Gary McKinnon

Um, cuz she'd get, you know, very close up photos of all the mechanics and engineering and stuff for launches and the launch platform under the launch platform.

She said that she worked in Building 8 of Johnson Space Center, JSC.

Her colleague who worked across the corridor, and this is all something he shouldn't have done because they chatted, had lunch together or whatever.

One day he just beckoned her across the corridor and said, come and take a look at this.

This is the days of analog photography.

And so he's got, um, you know, big like contact sheets and slides and they used to be developed under red light and silver nitrate.

And he says, what do you think this is?

And there was a huge white disc on this satellite photo of the earth.

And she being a photographic expert herself said, oh, it's just a blob and the emulsion, you know, the old chemical of the sheets.

Because they sell all the imagery to like colleges, universities, you know, earth shots and magnificent scenes from space.

So yeah, his job was to block this stuff out and make sure it wouldn't get seen.

And they didn't have Photoshop then, so I'm not sure.

I think, you know, the airbrush term literally comes from a physical airbrush on the emulsion where they just blur things.

And you see lots of examples on this of like lunar photography from Clementine Mission, the Lunar Orbiter, the LRO, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

So I read this story.

Absolutely fascinating.

He was this highly qualified woman.

She'd worked for a long time, NASA, and I think the Air Force previously to that.

And, um, and did she say disc?

She said flying saucer.