UFO Researcher Claims a 3.4-Mile-Long Moon Anomaly Is Just a 'Small Shuttle Craft' for the Aliens

A UFO researcher claims a 3.4-mile-long moon anomaly captured in a 1967 NASA photograph is an alien 'small shuttle craft' hovering above the lunar surface. On August 21, 2026, Scott Waring, who runs UFO Sightings Daily, stated that the elongated smudge near Theophilus crater is '100 percent proof' that aliens were watching humans before the first Moon landing.

The claim emerged after the black-and-white image, taken by NASA's Lunar Orbiter 3 on February 23, 1967, resurfaced online. The frame was part of NASA's mapping work ahead of the Apollo landings and shows a stark stretch of terrain dominated by Theophilus, a large impact crater about 100–110 kilometers (62–68 miles) across.

How a 1967 NASA Photo Became a 3.4-Mile UFO Claim

Using a visual comparison, Waring estimates that the feature is roughly one-twentieth the crater's diameter, giving him an estimated length of about 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles). 'That's huge to us humans, but to aliens, it's considered a small shuttle craft,' he writes on his blog, interpreting the picture as evidence of quiet surveillance before humans first landed on the moon.

However, no independent evidence presented with the claim establishes that the feature is a spacecraft or confirms Waring's estimated dimensions. NASA has said it has not found credible evidence of extraterrestrial life. The elongated mark has not been classified by NASA as a craft, meaning the '100 percent proof' line is Waring's conclusion, not a finding backed by peer review or agency analysis.

Apollo Transcripts and the U.S. Department of War Archive

On August 7, 2026, the U.S. Department of War released its fifth batch of declassified UAP files under the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). This archive update added dozens of documents, videos, and images from multiple government agencies to the public record.

Among the materials are transcripts tied to the Apollo missions. During Apollo 17 in 1972, astronaut Gene Cernan reported a bright object 'way out in the distance' that was 'obviously rotating because it's flashing,' though the crew discussed mundane explanations such as S-IVB material or SLA panels.

Ronald Evans noted 'a few very bright particles or fragments,' while Harrison Schmitt remarked there was a 'whole bunch of big ones on my window... It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron's window.' Schmitt also described jagged, angular fragments and mentioned trying to take pictures of them.

Records from Apollo 12 also contain astronaut observations of unexplained lights and particles near the spacecraft.

An eyebrow-raising snippet comes from a 55-minute Apollo 16 scientific debriefing, released on June 12 in PURSUE Release 03. During a technical discussion of lunar data, one participant mentions an anomaly and adds, 'Could be an alien starbase or something, I don't know.' The audio context suggests this was an offhand speculative remark rather than an official assessment.

The existence of the 1967 photograph and the subsequent publication of Waring's interpretation can be independently established, but his identification of the feature as an alien spacecraft has not been independently verified. Readers should therefore treat the extraterrestrial interpretation as speculation.

Nothing is confirmed yet so everything should be taken with a grain of salt. IBTimes UK cannot independently verify Waring's claims about the 1967 image, so take everything lightly.