Organisations

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

The United States' civilian space agency, which the US government has at various points asked to serve as its point of contact on UFO inquiries, and whose handling of the Mars Observer mission and the Cydonia region of Mars has drawn sustained scrutiny from researchers.

United States federal space agency

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States’ civilian space agency. NASA has recurred across decades of UFO and UAP testimony and archival material as the agency the US government has, at various points, been asked to use as its point of contact for the subject. NASA was approached about acting as a focal point for public inquiries on UFOs, and its director agreed.¹ The choice was queried at the time: Jacques Vallée asked why NASA, rather than the US Department of Energy or the National Institutes of Health, was selected to handle UFO inquiries², and Dr. Schneider told Vallée that NASA was considered appropriate because the public associates the UFO problem with space.³ According to Raymond E. Fowler, Gordon Cooper testified before the United Nations about some of what he knew regarding UFOs, and said that if the UN sponsored an open scientific study separate from military studies, he knew of other astronauts and NASA personnel willing to testify if they could do so without penalty.⁴

In July 1977, President Jimmy Carter’s science adviser Frank Press asked NASA to consider investigating public inquiries concerning UFOs⁵, and on 1977-07-21 wrote to NASA Administrator Robert Frosch suggesting a panel be formed to determine whether there had been any significant new findings on UFOs since the Condon Report.⁶ According to In Plain Sight, Frosch responded by proposing that NASA take no steps to establish a research activity into UFOs or to convene a symposium on the subject⁷; a separate account states that, five months after being asked, NASA responded that such an activity was not warranted.⁸ There was never any explanation for why Carter did not simply order NASA to conduct the inquiry.⁹ NASA’s connection to speculation about extraterrestrial artefacts predates this: six days after Yuri Gagarin’s spaceflight, NASA delivered the Brookings Report to the United States Congress on 1961-04-18¹⁰, a document that had been sitting on the NASA Administrator’s desk since 1960-11-30.¹¹ Stanley V. McDaniel later featured the Brookings Report in his final report as, in his assessment, strongly indicating a long-standing potential NASA policy of cover-up¹², while Richard C. Hoagland interprets the report as concluding that artefacts are likely to be found by NASA on the Moon and/or Mars¹³, and considers John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s “The President and the Press” speech to have been a direct response to the report’s suggestion that NASA consider suppressing any discovery of extraterrestrial artefacts.¹⁴

NASA’s later dealings with Cydonia, the Martian region containing the so-called Face on Mars, unfolded against this backdrop. Hoagland has said he believes NASA has, since 1976, discovered evidence of microbial life in two experiments conducted during the Viking 1 era, but has repeatedly chosen to debunk, ignore, suppress, or destroy evidence supporting a finding of current-day life on Mars.¹⁵ Throughout the 1980s, NASA’s official position on Cydonia was uniformly caustic, even as many NASA officials and prominent scientists privately expressed interest in Hoagland’s independent research.¹⁶ Hoagland was nonetheless invited on five occasions by various NASA facilities to make presentations to Agency employees on the subject¹⁷; the first, delivered at NASA/Lewis (now NASA/Glenn) in Cleveland on 1990-03-20¹⁸, was videotaped and eventually released as Hoagland’s Mars, Vol. 1.¹⁹ During the 1988 Nightwatch debate, Steven Squyres said Cydonia did not meet NASA’s established standards for possible artificiality, though no such standards had ever been published.²⁰ According to Gary Posner, John Kleinberg said Hoagland’s NASA appearances were nothing out of the ordinary.²¹ Hoagland’s research also extended to earlier Apollo-era photography: he identified the frame number of the AS10-32-4822 (Apollo 10 photograph) he was studying and sought to acquire photographic maps and other data pertaining to it from sources outside NASA²², and at his request John Stevens transported his own film-viewing equipment approximately 16,000 kilometres round trip, from Los Angeles to NASA’s Goddard Spaceflight Center and back, to transfer key Apollo mission films to video for the research.²³ NASA’s attention to landing precision had sharpened after Apollo 11: the agency sought to refine its lunar landing procedures for Apollo 12 because the official landing-location uncertainty following Apollo 11 had dragged on for several weeks after the crew returned and were debriefed.²⁴

By 1992, McDaniel was using political and academic contacts to pressure NASA and the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to explain, on the record, why Cydonia and the Face on Mars could not be specifically targeted, ahead of the planned September launch of Mars Observer.²⁵ Hoagland and other researchers found that neither NASA nor Congress had authority over where Michael Malin pointed the Mars Orbiter Camera.²⁶ NASA had, in fact, sold the rights to all data collected by Mars Observer to Malin, in an exclusive arrangement giving him sole control over when, or if, the camera data would be released²⁷ - the first time in NASA’s history that data from an unmanned space probe would not be seen live.²⁸ According to Dark Mission, NASA maintained that guaranteeing private contractors an exclusive rights period was necessary to ensure they would bid on future missions such as Mars Observer, so they could publish first without competition from non-project scientists.²⁹

In August 1992, during a routine inspection of Mars Observer on the launch pad, NASA technicians discovered severe contamination inside the protective shroud, consisting of metal filings, paint chips and assorted trash³⁰; NASA never cited a specific cause following its investigation.³¹ Just weeks before the spacecraft’s scheduled orbital insertion burn, and the delivery of McDaniel’s report to Congress and NASA, the agency changed its plans regarding the data embargo and live televised images and announced a new science plan³²: a “power in” manoeuvre intended to place Mars Observer in a mapping orbit some twenty-one days early.³³ NASA had ordered Mars Observer to shut off its primary data stream prior to a key pre-orbital burn³⁴, and because the radio was off during the spacecraft’s final manoeuvre, no data existed from its last moments and no cause for its loss was ever satisfactorily determined.³⁵ David Laverty helped organise a public demonstration against NASA’s potential censorship of Cydonia, held outside NASA’s Mars Observer Control Center at JPL³⁶, which dominated television coverage of the missing spacecraft story for the remainder of that day.³⁷ The McDaniel Report played a key role in pressuring NASA to abandon its position that the principal investigator holds all data rights from future space probes.³⁸

NASA’s public engagement with the UAP subject resumed decades later. On 2022-06-09, NASA announced it was commissioning a study to examine Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP)³⁹, later described as an independent study team comprised of scientists across different fields as well as former astronauts and pilots.⁴⁰ According to the Historical Record report, the team was established as a subordinate group of NASA’s Earth Science Advisory Committee, itself established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act⁴¹, and it examined UAP from a scientific perspective, focused on how NASA could use data and scientific tools to better understand the phenomenon.⁴² It held its first public meeting on 2023-05-01, which included perspectives from NASA senior leaders as well as from the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies⁴³, and NASA released the study team’s report in September 2023⁴⁴, subsequently establishing a UAP Research Director position.⁴⁵ Separately, Mark C. Carlotto reported that NASA assessed the objects seen in footage from Space Shuttle mission STS-48 as orbiter-generated debris illuminated by the sun, the flash of light as a thruster firing, and the change in the particles’ motion as resulting from the impact of gas jets from the thrusters.⁴⁶

References (46)

NASA was approached about acting as a focal point for public UFO inquiries, and its director agreed.
“The new director of NASA was gingerly approached: would the Agency agree to act as a focal point for public inquiries? The Director said he would.”
Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch4:4214-4354
Jacques Vallée questioned why NASA, rather than the Department of Energy or NIH, was chosen for UFO inquiries.
“So why pick NASA rather than the Department of Energy, which could deal better with the physical effects, or the National Institutes of Health, which are capable of investigating the physiological responses so prevalent among witnesses?”
Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch4:4942-5168
Dr. Schneider told Vallée NASA was appropriate because the public associates the UFO problem with space.
“In the mind of the public, the UFO problem has to do with space and therefore it is appropriate for NASA to deal with it.”
Messengers of Deception: UFO Contacts and Cults ch4:5298-5416
Fowler: Gordon Cooper testified before the UN that other astronauts and NASA personnel would testify if permitted.
“Gordon Cooper appeared and testified to some of the things that he knew and stated that if the United Nations would sponsor an open scientific study apart from the military studies being carried on by other countries, that he knew of other astronauts and other people in NASA that would be willing to testify if they could do so without penalty.”
Raymond Fowler on UFOs, Government Cover-Ups & the Andreasson Affair (Full Interview, 1987) 00:25:40.8-00:26:00.3
Frank Press asked NASA to consider investigating public UFO inquiries.
“The same thing occurred in July 1977 when the US’s National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was asked by President Carter’s science adviser Dr Frank Press to consider investigating public ‘inquiries concerning UFOs’.”
In Plain Sight ch11:26304-26526 View the source record →
Press wrote to NASA Administrator Robert Frosch suggesting a panel review findings since the Condon Report.
“Dr. Frank Press, Science Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, sent a letter to Dr. Robert Frosch, NASA Administrator, on July 21, 1977, suggesting that a panel be formed by NASA to see if there had been any new significant findings on UFOs since the Condon Report.”
Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I char:52807-53062 View the source record →
Frosch proposed NASA take no steps to establish a UFO research activity or symposium.
“In December 1977, NASA’s administrator Dr Robert Frosch responded with a remarkable rejection of the White House request, proposing instead that ‘NASA take no steps to establish a research activity in this area [UFOs] or to convene a symposium on the subject’.”
In Plain Sight ch11:26535-26786 View the source record →
Five months later, NASA responded that such an activity was not warranted.
“Five months later, NASA responded by stating that it was not warranted "to establish a research activity in this area or to convene a symposium on the subject."”
Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I char:53084-53235 View the source record →
No explanation exists for why Carter did not simply order NASA to conduct the inquiry.
“There was never any explanation for why the president did not just order NASA to do the inquiry, which he surely could have done.”
In Plain Sight ch11:26796-26920 View the source record →
NASA delivered the Brookings Report to Congress six days after Gagarin's spaceflight.
“Six days later, NASA finally delivered a report they had commissioned on the proposed plan for space exploration—the aforementioned Brookings Report—to Congress.”
Dark Mission ch10:60053-60205
The report had been sitting on the NASA Administrator's desk since 1960-11-30.
“the delivery of the Report, which had been languishing on the desk of the NASA Administrator since November 30, 1960, suddenly had a new urgency”
Dark Mission ch10:60215-60352
McDaniel featured the Brookings Report as indicating a long-standing potential NASA cover-up policy.
“who featured it in his final Report as strongly indicating a long-standing potential NASA policy of “cover-up” on this specific issue.”
Dark Mission ch10:52218-52346
Hoagland interprets the report as concluding artefacts are likely to be found by NASA on the Moon or Mars.
“1. Artifacts are likely to be found by NASA on the Moon and\or Mars.”
Dark Mission ch10:55316-55379
Hoagland considers Kennedy's speech a direct response to the report's suppression suggestion.
“as if he was responding directly to the calls in the Report for NASA to consider suppression of the discovery of ET artifacts, Kennedy made a speech”
Dark Mission ch10:60390-60532
Hoagland believes NASA has suppressed evidence of Viking-era microbial life findings.
“In Mars exploration since 1976, NASA has discovered evidence of microbial life in two Viking-era experiments...In each case, at each crossroad, they have chosen to debunk, ignore, suppress and even destroy the evidence that could support a finding of current-day life on Mars.”
Dark Mission 65
Throughout the 1980s NASA's official position on Cydonia was uniformly caustic.
“Throughout the 1980s, though many NASA officials and prominent scientists expressed interest and curiosity about the results of Hoagland’s independent research behind the scenes, the Agency’s quarter-century-long position on Cydonia—as well as the position of its planetary scientists—was uniformly caustic.”
Dark Mission ch10:289-577
Hoagland was invited on five occasions by NASA facilities to present on Cydonia.
“he was invited on no less than five occasions by various NASA facilities to make presentations to the Agency employees on the subject of Cydonia”
Dark Mission ch10:2137-2274
His first NASA/Lewis presentation took place on 1990-03-20.
“The reality is that Hoagland’s initial NASA/Lewis presentation, on March 20, 1990, was quite significant.”
Dark Mission ch10:2886-2979
The presentation was videotaped and released as Hoagland's Mars, Vol. 1.
“One of these appearances, at Cleveland’s NASA/Lewis (now NASA/Glenn) facility was videotaped and eventually released as Hoagland’s Mars, Vol. 1.”
Dark Mission ch10:2283-2426
Squyres said at the 1988 Nightwatch debate that Cydonia did not meet unpublished NASA artificiality standards.
“that Cydonia did not meet established NASA standards for possible artificiality (no such standards have ever been published)”
Dark Mission ch10:1423-1537
Per Gary Posner, John Kleinberg said Hoagland's NASA appearances were nothing out of the ordinary.
“Foremost among them is Dr. John Kleinberg, who now claims (at least according to Posner) that Hoagland’s appearances were nothing out of the ordinary.”
Dark Mission ch10:2734-2875
Hoagland identified an Apollo 10 photograph frame and sought related data from outside NASA.
“Still measuring, he copied down the Apollo 10 frame number. The next step involved attempting to acquire, from sources outside NASA, Apollo 10 photographic maps and other data pertaining to this image.”
Dark Mission ch11:10625-10820
John Stevens drove film-viewing equipment 16,000 km round trip to Goddard to transfer Apollo films for the research.
“at Hoagland's request Stevens rented a U-Haul, loaded up his "floating bed film viewer/projector" in L.A., and *personally* drove the equipment 10,000 miles (round trip) from Los Angeles to the Goddard Spaceflight Center, just outside Washington, D.C., and back—just to transfer key Apollo mission films to video for Hoagland's research.”
Dark Mission ch11:102387-102715
NASA sought to refine Apollo 12 landing procedures after Apollo 11's location uncertainty.
“Because this official "landing uncertainty" had dragged on for several weeks, well after the crew had returned and been debriefed, NASA was determined to refine the lunar landing procedures for the next Mission, Apollo 12.”
Dark Mission ch11:101235-101454
By 1992, McDaniel pressured NASA and JPL to explain why Cydonia could not be targeted before Mars Observer's launch.
“By 1992, with the September launch of Mars Observer approaching, McDaniel entered the fray. Using various political and academic contacts, he put pressure on NASA and JPL from several directions, forcing them to address, *on the record*, just why they were not able to target Cydonia or the Face specifically.”
Dark Mission ch10:28977-29273
Researchers found neither NASA nor Congress had authority over where Malin pointed the camera.
“Hoagland and the other researchers then began to lobby NASA and Congress to target the formations, only to make an extremely unpleasant discovery. Neither NASA nor Congress had anything to say about where Michael Malin had pointed his Mars Orbiter camera.”
Dark Mission ch10:25468-25716
NASA sold exclusive Mars Observer data rights to Malin.
“In an unprecedented move, NASA had decided to sell the rights to all of the data collected by the Observer to Malin himself, in an exclusive arrangement that gave Malin godlike powers over when, or even *if*, he decided to release any data the camera collected.”
Dark Mission ch10:25725-25976
This was the first time NASA data from an unmanned probe would not be seen live.
“This marked the first time in NASA history that data returning from an unmanned space probe would not be seen “live,” as it had all throughout the preceding 30 plus years of Mariner, Lunar Orbiter, Surveyor, Apollo, Viking and Voyager Missions.”
Dark Mission ch10:26268-26503
NASA said the exclusive-rights arrangement was needed to attract contractor bids.
“NASA claimed that in order to assure that private contractors would bid on future space projects like Mars Observer, they had to guarantee an “exclusive rights period” to the private contractors/scientists, so that they could write the first scientific papers from the data collected “without unfair competition from other, non-project scientists.””
Dark Mission ch10:26564-26900
NASA technicians found shroud contamination on Mars Observer in August 1992.
“In late August 1992, during a routine inspection of the spacecraft on the launch pad, NASA technicians discovered severe contamination, inexplicably *inside* the protective shroud, consisting of “metal filings, paint chips and assorted trash.””
Dark Mission ch10:30070-30306
NASA never cited a specific cause for the contamination.
“But the Agency never actually cited a specific cause for the contamination from its (brief) investigation.”
Dark Mission ch10:30576-30668
NASA changed its data-embargo and imaging plans weeks before the orbital burn.
“Then, just weeks before Mars Observer’s scheduled orbital insertion burn and the delivery of McDaniel’s report to both Congress and NASA, the Agency suddenly decided to change plans. NASA indicated a willingness to reconsider not only its position on the data embargo and the lack of live televised images from the Orbiter, but also announced that they were considering a radical new science plan.”
Dark Mission ch10:36194-36586
The plan was a "power in" manoeuvre placing Mars Observer in orbit twenty-one days early.
“NASA’s solution was to try a “power in” maneuver that would place the spacecraft in a mapping orbit some twenty-one days early.”
Dark Mission ch10:36882-37003
NASA ordered Mars Observer's primary data stream shut off before its pre-orbital burn.
“NASA, in another unprecedented move, had inexplicably ordered Mars Observer to shut off its primary data stream prior to executing a key pre-orbital burn.”
Dark Mission ch10:42163-42312
With the radio off, no data existed from the spacecraft's final moments and no cause was determined.
“Instead, because NASA had violated the first rule of space travel—you never turn off the radio—no cause for the probe’s loss was ever satisfactorily determined.”
Dark Mission ch10:42826-42978
David Laverty organised a demonstration against NASA's Cydonia censorship outside JPL's Mars Observer Control Center.
“Through the overtime efforts of long-time friend, independent Mars investigation supporter and colleague on the West Coast, David Laverty, they managed to pull together a reasonable gathering right outside NASA’s Mars Observer Control Center—three thousand miles away from Washington, at JPL.”
Dark Mission ch10:43312-43600
Coverage of the demonstration dominated television coverage of the missing spacecraft story.
“The local and national TV shots of “the people”—vocally demonstrating against NASA’s planned Cydonia secrecy, and for the first time in the Agency’s decades-long history—dominated CNN (and other network) coverage of the “missing Mars Observer story” throughout the remainder of the day.”
Dark Mission ch10:43606-43892
The McDaniel Report pressured NASA to abandon its principal-investigator data-rights policy.
“As we have shown, The McDaniel Report played a key role in pressuring NASA to abandon its position that the principal investigator holds all data rights from future space probes.”
Dark Mission ch10:50790-50963
On 2022-06-09 NASA announced it was commissioning a study to examine UAP.
“and on June 9, 2022, NASA announced that the agency is commissioning a study to, of course, examine unidentified anomalous phenomena.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:20404-20527 View the source record →
NASA's independent study team comprised scientists, former astronauts and pilots.
“The NASA team is comprised of scientists across different fields as well as former astronauts and pilots.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:84873-84971 View the source record →
The team was established under NASA's Earth Science Advisory Committee, itself formed under the Federal Advisory Committee Act.
“NASA established the UAPIST as a subordinate group of its Earth Science Advisory Committee, which was established in accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act.”
Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I char:68053-68217 View the source record →
The team examined UAP scientifically, focused on how NASA could use data and tools to understand it.
“The UAPIST examined UAP from a scientific perspective, focusing on how NASA can use data and the scientific tools to achieve a better understanding of UAP.”
Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I char:68222-68373 View the source record →
The team held its first public meeting on 2023-05-01, including DoD and intelligence perspectives.
“In May, the independent study team held its first public meeting, which included the perspectives from NASA senior leaders as well as perspectives from the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies.”
Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Implications on National Security, Public Safety, and Government Transparency char:84980-85175 View the source record →
NASA released the study team's report in September 2023.
“NASA released its report in September 2023.”
Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I char:69063-69101 View the source record →
NASA established a UAP Research Director position.
“NASA also established a UAP Research Director position.”
Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), Volume I char:69284-69330 View the source record →
Carlotto reported NASA's assessment of the STS-48 objects as thruster-illuminated debris.
“NASA's assessment was that the objects were orbiter-generated debris illuminated by the sun, the flash of light was a thruster firing, and the change in motion of the particles resulted from the impact of gas jets from the thrusters².”
Anomalous Phenomena in Space Shuttle Mission STS-80 Video char:2834-3057

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

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