Philip J. Klass (1919–2005)

A tough start, with the author spending most of the time on esoteric minutiae that can make the head hurt. But if you stick it out, it does get better. He moves past the obfuscatory language into the plain language that skepticism needs to be more open to adopting if they want anyone to listen to them. The book is a bit old, so some of the things he talks about seem dated, such as his fondness for polygraph tests, which are no longer accepted as valid by the scientific community (though still loved by police departments and lawyers, maybe because they often do muddy the waters). Many of these cases were unfamiliar to me, and I was pleased to see the discussion of the Travis Walton case, with which I was familiar, but had not had anything like the detailed discussion of this alleged abduction case that I found in this source. Recommended reading for anyone with a mind that hasn't committed themselves to entrenched belief in UFOs; those who have will not change, a phenomenon he documents and discusses. Just don't expect it to be light weekend reading.… (more)

The author, Philip Klass, was the senior editor of Aviation Week and Space Technology and this book, published in 1971, is one of the earliest histories/discussions of satellite photoreconnaissance. In the opening chapters of the book the author discusses the nuclear arms race, the U.S. focus on bombers, its lukewarm interest in missiles, the Russian boast of having perfected an ICBM, the shock of the Russian launch of 4 October 1957, and the sudden U.S. need for hard intelligence concerning Russian missile capabilities and counts.

Klass gives an outline of the U-2 efforts and their end with the Powers shoot down on 1 May 1960. He then segues into a discussion of the post 4 October 1957 missile efforts in the U.S. and the focus on closing the perceived “missile gap” which drove much of the late 1950’s/early 1960’s U.S. intelligence gathering efforts and led directly to an interest in developing reconnaissance satellites.

The remainder of the book is a detailed history of the development and deployment of the first, second, and third generation reconnaissance satellites. The chapter headings amount to a topic sentence outline of his presentation:

The Promise and Problems of Spaceborne Reconnaissance
Year of Frustration, Moment of Victory
The Telltale Satellite Photos (These first satellites used photographic film and periodically shot recoverable film capsules back into the Earth’s atmosphere where they deployed parachutes and were recovered in mid-air.)
The Missile Gap Turns on the USSR
The Soviet Reaction
Second Generation U.S, Reconnaissance Satellites
More Versatile Sensors for Spaceborne Reconnaissance (a discussion of thermal imaging)
Soviet Reconnaissance Satellites
Third-Generation U.S, Reconnaissance Satellites
Satellites for Early Warning
Nuclear Detection and Ferret Satellites
Firm Numbers Replace “Intelligence Estimates” (a discussion of how real pictures changed the nature of U.S. intelligence)
The Inherent Limitations of Spaceborne Reconnaissance
Fateful Decision, “Gilpatric’s Principle” and the Future (a discussion of the open skies issue and the consequences of trying to close them).

Even though the book was published in 1971 when photographic film was the currency for image acquisition and the world of digital images was in the future (Kodak’s researchers first demonstrated the technololgy in 1975) it is still a good read and the geopolitical issues it discusses are still a part of the political landscape. I think the book is an excellent history of the early efforts of satellite reconnaissance and the results of these efforts.… (more)

This critical exploration of the UFO phenomenon was written nearly 40 years ago; sadly, it reads like it could have been written yesterday (with the notable exception of assuming a teenager must be from a wealthy family if he had his own phone number). This is a good example of the more things change, the more they stay the same. In spite of accessible, thoroughly researched books like this one, the hype and pseudoscience surrounding objects in the sky remains as strong as ever, maybe stronger. The myriad of ways in which our brains fool us into thinking we're seeing something we're not are even better understood than they were at that time, and yet we still refuse to believe that we didn't really see what we thought we did, or that our amazing experience can be explained by Venus or a meteor or even a swarm of fireflies. The mundane is elevated to the unusual,. and the believer clings with tenacity. All the ways in which intelligent, thinking people, even people skilled in the ways of aeronautics and well aware of what the moon and Venus really look like, can be fooled by their own brain are discussed and dissected here. The author does not sneer or belittle the individuals who report UFOs, and is even able to give a little chuckle of pleasure when the National Enquirer pays out on a UFO he has demonstrated convincingly to be a hoax, because they wanted to believe. All in all, it gives a lot of information to those of us who teach in the sciences, and are frequently confronted with students who say "Well, science can't explain that!" This book should be a staple of a skeptic's library, in spite of its age, because it does such a good job of explaining the how of illusions, not just the illusions themselves.… (more)