Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell returned from his mission to the moon a changed man. He has spent the last 35 years trying to use the tools of science to figure out what happened. Along the way, he says that people knowledgeable about an alleged crash of an alien spaceship in Roswell, N.M., shared the information with him.

He’s been speaking out ever since, most recently on a radio talk show that tripped off an unexpected wave of media attention. In a telephone interview with Irene Klotz, Mitchell sets the record straight — as he sees it.

Irene Klotz: Hi Dr. Mitchell

Edgar Mitchell: Just a minute … I’m sorry. My dog jumped in my lap and knocked over my coffee cup. It’s OK. Go ahead.

IK: What’s your dog’s name?

EM: Oh, that’s Cutie (Q.T.?)

IK: Cutie?

EM: Yup, I’ve got two of them and right now they’re telling me that it’s their suppertime and I must come in and fix their supper … at least that’s what they want.

IK: Well first of all thanks very much for making a little time. I wanted to ask you if there was anything about the radio interview you did that was different from what you’ve said in the past.

EM: No, there’s nothing different. Several of (the reports of the interview) that I’ve seen come around have some flaws in them. Some of the reports pushed it or spun it incorrectly. NASA had nothing to do with anything I’ve done. I wasn’t briefed by NASA. There haven’t been any sightings as a result of my flight service there, so if that part of it comes out on anything you’ve seen it is just totally wrong.

IK: Yes, I did want to clarify that.

EM: My major knowledge comes from what I call the old-timers, people who were at Roswell and subsequent who wanted to clear the things up and tell somebody credible even though they were under severe threats and things — this was back in the Roswell days. Having gone to the moon and being a local citizen out in the Roswell area some of them thought I would be a safe choice to tell their story to, which they did. Even though the government put real clamps on everybody, it got out anyhow.

Subsequent to that, I did take my story to the Pentagon — not NASA, but the Pentagon — and asked for a meeting with the Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and got it. And told them my story and what I know and eventually had that confirmed by the admiral that I spoke with, that indeed what I was saying was true.

IK: You mean what had been told to you was true?

EM: Yup, in other words. There was a UFO crash. There was an alien spacecraft. This gentleman tried his damndest to get me in and like so many others in the administration over the last 60 years, since JFK’s time, was unable to. He was told ‘Admiral, you don’t have a need to know, and therefore go get lost,’ essentially.

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