Topic
Official programs, reports, laws and hearings, from Project Blue Book to AARO and the National Archives. 366 events, newest first.
Government21 Feb 1974
Asked about UFOs by journalist Jean-Claude Bourret on France Inter, Minister of the Armed Forces Robert Galley said something remained unexplained, urged an open mind toward witnesses, and noted that his ministry had collected reports since 1954. The press called it a first for a sitting minister.
Photo: Nikoze, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government1974
Lt. Col. Hector Quintanilla Jr., a former chief of Project Blue Book, wrote a book proposal titled 'UFOs: An Air Force Dilemma', dated 1974. A scan of the typescript, described as his proposal for a book, is publicly available online.
Photo: U.S. Air Force, Public domain
Government2 Mar 1972
NASA's Pioneer 10 launched carrying an aluminum plaque showing a man and a woman, the solar system and the Sun's position relative to 14 pulsars, so that any intelligent finder could tell where and when the craft came from.
Photo: Designed by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake . Artwork prepared by Linda Salzman Sagan . Photograph..., Public domain
GovernmentSep 1971
The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the USSR Academy of Sciences jointly held a symposium on communicating with extraterrestrial civilizations at Byurakan Observatory in Soviet Armenia. Carl Sagan, Frank Drake and Francis Crick took part; Sagan edited the 1973 proceedings.
Photo: Rita Willaert, CC BY 2.0
Government13 Jun 1971
University of Arizona atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald, who had spent his last years analyzing UFO reports as a scientific problem, died on June 13, 1971. His American Meteorological Society obituary said the work brought him into conflict with certain scientists and he found few allies.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Government1971
A NASA-sponsored team led by Bernard Oliver, with John Billingham as co-chair, spent ten weeks in summer 1971 designing a large radio array to detect signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. The resulting Project Cyclops report weighed costs, search strategy and signal processing.
Government17 Dec 1969
Air Force Secretary Robert Seamans Jr. announced the end of Project Blue Book, citing the Condon study and its review by the National Academy of Sciences. The Air Force said no case it had studied showed a threat to national security or evidence of extraterrestrial vehicles.
Photo: United States Air Force Archive, CC BY-SA 4.0
Government20 Oct 1969
Brig. Gen. C. H. Bolender, Air Force deputy director of development, recommended ending Project Blue Book. It noted that UFO reports that could affect national security went through standard military channels and were not part of the Blue Book system. Researchers disagree on what that implies.
GovernmentJul 1969
Lynn E. Catoe of the Library of Congress compiled 'UFOs and Related Subjects: An Annotated Bibliography', listing more than 1,600 items, at the request of the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to support the University of Colorado UFO study.
Photo: Carol M. Highsmith, Public domain
Government1969
An Air Force-funded University of Colorado study led by physicist Edward Condon was made public. It concluded that further UFO study was unlikely to advance science, and the Air Force later cited it when closing Project Blue Book.
Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Public domain
GovernmentJan 1969
An Air Force-requested National Academy of Sciences panel chaired by Gerald Clemence reviewed the University of Colorado UFO study and judged its scope and methods sound, agreeing that further UFO study deserved no high priority. The Air Force cited this review when it closed Project Blue Book.
Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0
GovernmentJan 1969
A chapter of the Air Force-funded Condon report, by astronomer Franklin Roach, reviewed what Mercury and Gemini crews saw in orbit. It found most sightings explainable but judged three unexplained: two by James McDivitt on Gemini 4 and one by Frank Borman on Gemini 7.
Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Public domain
GovernmentJan 1969
The Air Force-funded Condon Report included the 1956 Lakenheath-Bentwaters radar-visual case as its Case 2. The study said it learned of the case in winter 1968 from an unsolicited letter by the retired USAF watch supervisor on duty that night, and obtained the Blue Book file afterward.
Photo: Chris, CC BY-SA 2.0
Government27 Nov 1968
An internal RAND Corporation paper by George Kocher, marked for RAND use only, reviewed UFO reports and proposed a central report-receiving agency, a network of scientists, and a fresh look at existing sensor records. RAND said its views were tentative.
Photo: Cbl62, CC BY-SA 3.0
Government29 Jul 1968
The House Committee on Science and Astronautics held a one-day symposium on UFOs chaired by Rep. J. Edward Roush. Six scientists, including J. Allen Hynek, James McDonald and Carl Sagan, presented views, and further papers were added to the printed record.
Photo: US Congress, Public domain
Government12 Mar 1968
Atmospheric physicist James McDonald told a Canadian Aeronautics and Space Institute symposium that UFOs were a serious scientific problem, criticized Project Blue Book as inadequate, and called for well-funded international research.
Photo: United States Government, Public domain
Government29 Feb 1968
Pravda ran 'What? Flying Saucers Again?' by astronomer Ye. Mustel and two other senior Soviet scientists, saying UFO reports had natural explanations and no facts supported their reality. U.S. government translators and the Condon report recorded it.
Government8 Feb 1968
Edward Condon dismissed staff scientists David Saunders and Norman Levine from the Air Force-funded University of Colorado UFO study after a 1966 memo by coordinator Robert Low reached physicist James McDonald. Look magazine's May 1968 account made the dispute public.
Photo: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Public domain
Government1968
Canada's National Research Council began collecting UFO sighting reports in 1968, taking the job from the Department of National Defence, which handed over reports dating from 1965. The NRC kept collecting until August 1995; the records are now at Library and Archives Canada.
Photo: Hayden Soloviev, CC BY 4.0
Government1968
A draft paper titled 'UFO Hypothesis and Survival Questions', from National Security Agency files, was released by the NSA in 2021 and is now in the National Archives UAP Records Collection. Its title frames UFOs as a question bearing on human survival.
Photo: National Security Agency, Public domain
