This article came from The Gospel Truth, a publication of Southwest
Radio Church. Nov. 1986
Space Program Sabotage?
During the last two and one-half decades, the United States has
experienced one space triumph after another with very few failures.
However, within the last year, there has been one catastrophe after
another, with only one success. On January 28, 1986, millions around
the world watched in horror as NASA's newest space vehicle,
'Challenger', was engulfed in a fire ball, carrying seven American
astronauts to their death. This tragedy resulted in the loss of
United States' prestige and leadership in the international community,
and it set our space program back at least two years. Whether by
accident or design, it was a great victory for Russia.
Subsequent investigations and deliberations have concluded that the
explosion of the rocket boosters carrying the 'Challenger' was due to
a mechanical failure, a leak around one of the O-rings. Practically
no government officially has even hinted at sabotage. However, dark
doubts concerning the real cause of the disaster have persisted. We
quote from the June 1986 edition of the 'Christian Inquirer' of
Niagara Falls, Ontario, and article entitled "Was 'Challenger'
Sabotaged?":
While the official explanation of the Challenger catastrophe is a
faulty seal, there are persistent rumors that it was not an accident.
Fact: the normal nearby Soviet ships were not in evidence. From a
military perspective, the disaster raised serious questions as to
whether President Reagan will be able to meet the timetable for
research and testing of his Strategic Defense Initiative, the
space-based antimissile-defense plan popularly known as 'Star
Wars'.... Air Force officials reported April 18th that a Titan rocket
carrying a secret military payload exploded seconds after liftoff from
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.... The rocket was thought to
be carrying a KH-11 photographic reconaissance satellite, which is
used to observe the Soviet military, monitor compliance with arms
control agreements, and observe "hot spots" around the globe. America
now has only one KH-11 operating in space since another satellite was
lost last August when another Titan rocket exploded after liftoff a
Vandenberg. In trying to explain the recent malfunction of a Delta
rocket, the type scheduled to launch SDI experiments into space later
this year, one NASA official said the engine shutdown "almost seemed
like something flipped the switch." While investigators have
suggested that an electrical circuit on the engine may have failed,
there is also the distinct possibility of sabotage. Lt. General
Daniel O. Graham (retired), former director of the Defense
Intelligence Agency, says that sabotage could have been accomplished
through "transmission Frequencies" by sending the wrong information to
the space vehicle. Graham, who now directs High Frontier, a pro-SDI
research organization says, "The Soviets have been pulling out all the
stops in their propaganda machine to prevent us from using Space for
SDI. I wouldn't be surprised if they were also pulling out all the
stops in their dirty tricks machine, too. You can't ignore the
possibility." Graham sent a letter to William Rogers, head of the
presidential commission investigating the destruction of the space
shuttle Challenger, urging him to look at the possibility of sabotage
in that disaster.
A related, subsequent article entitled "Sabotaged Missile
Launches?" by Tad Szulc, a Washington journalist experienced in
covering intelligence matters, appeared in the July 6,1986 edition of
the Los Angeles Times. We quote:
In a departure from its public position, the French government has
concluded that the explosion of its ariane rocket at the Kourou launch
site in French Guinea on May 30 may have been due to sabotage.
According to French intelligence officials, the investigation into
the Ariane accident has been secretly reopened because, "Initially we
had no reason to raise the question of sabotage, but now we have
reason to ask that question."
France has shared its concerns and suspicions about Ariane with
the highest levels of U.S. intelligence... because of the series of
catastrophes involving American space launches this year. The French
and American accidents are adding up to a bizarre pattern, surrounded
by strange coincidences and unexplained events, deeply preoccupying
Western intelligence. These include the apparent defection to the
Soviet Union in 1983 of the U.S. Air Force's leading expert on rocket
self-destruct procedures.
With the loss of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, a
Titan 34-D rocket on April 18, a Delta Rocket on May 3, and the French
Ariane, all of which carried American reconnaissance satellites, the
United States no longer has the capability of putting satellites into
orbit to monitor Soviet nuclear deployments and serve as early-warning
systems against a ballistic-missile attack...
Although specific causes of all these accidents varied in each
case, according to technical inquiry reports, the common denominator
was that most of the rockets - including the Challenger's solid-fuel
boosters - had to be destroyed by radio command from the ground to
prevent debris from falling into inhabited areas.
In the case of Ariane, the technical report on the causes of the
May 30 accident concluded that it was the failure of the rocket's
third-stage engine to ignite properly.... But French intelligence
officials say that while the report is technically correct (the 1985
Ariane accident had the same cause), "it is very easy to perform
sabotage in this context by one very well-placed person." French
intelligence officials declined to provide details concerning their
new suspicions, but experts in this realm are fascinated and intrigued
by a series of extraneous events that may have a bearing on the
destruction of the West's satellite launch capability.
By far the most interesting is the mysterious disappearance three
years ago of a U.S. Air Force officer who specialized in space-launch
command, control, and communications for satellite surveillance
systems. Captain William Howard Hughes, Jr., then 34 years old, was
the lead analyst of the Command Control and Communication Surveillance
Systems at the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center at
Kirkland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which test new
space-related weapons systems. Among his responsibilities was the
training of range officers in charge of destroying rockets
malfunctioning after launch.
Hughes, who was single, was dispatched to the Netherlands on July
18, 1983, to work with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization... he
was never seen again. On December 9, 1983, the Air Force formally
declared him a deserter.
Intelligence officers believe that Hughes was either captured by
Soviet agents or voluntarily defected to the Soviet Union...
Intelligence officers point out the Hughes' knowledge of all the
top-secret rocket launch procedures was invaluable to the Soviets,
perhaps more so than the secrets delivered by recently captured spies.
"He is worth his weight in gold to the Russians in terms of future
'Star Wars'... "one said. They see a clear link between Hughes and
possible sabotage of the American and French launches.
Another bizarre occurrence, neither explainable nor evidence of
anything, was the sudden disappearance of Soviet trawlers from the
Cape Canaveral area four hours before the scheduled launch of the
Challenger on January 28. The trawlers, which are electronic spy
vessels, had been on station of the cape from the start of the U.S.
space program. On the January morning, however, three of four trawler
steamed at flank speed in a northeastern direction away from the
coast. Normally, these trawler seek to monitor telemetric signals
from the rockets before, during, and after launch because they provide
crucial data on the space vehicles' performance.... It is an absolute
mystery why the trawlers, as observed by the U.S. Navy, went of
station in this manner.
From the information submitted in the preceding article, reported
in reliable sources, it appears the French Government has reason to
believe that Russia is sabotaging the space program of both France and
the United States. It appears that William Howard Hughes, Jr., a
former U.S. expert in blowing up space vehicles after launch, is now
in Russia. French space vehicles carrying U.S. military satellites
are being blown up, and NASA has experienced an unprecedented number
of failures in recent important defense efforts. Also, For years
Russia has stationed ships just outside the territorial waters near
Cape Canaveral to spy on U.S. missile launches. The perplexing
question is why on January 28, just four hours before the scheduled
launch of 'Challenger', did these ships pull up anchor and sail out to
sea. From a military position, this was the most important U.S. space
effort to that date. Reason dictates that those Russian ships would
have been gathering all the electronic data they could obtain. Did
the Russian high command remove the ships so they would not be
endangered when 'Challenger' blew up after blast off. Or, would the
United States suspect sabotage after the disaster and send the navy to
capture the Russian trawlers? Evidence would support the conclusion
that the Russians had knowledge that on January 28 when Challenger was
launched that an unusual catastrophe would occur.
