NASA Officials Say There Is An Easy Explanation For What Leland Melvin Saw

During a mission on space shuttle Atlantis, astronaut Leland Melvin saw something he described as "curved" and "organic looking" floating near the spacecraft outside the payload bay. He revealed the sighting in a Twitter exchange with UFO Sightings Daily August 4th.

Responding to a question about whether he has ever seen a UFO, Melvin said "I have not seen one in space or on the ground but thought I saw something organic/alien like floating out of the payload bay. @AstroKomrade and I called the ground to ask what it could be and it was ice that had broken off of the Freon hoses. Translucent, curved, organic looking."

Melvin has degrees in both chemistry and materials Science Engineering. While some want to believe what he was was alien in nature, others on social media think he may have been having a little fun with them, according to a report from Fox News. Ligel Watson, author of 'UFOs of the First World War', said "I think Leland is winding up alien fans, and as suggested it was probably an ice formation he saw."

NASA said that the agency has not found "any signs of extraterrestrial life" despite ongoing exploration of the solar system. From studying water on Mars, probing promising 'oceans worlds,' such as Enceladus and Europa, to looking for biosignatures in the atmospheres of planets outside our solar system, NASA’s science missions are working together with a goal to find unmistakable signs of life beyond Earth," NASA spokesperson Allard Beutel told Fox News.

(Image provided by NASA)

FMI: Source report