James Edward Oberg (born November 7, 1944) is an American space journalist and historian, regarded as an expert on the Russian and Chinese space programs. He had a 22-year career as a space engineer in NASA specializing in orbital rendezvous. Oberg is an author of ten books and more than a thousand articles on space flight. He has provided multiple explanations of UFO phenomena for media outlets. He is also a consultant in spaceflight operations and safety.
Early life and education
James Oberg was born in New York City on November 7, 1944.
He received a B.A. in Mathematics from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1966, a M.S. in applied mathematics (astrodynamics) from Northwestern University in 1969 (where he was also a NASA Trainee these had often been covered up or downplayed, and with the advent of the ISS and the Shuttle–Mir programs, NASA was keen to study them as much as possible. He privately published several books on the Soviet (and later Russian) programs, and became one of the few Western specialists on Russian space history.
He has often been called to testify before the US Congress on the Russian space program.
In 1997 he voluntarily resigned from NASA and started a full-time free-lance career. Currently he works as a consultant in spaceflight operations and safety and as a space journalist. often in an on-air role. He is a Fellow of the skeptical organization CSICOP HBO has optioned Red Star in Orbit for a future production. Also in 1991, Oberg launched a battle for official recognition of Robert Henry Lawrence, Jr. (1935–1967) as a United States astronaut;
In 1999, Oberg wrote Space Power Theory, sponsored by United States military as a part of an official campaign in changing perceptions of space warfare, specifically deployment and use of weapons in outer space, and its political implications.
He also wrote encyclopedia articles on space exploration in the World Book Encyclopedia, Britannica yearbook, Grolier and Academic American Encyclopedia.
Oberg writes that Moon landing conspiracy theories are fueled by resentment of American culture by some countries. He gives the example of Cuba, where he claims many school teachers say the landing was a fraud. But besides this, the new wave of conspiracy theorists appear to use alternative publication methods to publicize their claims.
Oberg says that belief in the conspiracy is not the fault of the hoaxists, but rather of educators and people (including NASA) who should provide information to the public. to observe the launching of the Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 satellite and determine whether it is a military launch. Together with a team of journalists he inspected the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, the Unha rocket and the satellite. According to Oberg, North Korea "showed everything but the important things" and did not manage to demonstrate peaceful intent.
UFO investigation
James Oberg often writes about alleged UFO sightings, giving scientific explanations to seemingly extraterrestrial phenomena, or otherwise debunking them as hoaxes.
Oberg categorized UFO sightings, excluding those identified as hoaxes, into one of three groups:
- Super-High Plumes – rocket or missile plumes, especially lit by the Sun on a dark sky;
- Space "Dandruff" – ice flakes, fragments of insulation, etc. flying alongside a space vehicle, especially seen by backward-facing cameras;
- Twilight Shadowing – objects that move from shadow into sunlight in space appear as if coming from behind the clouds or from beyond the edge of the Earth.
List of UFO explanations
{|class=wikitable
!Date!!Phenomenon!!Explanation
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|John Glenn in the Mercury capsule saw three objects following and then overtaking the capsule
|Small space debris – "snowflakes"
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|Scott Carpenter in Mercury-Atlas 7 photographs "a saucer"
|Tracking balloon ejected from the capsule
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|John Young and Michael Collins on Gemini 10 photographed a large cylindrical object accompanied by two smaller
|Fabrication – no photos were taken, astronauts reported bright fragments near their spacecraft, probably pieces of the booster of some other satellite
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|Apollo 11 UFO incidents
|Complete fabrication of photos and transcripts; all data available to the public
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|Pete Conrad, Alan Bean and Richard Gordon on Apollo 12 report a UFO preceding them on the path to the Moon
|Misunderstood the meaning of conversation with ground control; reflection of the Moon
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|UFO observed over the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile
|Kosmos 1164 launch from Plesetsk Cosmodrome
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|UFO over Russia and then South America
|Kosmos 1188 satellite launch
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|Phobos 2 spacecraft photographs mysterious structures on the surface of Mars
|Shadow of Phobos moon elongated due to slow acquisition of the image by scanning radiometer
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|UFO observed by airline crews
|Re-entry of the Proton-K rocket carrying Gorizont 33 satellite across France and Germany
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|STS-48: several objects appearing
|Ice particles hit by a thruster plume
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|UFO observed by airline crews
|Launch of Progress M-21 spacecraft
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|STS-88 "Black Knight" or "Phantom Satellite"
|Insulation blanket dropped by astronauts
|}
Russian pistol aboard ISS
thumb|Triple-barreled [[TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol in Saint-Petersburg Artillery museum]]
James Oberg wrote several articles as a publicity campaign to remove guns from the ISS. The TP-82 Cosmonaut survival pistol was stowed in the Soyuz emergency landing survival kit and was added there for hunting and self-defense after landing in inhospitable environment. It had three barrels and a folding stock that doubled as a shovel and contained a machete. The gun was only carried by Russian members of the ISS. Oberg suggested that it might be an invitation to a future disaster and proposed it to be put in a compartment accessible only from outside, after landing.
In 2014 Oberg asked Samantha Cristoforetti, an Italian ISS astronaut, about the pistol and she admitted the gun is removed from the list, or more precisely, it is still on the official list of kit contents, but the committee meets before every mission to review the list and vote to remove the pistol for the specific flight.
Private life
Oberg has been married since 1969 and lives with his wife Alcestis in Dickinson, Texas. He has two grown sons (born 1977 and 1984).
He has a conversant knowledge of Russian, French and Latin, and has some familiarity with German, Swedish, Spanish, Kazakh and Japanese.
- Fellow of the skeptical organization the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
- The Mars Conquest
- Red Stars in Orbit