The astronaut said that he had seen an "extraterrestrial organic object" in the cargo compartment of the shuttle

Astronaut Leland Devon Melvin in 2009-2010 made two flights on shuttles Atlantis and spent in space for a total of 23 days.

In 2011, he retired and began working at NASA headquarters in Washington.

Recently, Melvin met in a Twitter discussion with the popular ufologist Scott Waring and the ufologist asked him two questions: "What do you think about the possibility of a reasonable alien life in our solar system?"and "Have you ever seen a UFO yourself?"

In response, Leland told that he saw something unusual during his flight on the shuttle Atlantis with colleague Randy Breznik. The shuttle was already in orbit around the Earth.

According to the astronaut, he noticed something "translucent, curved and definitely organic."

Later, when both astronauts returned to earth, Leland still questioned NASA officials that it could be and he was told that it was most likely a piece of ice that came out of the cooling device.

After his words, Twitter users began to write that such an explanation is very similar to NASA's concealment of the facts of the existence of extraterrestrial life. Leland answered that he accepted such an explanation and believes NASA, but added that "you will never know for sure what it was."

UFOlog Nigel Watson , the author of UFOs of the First World War, is sure that Melvin still saw a real alien creature.  "Fortunately, he did not approach it closely, otherwise the creature could jump on his face and we all know what would happen next ( apparently in a fantastic movie )."