The vagueness blurs the competency of his statements..
I don’t find this overly vague:
During this lengthy flight a very strange event occurred that even had crewman Dr. Story Musgrave unable to explain what he observed from the shuttle windows.
A large disc shaped object appeared below the Columbia. The shuttle was approximately, 190 Nautical miles high.
The disc was first observed to miraculously appear from out of nowhere, flying through the clouds below and progressing from right to left as the astronauts stared in utter amazement. The outer rim of the craft appeared to be rotating counter-clockwise. It was very large (compared to common space junk and breakaway ice), approximately 50 to 150 feet in diameter.
I think the other was for public consumption . . . moderating the trouble he’d be in otherwise.