The smile of space angels revisited: a phenomenon observed by astronauts at the Salyut-7 station and the Solaris effect

The Soviet station Salyut 7 entered orbit on April 19, 1982. The latest and more modified of the Salyut series, it continued the work of its predecessors: scientific, technological, biological and medical research was carried out on it. According to the engineers’ plans, it was supposed to last five years. But two years later, Salyut-7 was caught in a meteor shower and began to leave Earth’s orbit.

In 1985, contact with it was interrupted. Attempts were made to save the “dead” station – to restore its power supply and connect it to solar panels. But in 1986, the last expedition took place for Soyuz-7.

Then the crew of Soviet astronauts flew from one station to another for the first time in the world. They took samples, mothballed Salyut 7 and returned to the Mir station. Due to high solar activity in 1990, the orbital complex began to decline uncontrollably. In February 1991, it entered the atmosphere, most of its unburned parts fell into the waters of the Atlantic Ocean.

Classified phenomenon

Salyut-7 had become a more modernized version of all previous stations of the Salyut family. The Tavria biotechnological installation, the Crystal installation with Magam-F and Korund electric furnaces, the RT-4M X-ray telescope, and the French Pyramig photographic equipment, which studies extraterrestrial space, were added to the already existing scientific equipment. 

Salyut-7 was supposed to operate for five years and be guaranteed to complete five expeditions. By the way, the station existed much longer, until 1991. It made six main expeditions and five visiting expeditions.

During the operation of Soyuz-7, six main expeditions and five visiting expeditions were carried out. One of the missions shocked the astronauts so much that they could not describe what they encountered. They had to remain silent about this “phenomenon,” although US astronauts also saw it. 

In February 1984, the Soyuz-10 spacecraft docked at the Salyut-7 orbital station. There were six people on board: mission director Leonid Kizim, researcher Oleg Atkov, flight engineer Vladimir Solovyov, as well as astronauts Vladimir Dzhanibekov, Igor Volkov and Svetlana Savitskaya. This crew not only performed six spacewalks during one flight for the first time and set a flight record of 237 days, they also witnessed an amazing event that was immediately classified.

On the 155th day of the flight, Leonid Kizim sent a message to Earth that became the most mysterious in the history of space exploration. He notified the control center that he saw a vague orange cloud on his way. When the station entered it, a fiery glow seeped inside and, surrounding the crew, blinded them for a moment. 

When their vision returned to them, they saw on the other side of the porthole 7 unknown creatures approximately 100 feet tall, smiling, flying in space not far from the station. They resembled people, but they were huge, had huge wings on their backs and a shining halo around their heads. The creatures looked the way angels are usually described.

Smile of angels

Smiles were imprinted on their shining faces, as if permeated with delight and joy. The astronauts could not find words to describe what they saw and everyone agreed that a human being cannot express such spirituality in a simple lip movement. 

After a short meeting, the team transmitted a report of the “miracle” incident to planet Earth. We can assume what was happening at the Control Center at that time. All six astronauts were immediately subjected to various mental and medical tests, which showed that there were no defects. 

The report was classified as secret and the astronauts were strictly ordered to remain silent about what happened, forbidden to undermine the authority of the Soviet astronautics with religious fairy tales. And they were silent. Only each other knew about the mysterious “guests” that sometimes appeared during flights in space.

Test astronaut Sergei Krichevsky was the first to openly speak about these unusual paradoxes in orbit in 1995 at a lecture at the Novosibirsk Interstate Institute of Space Anthropoecology. “Astronauts convey information about such visions only to each other, sharing information with those who will soon fly,” he said in his own astonishing report.

“There, in orbit, sometimes you can’t figure out where the dream is and where the reality is…” pilot-astronaut Alexander Serebrov also admitted.

Despite any scientific skepticism, Soviet astronauts more than once recalled inexplicable phenomena of which they became eyewitnesses or participants. So, for example, Vladislav Volkov heard the barking of Laika, who died in orbit, and the voices and crying of a child. 

Georgy Grechko felt the persistent pressure of irrational anxiety when he flew over Cape Horn, which is known for a large number of shipwrecks. Yuri Gagarin caught sounds similar to electronic music. 

“Transformations”

“What’s going on? A person suddenly undergoes one or several transformations, unexpectedly turning into some kind of supernatural beast, practically feeling himself in its skin. Reincarnations can continue indefinitely. Feeling his large blue claws and scales with every nerve, seeing even the membranes between his fingers, the former astronaut “wanders” around the unknown planet, “talks” with its other inhabitants.

Later, he becomes something else – imagine, he moves into the body of a creature from another era, or another galaxy, immediately learning a new language, habits and customs. A world completely unknown to him, he accepts it as something completely ordinary. No space technology with such speed and ease is capable of transporting a person in space and time. All the astronauts who have been in a similar state, simultaneously identify some powerful flow of information coming from outside,” test astronaut Sergei Krichevsky.

Sergei Krichevsky called these phenomena “Solaris effects.”

Solaris effect

These unusual phenomena have become a mystery to psychologists who are related to space. Some started talking about the fact that the matter is a change in the state of consciousness under the influence of cosmic radiation and an ever-changing magnetic field.” 

Almost all astronauts experience the “Solaris effects”. Scientists are still trying to give rational justification for this. Some things can be attributed to pressure or hallucinations. Experts explained the flashes in the eyes described in the memoirs of astronaut Valentin Lebedev by saying that high-energy cosmic particles flew through the eyeball. 

The rest are about the fact that we, humans, don’t know much at all about the universe, which is intelligent in itself and thus comes into contact. Still others have put forward a version about an extraterrestrial civilization that has managed to master space.

Whatever the reasons for the mysterious phenomena, one thing remains certain – space is fraught with a huge number of secrets that are still inaccessible to human understanding.

“Our homeland is somewhere not on Earth”

“I think that we are definitely not alone in the universe, someone is around us. That’s for sure. It’s just that we haven’t lived to the point where it makes sense to interact with us somehow, our minds are not ready for this. I am fully convinced that the vastness of space is not dead. And our Earth is really small. From time to time I had thoughts that we were settled on planet Earth, that our homeland was not on our planet in some places. There is a theory of “Seeding”: it seems that we were brought and sown in some way. After all, at the moment, more than a thousand planets similar to Earth have already been discovered. Naturally, there is intelligent life, I am completely sure that it exists in some places,” astronaut Vladimir Solovyov said.