largely unknown until 1989, when Robert Lazar claimed on TV that he worked at a secret site near Groom Lake, 'S-4,' studying alien technology and spacecraft.

While the remote US Air Force base in Nevada, approximately 83 miles north-northwest of Las Vegas, has kept a tight lid on its activities, the CIA finally lifted the lid in 2013, officially admitting Area 51's existence.

The agency declassified a more than 400-page report that detailed how testing its secret spy planes 'accounted for more than one-half of all UFO reports during the late 1950s and most of the 1960s.'

The U-2 spy and A-12 reconnaissance planes were being flown in the shadows of the desert amid the Cold War, but the extreme altitudes sparked fears of an alien invasion.

'High-altitude testing of the U-2 soon led to an unexpected side effect, a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs),' the report states.

'Once U-2s started flying at altitudes above 60,000 feet, air-traffic controllers began receiving increasing numbers of UFO reports.'

However, the CIA report does not mention Area 51's purpose after 1974.

RELATED VIDEOS

Has the NEW US 6th Gen Fighter Jet Taken Flight?

AREA 51: MYSTERY Aircraft SPOTTED - USAF Testing Again?

US Air Force Secretly Tests NEW Mystery Aircraft in Area 51!

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

NASA's $247 million (£183 million) 'Son of Concorde' jet is about to take to the skies for its first supersonic test flight.

Travelling at speeds up to Mach 1.6, or 1,218 miles per hour (1,960 km/h), the jet could cut the trip from London to New York to just four hours.

However, unlike Concorde, NASA's experimental jet, the X-59, has been designed to replace the deafening crash of a sonic boom with a softer 'thump'. 

The X-59 has already undergone months of test flights since launching for the first time in October last year.

Now, NASA says it is getting the plane ready to fly at faster speeds and higher altitudes, including its first test flight beyond the speed of sound. 

With a new series of tests starting in early June, the space agency plans to fly X-59 at speeds of over 630 miles per hour (1,014 km/h) at an altitude of 43,000 feet.

This will be followed by a 'mission conditions flight', during which the jet will hit Mach 1.4, 925 miles per hour (1,490 km/h), at 50,000 feet.

Finally, test pilots will push the jet to its absolute limit, reaching a top speed of Mach 1.6 at 60,000 feet - around twice the height and speed of a commercial airline.  

NASA's experimental supersonic jet, dubbed the 'Son of Concorde', will take to the skies in its first faster-than-sound flight in July 

The X-59 has been specifically designed to solve a major problem that currently stands in the way of supersonic travel becoming more common.

When a plane flies at sub-sonic speeds, it pushes the air out of the way like a boat moving through water, creating ripples in the form of sound waves.

But when something reaches the speed of sound, it starts to outrun these sound waves, and the ripples bunch up and merge together into a powerful shockwave.

This means that supersonic jets are constantly generating shockwaves, which people on the ground hear as a deafening boom as they sweep past. 

Because these booms can be as loud as 110 decibels, similar to a loud rock concert, supersonic flights are generally banned over populated areas. 

To solve this problem, NASA has been working to develop 'Quiet SuperSonic Technology (Quesst)' that would muffle the boom into a muted 'thump'.

The jet has been developed by American aerospace firm Lockheed Martin after being awarded the $247.5 million design contract by NASA in 2016. 

The X-59 features a radically redesigned geometry in which every feature is designed to diffuse and muffle the sonic boom.

The X-59 jet has been designed to produce a much quieter sonic boom when flying at supersonic speeds, creating a 'thump' rather than a bang 

Part of the reason that Concorde was eventually discontinued was that the sonic boom produced by breaking the sound barrier could be extremely loud for people on the ground 

During the upcoming tests, the experimental aircraft will be chased by a standard supersonic jet equipped with a probe to record the shockwave

The most obvious difference from a normal jet is the thin, tapered nose, which accounts for almost a third of the plane's entire length and is shaped to break up the shockwave.

The downside of this novel design is that the cockpit is located around halfway down the length of the vehicle and doesn't have any forward-facing windows.

Instead, the single pilot uses a system of cameras and augmented reality displays, known as the eXternal Vision System, to see out the front. 

Reaching these new speed and altitude records is a key milestone for Quesst, since they are NASA's targets for the X-59 to eventually fly over American communities.

Cathy Bahm, project manager for NASA's Low Boom Flight Demonstrator, says: 'Every step of envelope expansion brings us closer to demonstrating the quiet supersonic capability that is at the heart of the Quesst mission. 

'Completing the first mission-conditions flight is especially meaningful - it's the moment where we begin validating the aircraft in the environment it was designed for.'

While the eventual goal is to produce quiet sonic booms, this upcoming batch of test flights will not be designed to assess the volume of the flight.

The X-59 will be accompanied by a standard supersonic chase plane, which would drown out any useful data with its own, much louder boom.

According to NASA, the sonic thump produced by X-59 passing overhead will be quieter than the sound of a car door shutting 20 feet away 

The X-59's aerodynamic profile has been designed so that it breaks up the shockwave formed by passing the sound barrier and is much quieter in flight. Pictured: The sonic boom from a scale model of the aircraft during wind tunnel tests 

Travelling at speeds up to Mach 1.6, or 1,218 miles per hour (1,960 km/h), the X-59 could cut the trip from London to New York to just four hours

The X-59's long nose accounts for a third of its total length, which means the cockpit doesn't have room for a forward-facing window. Test pilots instead use a system of cameras and augmented reality displays to see where they are going (pictured)

Read More

• Mysterious sonic boom rattles homes and panics thousands in several US states 

However, the chasing jet will be equipped with a specialised probe to take initial measurements of the X-59's shock waves.

Strain gages throughout the aircraft's body will also gather data on how it handles higher speeds and whether it is structurally safe to fly.

This data will pave the way for a new set of tests later this year, dubbed Quesst Phase 2, in which NASA will begin to check whether it is really producing a quiet supersonic thump as intended.

Ms Bahm says: 'As we look ahead to the upcoming flights, we're poised to open the envelope even further - moving boldly toward the mission test point this aircraft was built to achieve.'

The history of Concorde  

Concorde was a turbojet-powered supersonic passenger jet that was operated from 1976 until 2003.

It had a maximum speed over twice the speed of sound at Mach 2.04 (1,354mph or 2,180k per hour at cruise altitude) and could seat 92 to 128 passengers.

It was first flown in 1969, but needed further tests to establish it as viable as a commercial aircraft. Concorde entered service in 1976.

It is one of only two supersonic transports to have been operated commercially. The other is the Soviet-built Tupolev Tu-144, which ran as a passenger aircraft only for a few years in the 1970s due to safety issues.

Concorde was the world's first supersonic airliner and operated for 27 years, but it was grounded in October 2003. Pictured is British Airways Concorde G-BOAB taking off with its landing gear still extended over the Cotswolds town of Fairford, Gloucestershire on July 20, 1996, during the annual RAF Fairford airshow

Concorde was jointly developed and manufactured by Aérospatiale and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) under an Anglo-French treaty. Concorde's name, meaning harmony or union, reflected the cooperation on the project between the UK and France.   

Concorde was retired in 2003 due to a general downturn in the commercial aviation industry after its only crash in 2000, the September 11 attacks in 2001, and a decision by Airbus, the successor to Aérospatiale and BAC, to discontinue maintenance support. 

It wasn't the first plane to break the sound barrier, however; that achievement was managed by the Bell X-1, piloted by Chuck Yeager, in October 1947.

The legendary rocket engine-powered aircraft, designed and built in 1945, achieved a speed of 700 miles (1,127 kilometers) per hour.

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }

NASA astronauts were forced to shelter in their spacecraft and prepare for potential evacuation on Friday due to an escalating air crisis on the International Space Station.

The extraordinary precaution came as US and Russian officials clashed over how to tackle a growing air leak aboard the orbiting laboratory. 

In a dramatic attempt to reach the source, Russian cosmonauts used a saw to cut into a section of the station where they believed the leak was coming from. 

The four members of NASA's Crew-12 mission, two Americans, a French astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut, were instructed to enter their docked SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and put on spacesuits while Russian crews attempted repairs. Another NASA astronaut also joined them.

But roughly 90 minutes later, the safe-haven procedures were lifted after Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, paused the repair operation to gather additional data and measurements. 

The dispute had been brewing for months, with NASA and Roscosmos unable to agree on either the source of the persistent air leaks or the best way to stop them. 

While the leaks have plagued the station on and off for years, Reuters reported that the rate of air loss recently doubled from about one pound per day to two. 

The decision by Russian cosmonauts to use a saw heightened concerns aboard the orbiting laboratory, prompting NASA to place astronauts into safe-haven procedures as a precaution. 

NASA ordered astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to take shelter over 'worsening air leaks'

Bethany Stevens, NASA press secretary, said in a statement on X: 'Roscosmos has paused Friday’s structural repair efforts inside the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK, as more measurements and data are assessed. 

'Given this development, NASA has instructed the crew members inside the Dragon spacecraft to end the safe haven procedures and return to planned operations aboard the International Space Station.'

The Zvezda service module transfer tunnel is a pressurized cylindrical passageway in the rear of the Russian part of the station. 

Its function is to connect the Zvezda's main living quarters with the docking port where cargo is brought aboard the ISS.

While the module arrived in space in 2020, some parts of this section were constructed in the 1980s and have been a site of worsening leaks for years. 

A leak has been ongoing since 2019, when air began escaping from the module's transfer tunnel. 

NASA has a plan in place for an emergency evacuation of the ISS, and it could be used amid cracks and leaks on the ship

Bethany Stevens, NASA press secretary, said that the astronauts have now been told to 'return to planned operations' after Roscosmos called off their attempted repairs at the last minute 

These leaks rapidly accelerated as the repair attempts failed to stem the flow, leaking 1.68kg (3.7lb) of precious air into space every day by 2024. 

The issue has become so serious that NASA has reportedly ranked it among the highest-risk challenges facing the station, with the possibility of a 'catastrophic failure' discussed during internal meetings. 

This new leak, detected on May 1, initially allowed roughly one pound of air to escape into space each day - about the weight of a loaf of bread. 

However, this rate doubled, a senior NASA official told Reuters on condition of anonymity, prompting the space agencies to act.   

In the past, Roscosmos astronauts have used sealants to attempt to plug the hole and prevent more air from escaping.

However, the Russian agency's planned repairs carried a higher risk, and the remaining astronauts were ordered to take shelter as a precaution.

The astronauts are taking shelter inside the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft in preparation for an emergency evacuation 

Stevens said in a statement: 'The Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK, has suffered from cracks and leaks for some time, and has been mitigated by Roscosmos as much as possible to date.'

'Following new leaks, Roscosmos has elected to proceed with a more extensive repair operation on Friday, June 5,' she added.

'Out of an abundance of caution, NASA has directed all four of the agency's SpaceX Crew-12 members and NASA astronaut Chris Williams to assume an elevated safety posture in the Dragon spacecraft while the repair is underway.   

'The cracks have always been a concern that NASA watches very closely. NASA and Roscosmos have been working to determine the root cause of the cracks, and Roscosmos manages the issue through operational mitigation measures and periodic partial-repair efforts' 

The Crew-12 members include Americans Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, Sophie Adenot of France and Russia's Andrey Fedyaev. There are a total of seven astronauts on board. 

NASA has a plan in place to evacuate the space station in case of an emergency, and had been ready to put that into action until Roscosmos called off the risky repair.  

The moment Houston gave the signal, astronauts moved to their assigned spacecraft to shelter in place in case the station lost pressure. 

The four astronauts of NASA's Crew-12 mission include, from left, Americans Jack Hathaway and Jessica Meir, Sophie Adenot of France and Russia's Andrey Fedyaev

The capsules have been stocked with emergency suits, allowing the crew to quickly put on the proper gear as they flee the orbiting laboratory, saving valuable time. 

It can take up to 30 minutes to get inside a spacesuit, according to NASA, which makes early preparation vital. 

If the station became unsafe and NASA was forced to call for a full evacuation, the crew would launch their SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule and return to Earth. 

NASA's commercial crew program manager, Steve Stich, has previously said that in the event of an emergency, SpaceX's Dragon could be powered up within minutes.

This comes amid growing concern that the ageing space station needs to be retired before disaster strikes. 

Since 1998, when construction began on the first modules, the ISS has hosted more than 250 visitors from 20 different countries and produced over 400 research papers.

But after roughly 146,000 orbits, the systems and hardware installed on the ISS are beginning to show their age. 

The ISS was only intended to stay in orbit until 2015 and has now been in orbit for more than a decade longer than planned.

NASA is tracking 50 'areas of concern' related to a leak in the Russian Zvezda Service Module, Transfer Tunnel (labelled), which sprang a leak in 2019

This is not the first time the ISS has sprung a leak. In 2018, astronauts rushed to fix a hole (above), which had appeared in the outer wall of the Soyuz capsule on the orbiting laboratory

ESA astronaut Tim Peake took this photo from inside Cupola in 2016, showing a 7mm-diameter circular chip gouged out by the impact from a tiny piece of space debris

How will the ISS be brought back to Earth?

1. Starting from 2026, the ISS will be allowed to gradually fall from 250 miles to 200 miles above Earth.
2. Meanwhile, the last human crew will depart the ISS and take anything of historical importance they can carry.
3. As the ISS falls from 200 miles to 175 miles, a modified SpaceX Dragon capsule will dock with the station.
4. Once the station hits the point of no return at 175 miles, the Dragon capsule will begin to guide the ISS into an elliptical orbit.
5. When the time is right, the space tug will deliver one last kick and push the station into Earth within less than half an orbit.
6. The ISS and tug will hit the atmosphere at 17,000 mph and be destroyed.  
7. Hopefully, whatever doesn't burn up in the atmosphere will splash harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean near Point Nemo.  

In September last year, NASA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) identified 588 replacement parts that were operating beyond their operational lifetimes.

This has come with a risk of worsening leaks and damage from impacts with micrometeorites and space junk, especially in the oldest Russian modules.

In 2018, astronauts rushed to fix a hole that had appeared in the outer wall of the Soyuz capsule on the orbiting laboratory

Weighing 400 tons (880,000lb), equivalent to more than 400 elephants, the ISS is so large that it can't actually stay in such a low-Earth orbit unassisted. 

This means that the station's thrusters need to be regularly fired in order to keep it in a stable orbit of around 250 miles (400km) above Earth. 

If these thrusters failed, the station would gradually fall out of orbit and crash uncontrollably to Earth. 

To bring the football-pitch laboratory down to Earth safely, NASA will need to deliberately push the station out of orbit.

NASA currently plans to bring the ISS down to Earth in 2030, bringing an end to three decades of international collaboration in Earth's orbit.

NASA estimates it will cost $1 billion (£800 million) to convert a Dragon capsule into a vehicle capable of pushing the ISS out of orbit 

Starting from the end of this year, the station will be allowed to fall naturally under the effects of atmospheric drag until it reaches an altitude of around 200 miles (320km).

Read More

• NASA's ISS suffers alarming air leak as emergency plans stand by for seven astronauts 

At this point, the last ISS crew will depart the station, taking with them any equipment or items that are deemed historically important. 

Once the last crew has gone, the station will continue to fall over several months until it reaches the 'point of no return' at an altitude of 175 miles (280 km). 

To deliver the finishing blow, NASA has commissioned a 'space tug' which will launch from Earth, dock with the ISS, and then push the station out of orbit.

The space agency plans to use a modified SpaceX Dragon capsule, which will dock with the station before pushing it into the atmosphere at an estimated cost of $1bn (£800m).

EXPLAINED: THE $100 BILLION INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION SITS 250 MILES ABOVE THE EARTH

The International Space Station (ISS) is a $100 billion (£80 billion) science and engineering laboratory that orbits 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

It has been permanently staffed by rotating crews of astronauts and cosmonauts since November 2000. 

Crews have come mainly from the US and Russia, but the Japanese space agency JAXA and European space agency ESA have also sent astronauts. 

The International Space Station has been continuously occupied for more than 20 years and has been expended with multiple new modules added and upgrades to systems 

Research conducted aboard the ISS often requires one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit, such as low-gravity or oxygen.

ISS studies have investigated human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.

The US space agency, NASA, spends about $3 billion (£2.4 billion) a year on the space station program, with the remaining funding coming from international partners, including Europe, Russia and Japan.

So far 244 individuals from 19 countries have visited the station, and among them eight private citizens who spent up to $50 million for their visit.

There is an ongoing debate about the future of the station beyond 2025, when it is thought some of the original structure will reach 'end of life'.

Russia, a major partner in the station, plans to launch its own orbital platform around then, with Axiom Space, a private firm, planning to send its own modules for purely commercial use to the station at the same time. 

NASA, ESA, JAXA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) are working together to build a space station in orbit around the moon, and Russia and China are working on a similar project, that would also include a base on the surface. 

RELATED VIDEOS

Astronauts prepare for possible evacuation of International Space Station over air leaks - live

ISS astronauts told to evacuate over air leak

ISS astronauts in evacuation mode as Russia attempts to fix widening air leak

{ https://www.dailymail.com/sciencetech/index.html }