The 'Angels' of Salyut 7
Western tabloids reported that Soviet cosmonauts had seen seven giant winged figures glowing outside their space station.
What was reported
In the mid-1980s, newspapers in the West began telling a remarkable story from the Soviet space station Salyut 7. During a long mission in 1984, the cosmonauts were said to have seen a brilliant orange glow outside, and within it seven huge figures with wings and faces, flying alongside the station for several minutes.
Days later, the story went, a second group of cosmonauts saw them too. The tale has been retold for decades as the 'space angels'.
Explanations offered
There is no record of it in Soviet or Russian accounts of the mission, and the cosmonauts named in some versions never confirmed it. The story seems to have started in tabloid newspapers and spread by being copied. Some suggest a hallucination during a long, tiring mission, but most researchers treat it as invented.
- When
- Said to be July 1984
- Where
- In orbit, aboard the Salyut 7 space station
- Witnesses
- Cosmonauts, according to later newspaper stories
- Status
- Unverified
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.