According to the Alien Council in the Convoluted Universe books by Dolores Cannon, there are people or Astronauts on board the space shuttles that NASA puts in space that the American people and the world does not know about. There are Astronauts that fell out and falling in space before being picked-up by Alien spaceships. I do not know how long these Astronauts have been falling in space before being rescued by Aliens.