Astronaut's final secret: Alien encounter in his bedroom

A Pioneering Astronaut's Unexplained Encounter

A pioneering astronaut who played a crucial role in launching the private manned space program has shared a chilling experience that took place not in orbit, but in his own bedroom. This revelation comes from a new documentary that sheds light on the extraordinary journey of Brian Binnie, the second commercial astronaut to reach space.

Binnie, a former Navy commander and military jet pilot, flew SpaceShipOne, the first commercial spacecraft to reach space. In 2004, he became the second person to do so, marking a significant milestone in the history of space exploration. However, his story took an unexpected turn in December 2003, just days after a test flight crash.

On the night of December 17, 2003, Binnie was at his home in Rosamond, California. He had been recovering from a dramatic crash during a test flight of SpaceShipOne, which occurred on the 100th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first powered flight. That night, as he lay in bed at 4 a.m., he experienced a strange phenomenon.

"I was woken by flashes of light," Binnie recalled in the documentary Beyond Blue Sky: The Untold Story of the First Private Astronauts. "I thought it was the television, but when I opened my eyes, the TV wasn't on. These lights were coming from the bedroom window."

He opened the blinds to investigate and found himself in a surreal situation. "It's as though daytime has manifested itself in my backyard. It's dark everywhere else I can see. And within the daylight, there are these other objects. Some of them looked like ball-sized soap bubbles."

Binnie described seeing several objects, some the size of volleyballs, that appeared to be animated and moving freely. Two of the lights approached his window and flew past his body. "Whether they were probing me or checking me out and finding nothing of interest, the whole thing slowly dissolved away," he said.

Kevin Curran, the executive producer of the documentary, emphasized the significance of Binnie’s account given his impressive credentials. A Princeton-educated aeronautical engineer and Harvard Book Prize winner, Binnie was also the first to break the sound barrier in a privately-funded vehicle. His accomplishments include flying 33 missions during the Gulf War and winning the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 for reaching space twice in two weeks with SpaceShipOne.

Binnie shared his experience with family shortly after it happened but only went public with the story after filming the documentary. Tragically, he passed away on September 15, 2022, at the age of 69.

The encounter occurred six days after the crash of SpaceShipOne, during which Binnie reached Mach 1.2 and flipped the plane upside down for a view of Earth. After shutting off the engines at 70,000 feet, he returned to the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, where he suffered a hard landing that damaged the left landing gear.

"The new reality lay in front for Brian," the documentary's pitch deck stated. "This might be the last time he ever sat in the cockpit of SpaceShipOne."

However, Binnie and his wife, Valerie, credited the unusual experience with giving him the courage to continue the commercial space flight project. "I think they were entities that we do not understand," Valerie told the documentarians. "Because there are a lot of unanswered things out there. I believe they may have been guides coming to check Brian out to see if he's ready for what is going to happen."

Ten months later, Binnie successfully piloted SpaceShipOne's second competition flight, winning the $10 million Ansari X Prize and becoming the 436th person in space. His journey took him to nearly 70 miles above sea level, where he experienced four minutes of weightlessness and set a record for suborbital winged aircraft flight that still stands today.

The 93-minute documentary, Beyond Blue Sky: The Untold Story of the First Private Astronauts, was released on Apple TV on May 5 after a five-year production process. It is expected to be available on Amazon Prime later in the year.