Astronauts aboard the ISS were left in shock after spotting what appeared to be a long-lost SR-71 Blackbird gliding near the edge of space — a sight that has reignited Cold War secrets, sparked theories of a secret hypersonic program, and left NASA struggling for answers.

It began as an ordinary night aboard the International Space Station.

On February 17, 2025, at approximately 03:40 UTC, NASA’s Expedition 72 crew was conducting a standard observation pass over the North Pacific when something impossible appeared on their monitoring screens — a long, dark object gliding just below the thin blue edge of Earth’s atmosphere.

At first, flight engineer Dr.Marissa Kline thought it was space debris — a common sight in low orbit.

“It was moving too smooth, too deliberate,” she later recalled in a debriefing.

“No tumbling, no flashing panels.

Just… silent motion.”

When Commander Ethan Reyes used the station’s high-resolution optical scope to zoom in, the image became clearer — and what they saw defied every rule of physics.

On the fuselage, faint but unmistakable, were the letters: U. S.

Air Force SR-71.

The Blackbird.

A Cold War-era spy plane that last flew in 1999.

A machine that, while legendary for reaching speeds above Mach 3 and altitudes over 85,000 feet, had never — at least officially — crossed into space.

“Are you seeing this?” Reyes radioed to Mission Control in Houston.

The reply came back after a long pause: “Copy, ISS.

Confirm visual.

Stand by for data analysis.”

For nearly four minutes, the unidentified object kept pace with the station’s orbit — roughly 17,000 miles per hour — before fading beneath the curvature of the Earth and disappearing from radar entirely.

What was it doing there?

The U.S.Air Force has long denied that any operational Blackbirds remain in flight.

The surviving aircraft are museum pieces, carefully preserved in places like the Smithsonian and the Edwards Air Force Base museum in California.

Yet, according to internal NASA telemetry later reviewed by Aviation Week, the object’s radar signature matched the SR-71’s dimensions almost perfectly — 107 feet in length, with its iconic twin-engine nacelles visible in thermal imaging.

Some experts believe what the astronauts saw was not an original Blackbird at all — but a classified successor project.

Since the early 2010s, rumors have circulated about the so-called “SR-72,” a hypersonic reconnaissance vehicle being developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division.

Though the company has never confirmed the existence of such a craft, defense insiders have speculated that a test flight could have occurred in near-space conditions.

A retired Air Force colonel, who served with the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, offered a cryptic comment when asked about the sighting: “Let’s just say the Blackbird’s legacy didn’t end in the ‘90s.

Some birds never stop flying — they just fly higher.”

NASA has not released the full video recording from the ISS observation cameras, citing ongoing analysis.

However, a brief 9-second clip leaked online in late March shows a dark, delta-shaped object passing under the station, illuminated by sunlight reflecting off the atmosphere.

The footage has since been viewed over 40 million times on X (formerly Twitter), sparking debates among aerospace experts and conspiracy theorists alike.

Skeptics argue the astronauts might have witnessed an optical illusion — possibly a classified upper-atmospheric drone, or even the X-37B, the Air Force’s autonomous spaceplane.

Others believe it was a mirage effect, caused by reflections from ice crystals or orbital debris.

Yet, the SR-71 markings described by the crew remain unexplained.

One engineer from Lockheed’s retired Skunk Works team, speaking under anonymity, offered a chilling perspective: “The SR-71 could hit 85,000 feet and nearly kiss space.

We designed her for limits no one wanted to admit existed.

If she ever went higher, it wouldn’t surprise me — we just weren’t allowed to say so.”

As of now, NASA’s official report simply lists the event as an “anomalous visual contact below orbital altitude. ”

But among the ISS crew, the moment has become legend.

Commander Reyes, when later asked if he believed it was really a Blackbird, smiled faintly before replying:

“All I know is, we saw something built by human hands… flying where no plane was meant to be.”

Whatever the truth, the ghost of the Blackbird — the fastest jet ever built — seems to have returned, gliding silently above a world that once believed it had been grounded forever.