From Don Ecker...


Having attended the World UFO Congress in Tucson, Ar. for UFO
Magazine, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Dr. Marina
Popovich who was one of the Congress speakers. Dr. Popovich is a
Soviet citizen who was here speaking on her UFO research in the
Soviet Union. Marina Popovich, Ph.D., is a graduate of the
University of Leningrad, graduated from the Military Flight School,
is a retired Colonel from the Soviet Air Force, and set over 100
aviation records of which 90 still stand unbroken. Dr. Popovich's
former husband is General Paval Popovich, the first man to
rendezvous with another space craft in orbit during the Vostok 4
flight in August, 1962.

Interviewing Dr. Popovich in Tucson, I learned of a number of
incidents that had allegedly occurred during the 1989 Soviet Phobos
2 probe, and upon returning to LA I contacted a producer that I
know for the NBC television program "Hard Copy". We ended up doing
a segment with Marina that detailed the admittedly fantastic story
of Phobos 2, ( during a JOINT US-USSR-EUROPEAN space mission ) and
what appeared to be a huge and artificial object between Mars and
her moonlet Phobos, that may have either intentionally or
unintentionally destroyed the probe Phobos 2. I can state that
because even the mission control specialists at Glavkosmos claim
that Phobos 2 was probably hit by something ( meteors and debris
dust was ruled out according to the report in the UK publication
NATURE made by the Soviets ) which caused the probe to become a
"spinner" that later completely disappeared. The Soviets then
released a photo that Phobos 2 took of a very long "ellipse"
reflected off of Mars, but the last several photos of the "object"
were never released by the Soviets. Marina then told me that this
was a high topic of discussion between President George Bush and
Secretary General Mikhil Gorbachev at the Malta Conference. She
received the information from a source of hers in the Soviet
Politburo. Still the photo showing this object remained in "limbo"
with the Soviets refusing to release it, and NASA of course, not
mentioning any of these events.

On June 7th Marina returned to the Los Angeles area to be a
featured speaker for the World Harmony Expo in Long Beach. The Hard
Copy producer, Mr. Dean Vallas, Guy Kirkwood, a former US Air Force
fighter pilot who had a UFO experience on duty and myself, met with
Marina over drinks and discussed her last trip, ongoing events in
the USSR, and then much to the surprise of us all, produced one of
the photos from Phobos 2, showing the "object". According to her,
once back in the USSR, she contacted several friends in Glavkosmos,
and they gave her the print of this "thing". It shows an object off
of the moonlet Phobos, that is approx. 25 kilometers long, approx.
1 1/2 kilometers in dia., and is a cylindrical cigar shaped
"craft?". Not being a photo analyst, I can only give my own
impressions. However, I asked for a copy of the said photo, and
upon receiving it, I intend to hand it over to some contacts at JPL
for analysis.

My feelings on the above? There is no doubt that a large degree of
"high strangeness" is present in the above events. That of course
is my own opinion. However until such time as NASA or JPL release
the information that they may have, this will continue to be an
interesting but apocryphal series of stories. I will state that I
do feel there is a basis of fact in the above series of incidents,
and will continue to investigate via my contacts to see what
additional events can be verified.

Don Ecker


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