Every astronaut on a lunar mission since 1969 has seen ‘flashing lights’ on approach to the Moon
Experts carried out tests to determine what the cause was
ASTRONAUTS have recalled the bizarre moment they saw flashing lights move in front of their eyes while they were on missions to the Moon.
A new documentary claims that every person that has taken a lunar mission since the first Apollo 11 Moon landings in 1969 has had a strange extra-terrestrial experience.
NASA’s Unexplained Files, which aired on the Science Channel, revealed that: “Several of the Apollo astronauts reported seeing something strange as they approached the Moon.”
US aviator and NASA astronaut Alan Bean, who was the fourth man on the moon, confessed: "I saw a flash and I thought 'did I really see a flash?"
Charles Duke, a former NASA astronaut and current Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, shared a similar experience.
He remembered: "I'm having these light flashes. I'm seeing this, like, light flashing in my eyeballs.
“I mean, it was like fireworks in your eyeballs, it was spectacular!”
Following the unexplained occurrences, scientists carried out tests in attempt to find out what was causing the flashing lights.
Defence analyst Nick Pope also gave his theory to viewers of the documentary, explaining that it’s caused by “the interaction of radiation with the brain – the optic nerve”.
There was speculation that the lights were just cosmic rays, which are created when particles travel through space at the speed of light.
To verify whether or not this was true, specialist engineers created a helmet-like black box that could detect cosmic rays.
They could then measure whether or not the extra-terrestrial sightings occurred at the same time that these cosmic lights passed.
Astronaut Charles Duke said he saw white streaks at the same time the rays were present, showing that space particles were probably the reason for the snaps of brightness seen from the space craft.