Posted On: September 24, 2022

NASA and the UFOs

Today we are going to talk about NASA and some of their involvements in the subject of UFOs.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, established in 1958, coordinates and directs the aeronautical and space research program in the United States. Its budget for space activities alone is larger than the general budgets of a number of the world's important countries.

Although officially a civilian agency, NASA collaborates with the CIA, Department of Defense, National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency and other agencies, and many of its personnel have high security clearances owing to the sensitive intelligence aspects of many of its programs.

Research into UFOs is one such program. On 11 May 1962 NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker admitted that it was one of his appointed tasks to detect unidentified objects during his flights in the rocket-powered X-15 aircraft, and referred to five or six cylindrical or disk-shaped objects that he had filmed during his record-breaking fifty-mile-high flight in April that year.

He also admitted that it was the second occasion on which he had filmed UFOs in flight.

"I don't feel like speculating about them," he said during a lecture at the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space Research in Seattle, Washington. "All I know is what appeared on the film which was developed after the flight."

Britain's FSR magazine cabled NASA headquarters requesting further information and copies of stills from the film taken by Walker. "Objects recently reported by NASA pilot Joe Walker have now been identified as ice flaking off the X-15 aircraft,"

NASA replied. "Analysis of additional film cameras mounted on top the X-15 led to identification of the previously unidentifiable objects. No still photos are available:"

On 17 July 1962 Major Robert White piloted an X-15 to a height of fifty-eight miles, and on his return reported having seen a strange object at the top of his climb.

"I have no idea what it could be," he said. "It was grayish in color and about thirty to forty feet away."

Then, according to Time magazine, Major White is reported to have said excitedly over his radio:

"There are things out there. There absolutely is!"

"Two years ago," a NASA scientist said in 1967, "most of us regarded UFOs as a branch of witchcraft, one of the foibles of modem so many reputable people have expressed interest in confidence to NASA, that I would not be in the least surprised to see the space agency begin work on a UFO study contract within the next twelve months."

One of those who expressed interest was Dr. Allen Hynek, who wanted NASA to use its superlative space-tracking network to monitor and document the entry of unidentified objects into the earth's atmosphere. The problem then, as now, is that UFO sightings tracked by NASA remain exempt from public disclosure since they are classified top secret. But there have been leaks.

In April 1964, two radar technicians at Cape Kennedy revealed that they had observed UFOs in pursuit of an unmanned Gemini space capsule. And in January 1961 it was reliably reported that the Cape's automatic tracking gear locked on to a mysterious object which was apparently following a Polaris missile over the South Atlantic.

A 1967 NASA Management Instruction established procedures for handling reports of sightings of objects such as "fragments or component parts of space vehicles known or alleged by an observer to have impacted upon the earth's surface as a result of safety destruct action, failure in flight, or re-entry into the earth's atmosphere," and also includes "reports of sightings of objects not related to space vehicles."

A rather euphemistic way of putting it, to be sure, but the internal instruction continues: "It is KSC [Kennedy Space Center] policy to respond to reported sightings of space vehicle fragments and unidentified flying objects as promptly as possible. Under no circumstances will the origin of the object be discussed with the observer or person making the call."

A 1978 NASA information sheet gives the Agency's official policy on the subject:

"NASA is the focal point for answering public inquiries to the White House relating to UFOs. NASA is not engaged in a research program involving these phenomena, nor is any other government agency. Reports of unidentified objects entering United States air space are of interest to the military as a regular part of defense surveillance. Beyond that, the U.S. Air Force no longer investigates reports of UFO sightings."

In 1978 CAUS (Citizens Against UFO Secrecy) filed a request for information relating to a NASA report entitled UFO Study Considerations, which had previously been prepared in association with the CIA. In his response. Miles Waggoner of NASA's Public Information Services Branch denied this. "There were no formal meetings or any correspondence with the CIA," he stated.

Following another inquiry by CAUS, NASA's Associate Administrator for External Relations, Kenneth Chapman, explained that the NASA report had been prepared solely by NASA employees but that the CIA had been consulted by telephone to determine "whether they were aware of any tangible or physical UFO evidence that could be analyzed; the CIA responded that they were aware of no such evidence, either classified or unclassified."

NASA's statement in the 1978 information sheet that it was not engaged in a research program involving UFOs, "nor is any other government agency," is demonstrably false, as is its denial of Air Force investigations.

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988.

My Take: NASA is going to have some of the best stuff. Their people would have gotten to see UFOS firsthand what everyone else just dreams about. I am sure the UFOs where very interested in what we were doing in space

Posted On: September 24, 2022

NASA and the UFOs

Today we are going to talk about NASA and some of their involvements in the subject of UFOs.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, established in 1958, coordinates and directs the aeronautical and space research program in the United States. Its budget for space activities alone is larger than the general budgets of a number of the world's important countries.

Although officially a civilian agency, NASA collaborates with the CIA, Department of Defense, National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency and other agencies, and many of its personnel have high security clearances owing to the sensitive intelligence aspects of many of its programs.

Research into UFOs is one such program. On 11 May 1962 NASA pilot Joseph A. Walker admitted that it was one of his appointed tasks to detect unidentified objects during his flights in the rocket-powered X-15 aircraft, and referred to five or six cylindrical or disk-shaped objects that he had filmed during his record-breaking fifty-mile-high flight in April that year.

He also admitted that it was the second occasion on which he had filmed UFOs in flight.

"I don't feel like speculating about them," he said during a lecture at the Second National Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Space Research in Seattle, Washington. "All I know is what appeared on the film which was developed after the flight."

Britain's FSR magazine cabled NASA headquarters requesting further information and copies of stills from the film taken by Walker. "Objects recently reported by NASA pilot Joe Walker have now been identified as ice flaking off the X-15 aircraft,"

NASA replied. "Analysis of additional film cameras mounted on top the X-15 led to identification of the previously unidentifiable objects. No still photos are available:"

On 17 July 1962 Major Robert White piloted an X-15 to a height of fifty-eight miles, and on his return reported having seen a strange object at the top of his climb.

"I have no idea what it could be," he said. "It was grayish in color and about thirty to forty feet away."

Then, according to Time magazine, Major White is reported to have said excitedly over his radio:

"There are things out there. There absolutely is!"

"Two years ago," a NASA scientist said in 1967, "most of us regarded UFOs as a branch of witchcraft, one of the foibles of modem so many reputable people have expressed interest in confidence to NASA, that I would not be in the least surprised to see the space agency begin work on a UFO study contract within the next twelve months."

One of those who expressed interest was Dr. Allen Hynek, who wanted NASA to use its superlative space-tracking network to monitor and document the entry of unidentified objects into the earth's atmosphere. The problem then, as now, is that UFO sightings tracked by NASA remain exempt from public disclosure since they are classified top secret. But there have been leaks.

In April 1964, two radar technicians at Cape Kennedy revealed that they had observed UFOs in pursuit of an unmanned Gemini space capsule. And in January 1961 it was reliably reported that the Cape's automatic tracking gear locked on to a mysterious object which was apparently following a Polaris missile over the South Atlantic.

A 1967 NASA Management Instruction established procedures for handling reports of sightings of objects such as "fragments or component parts of space vehicles known or alleged by an observer to have impacted upon the earth's surface as a result of safety destruct action, failure in flight, or re-entry into the earth's atmosphere," and also includes "reports of sightings of objects not related to space vehicles."

A rather euphemistic way of putting it, to be sure, but the internal instruction continues: "It is KSC [Kennedy Space Center] policy to respond to reported sightings of space vehicle fragments and unidentified flying objects as promptly as possible. Under no circumstances will the origin of the object be discussed with the observer or person making the call."

A 1978 NASA information sheet gives the Agency's official policy on the subject:

"NASA is the focal point for answering public inquiries to the White House relating to UFOs. NASA is not engaged in a research program involving these phenomena, nor is any other government agency. Reports of unidentified objects entering United States air space are of interest to the military as a regular part of defense surveillance. Beyond that, the U.S. Air Force no longer investigates reports of UFO sightings."

In 1978 CAUS (Citizens Against UFO Secrecy) filed a request for information relating to a NASA report entitled UFO Study Considerations, which had previously been prepared in association with the CIA. In his response. Miles Waggoner of NASA's Public Information Services Branch denied this. "There were no formal meetings or any correspondence with the CIA," he stated.

Following another inquiry by CAUS, NASA's Associate Administrator for External Relations, Kenneth Chapman, explained that the NASA report had been prepared solely by NASA employees but that the CIA had been consulted by telephone to determine "whether they were aware of any tangible or physical UFO evidence that could be analyzed; the CIA responded that they were aware of no such evidence, either classified or unclassified."

NASA's statement in the 1978 information sheet that it was not engaged in a research program involving UFOs, "nor is any other government agency," is demonstrably false, as is its denial of Air Force investigations.

Resources: Above Top Secret, Timothy Good, 1988.

My Take: NASA is going to have some of the best stuff. Their people would have gotten to see UFOS firsthand what everyone else just dreams about. I am sure the UFOs where very interested in what we were doing in space