NASA astronaut Winston Scott has said he believes extraterrestrial life exists, while warning that rival nations could eventually face a military confrontation in space.
Scott, who flew aboard two space shuttle missions during the 1990s, told Jesse Watters Primetime that he was convinced humans were not the only intelligent beings in the universe.
“I do believe there is life someplace else out there in the universe. Whether or not it is visiting us here on Earth is a separate topic of discussion. I think E.T. is out there someplace,” Scott said.
He said the sheer number of planets in the universe made the existence of alien life statistically likely. With billions of worlds potentially capable of developing Earth-like conditions, Scott argued, it would be unlikely for intelligent life to have emerged only once.
“We can’t be the only one that has intelligent life,” he added.
Scott made the remarks days after the Pentagon released a new collection of declassified UFO files. The documents included accounts from witnesses who claimed to have encountered beings described as “skinwalkers,” along with reports from government agents who tracked a mysterious object over the United States.
The former astronaut also issued a stark warning about the growing space rivalry involving the US, China and Russia. Weapons have already been placed in orbit, he said, and could play a role if tensions between major powers escalate into open conflict.
“We live in a world where we have to be prepared to defend ourselves militarily. We hope we don’t see conflict and combat in space, but I would not rule it out,” Scott said.
NASA astronaut Winston Scott pictured during his space shuttle missions in the 1990s
Pentagon-released images reportedly show an alleged UFO over the western US in 2026
Scott said he hoped space exploration could become a force for international cooperation. At the same time, he acknowledged the tensions between countries that continue to collaborate on some space projects.
“Russia is our partner in terms of the International Space Station, but they are not our ally,” he told Fox News on Wednesday.
He described relations between the US and China as more heavily focused on military competition. Scott also said the US Space Force had confirmed that weapons were placed in orbit this year to counter the actions of its longstanding rival.
A military spokesperson told Our News Outlet that the US was facing growing threats from hostile satellites in Earth orbit, comparing the expanse of space just miles above the planet to a potential battlefield.
“The US has warned about Russian and Chinese weapons testing and operationalization since 2007. Due to their actions, it is no longer a question that space is a warfighting domain,” the spokesperson said.
In September, the same month that Space Force launched several top-secret payloads, the Pentagon unveiled a sweeping plan requiring military bases to remain self-sufficient for at least 90 days if the US suffered a major attack.
Veteran FBI agents have described the plan, known as FORTRESS America, as a direct response to the threat of a large-scale nuclear strike on US territory.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which the US signed and ratified, prohibits countries from placing nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit, on the moon or elsewhere in space. It does not, however, prohibit conventional weapons, signal jammers, missile interceptors or military satellites.
The Air Force said the US had deployed a space weapon into Earth orbit for the first time
Although Scott warned that space could become the next battlefield, with missile interceptors potentially striking enemy rockets from orbit, he said he remained hopeful about the future of lunar and deep-space exploration.
He strongly backed the competition between Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin to develop spacecraft capable of reaching the lunar surface by 2028.
“Competition is the American way,” Scott said.
The astronaut said the rise of private space companies had made exploration less expensive, more efficient and more productive than it was 50 years ago, when NASA was the only US organization developing spacecraft.
Despite Scott’s argument that alien life is likely to exist, the US government has maintained that no physical evidence of UFOs or extraterrestrials has ever been found on Earth.
Former military personnel, NASA astronauts and scientists have disputed that position, claiming they had first-hand encounters with alien life or recovered evidence from alleged crashes over the past 80 years.
Among the accounts cited was a report included in the Pentagon’s October 23 release. It detailed the eyewitness testimony of US Army officer Walter G. Haut, who said in a sworn statement that he saw debris and dead bodies from the infamous 1947 Roswell UFO crash.
