What governments, legislatures, militaries, space agencies and courts have done about unidentified aerial phenomena, in date order, each entry resting on its document. Every nation that has acted. Newest first.100 entries since 1946.
2020s
USStatementDavid Grusch (former intelligence officer, as a witness)
On 26 July 2023 David Grusch, a former intelligence officer, gave an opening and closing statement under oath to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. Grusch told the committee that they had served 14 years as an intelligence officer, in the US Air Force and at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, and had co-led their agency's work on unidentified anomalous phenomena. Grusch stated that they had filed a PPD-19 Urgent Concern with the Intelligence Community Inspector General, and that they had been informed of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program to which they were denied access. Grusch said the testimony rested on what others had told them, and that they had suffered retaliation.
1 document·5 points
Grusch described being an intelligence officer for 14 years, a Major in the USAF and, from 2021 to 2023, a GS-15 civilian at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
Grusch stated they became a whistleblower through a PPD-19 Urgent Concern filing with the Intelligence Community Inspector General (ICIG).
Grusch said they were a member of the UAPTF from 2019 to 2021 and in 2019 were tasked to identify all SAPs/CAPs needed for its congressionally mandated mission.
Grusch claimed they were informed of "a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval and reverse engineering program" and were denied access to it.
Grusch said: "I am speaking to the facts as I have been told them," and that they had suffered retaliation.
On 1 February 1978 NASA's Public Services Branch, Office of External Relations, issued Information Sheet 78-1 to answer public inquiries about unidentified flying objects directed to the White House and NASA. The sheet stated that NASA was the focal point for such inquiries and that neither NASA nor any other government agency was engaged in UFO research. It quoted Administrator Robert A. Frosch's letter of 21 December 1977 declining to establish a research programme or symposium for lack of physical evidence, while offering to analyse bona fide samples from credible sources. It restated the Air Force conclusions on closing Project Blue Book and addressed astronaut reports and Jimmy Carter's 1969 sighting.
1 document·5 points
In July 1977 Dr. Frank Press, Director of Science and Technology Policy, wrote to NASA Administrator Dr. Robert A. Frosch suggesting NASA answer UFO mail and consider an active research programme. (p. 1)
In his letter of December 21, 1977, Frosch proposed "that NASA take no steps to establish research in this area or to convene a symposium on this subject", while standing "ready to respond to any bona fide physical evidence from credible sources." (p. 1)
The sheet restated the Air Force conclusions after Project Blue Book ended on December 17, 1969: no UFO indicated a threat to national security, and no evidence showed "unidentified" sightings were beyond present science or extraterrestrial vehicles. (p. 4)
It stated that in every instance of astronaut reports NASA satisfied itself that what was observed was nothing abnormal in the space environment. (p. 6)
It recorded that Mr. Carter told NICAP in 1973 he had seen a bright, moving object over Leary, Georgia, in October 1969, and noted a suggestion that he may have seen Venus. (p. 6)
On 28 March 1966 House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford wrote to Rep. George P. Miller, chairman of the Science and Astronautics Committee, and Rep. L. Mendel Rivers, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, proposing that one of the two committees hold hearings on unidentified flying objects. The letter cited recent sightings in Michigan and said the Air Force consultant, astrophysicist Dr. J. Allen Hynek, had dismissed them as pranks, swamp gas or the crescent moon and Venus. Ford wrote that he did not agree all the reports could be so easily explained away and asked for testimony from the executive branch and from people who claimed to have seen UFOs.
1 document·5 points
Ford proposed that either the Science and Astronautics Committee or the Armed Services Committee schedule hearings and invite testimony from the executive branch and from persons who claim to have seen UFOs.
The accompanying release said Ford described the "swamp gas" version given by J. Allen Hynek as "flippant."
The letter quoted a UPI story from Ann Arbor dated March 21, 1966, that "at least 40 persons, including 12 policemen" said they saw a strange flying object land in a swamp.
In an April 21, 1966 statement Ford said the Air Force had told him it was arranging a study of UFO sightings by scientists at a university with no close ties to the Air Force.
An Air Force release of October 7, 1966 announced the University of Colorado had been selected, with Dr. Edward U. Condon directing the scientific work under an agreement valued at approximately $300,000.
The register here is the record's: what a body did, when, with the document. The archive's stories carry the longer reads, and the Latest feed carries this week's official news before it is entered here. Entries from the United Kingdom rest on material under the Open Government Licence v3.