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Koi UFO Video 055: Genesis capsule "UFO crash"  

   

[DEBUNKED]  Koi UFO Video 055 is footage which begins by showing a tumbling disc-shaped object falling towards the ground. The second half of the video shows a disc-shaped object partially buried in a desert.

Various copies of this video have been posted on Youtube with titles such as "UFO Crash Footage".  One such copy has nearly 1 million views and is accompanied by a caption which states the following:

"This is the most amazing UFO crash footage ever captured and judging by the audio it was videoed by US Military. No more grainy out of focus UFO footage, This is crystal clear".

In fact, as detailed below, the video shows a sample return capsule from NASA's Genesis space probe crash-landing in Utah on 8 September 2004, after a design flaw prevented the deployment of its drogue parachute. 

 

Sections below:

1. The relevant video

2. Stories and claims relating to this video

3. The real background to this video

4. Relevant online discussions

 

 

1. The relevant video

This video begins by showing a tumbling disc-shaped object falling towards the ground. The second half of the video shows a disc-shaped object partially buried in a desert.

 

Screen shots from the video are included below for ease of identification:

   

   

   

   

   

 

 

 

 

2. Stories and claims relating to this video

Various copies of this video have been posted on Youtube with titles such as "UFO Crash Footage".  One such copy has nearly 1 million views and is accompanied by a caption which states the following:

"This is the most amazing UFO crash footage ever captured and judging by the audio it was videoed by US Military. No more grainy out of focus UFO footage, This is crystal clear".

Copies of this video have been posted numerous times on social media websites in previous years, often with titles referring to a "UFO crash" or simply asking what the video shows.  Sometimes the title accompanying the video adds sensationalistic claims, such as indicating that the object was "shot down" by the US military or is "leaked footage".

 

 

3. The real background to this video

This video in fact shows the fall of the Genesis capsule.

The Genesis spacecraft was a NASA sample return probe.  It was the first U.S. mission since Apollo to return extraterrestrial material to Earth for study.  Its mission was to collect samples of solar wind and return them to Earth.  It was the first mission to return material from beyond the orbit of the Moon. Genesis was launched on August 8, 2001, and crash-landed in Utah on September 8, 2004, after a design flaw prevented the deployment of its drogue parachute.

 

 

The Genesis mission was the fifth in NASA's "Discovery" missions.  The others were Mars Pathfinder, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR), Lunar Prospector and Stardust.

On September 8, 2004 the Genesis sample return capsule's drogue parachute did not deploy during entry, descent, and landing operations over the Utah Test and Training Range. The drogue parachute was intended to slow the capsule and provide stability during transonic flight. A pair of helicopters, helmed by stunt pilots, had been ready to snatch the refrigerator-sized parachute with a hook as the Genesis capsule descended.

After the point of expected drogue deployment, the sample return capsule began to tumble and impacted the Test Range at 9:58:52  MDT, at which point vehicle safing and recovery operations began.

Detail of the failure, and of the return capsule, were given in the "Genesis Mishap Investigation Board Report" (by Michael Ryschkewitsch, Chairman et als - 13 June 2006), which included the following images of the capsule and the planned deployment of its drogue parachute:

   

   

 

Numerous websites include details of the failure of Genesis sample return capsule's chute to open, including CNN's website and the Space Today Online's website:

 

 

 

Prior to the re-entry, NASA had created a webpage about the expected "star-spangled entrance" of the Genesis sample return capsule and a "Hollywood ending" to the Genesis mission.  That webpage had included the following:

"Watching the reentry, exciting and fruitful as that may be, is merely a prelude to the main event: Once the fireball is spent, a parafoil will pop out and the capsule will glide gently toward the US Air Force's Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City. If all goes as planned, Hollywood stunt pilots--no kidding!--will pluck the capsule from mid-air using a long hook extended from a helicopter's belly. This prevents delicate sample holders from breaking on the ground below".

That NASA webpage had included a artist's rendering of the helicopter which was expected to snag the Genesis capsule from mid-air:

 

Notably, the audio to this "UFO" video itself clearly discusses the absence of a "drogue chute" (i.e. a parachute) - which was a fairly heavy clue that this object was not being perceived as an alien spaceship but rather something that was expected to have a parachute.

Rather unusually, a skeptical video in relation to this "UFO" footage has a very considerable number of views (approximately 800,000 as at October 2014).  Usually videos explaining "UFO" footage have FAR fewer views than were obtained by the original unexplained footage.

 

Some skeptical comments have been posted online stating that the object was from the Stardust mission, which was in fact a separate NASA mission.  

 

 

 

4. Relevant online discussions

Relevant discussions on the AboveTopSecret.com forum include the following:

2004 (September) discussion entitled "SCI/TECH: Genesis Probe Crashes To Earth"

2006 (June) discussion entitled "Please tell me if this is a fake?!

2006 (June) discussion entitled "Amazing footage of Govt. ufo going totally out of control"

2007 (March) discussion entitled "Saucer falling to Earth... Genesis Probe"

2007 (April) discussion entitled "ufo crash video - genesis probe filmed by nasa?"

2007 (September) discussion entitled "What is this??? New video from YouTube!?"

2008 (June) discussion entitled "A UFO by NASA . Its prob.fake but here you go."

2008 (August) discussion entitled "Crash of UFO - new video"

2008 (November) discussion entitled "UFO Crash ..leaked footage?"

2008 (December) discussion entitled "Disk shaped U.F.O. not yet confirmed nor denied by NASA"

2009 (October) discussion entitled "UFO, Has anyone seen this?"

2010 (January) discussion entitled "Best UFO crash video I have ever seen."

2010 (January) discussion entitled "US Military shoots down disk"