Documents / FOIA release
This is a July 27, 2021 FOIA response from NASA's Office of Communications to John Greenewald, Jr. It covers records from Leslie Kean's lawsuit against NASA seeking Kecksburg documents. NASA released 207 pages in full, 7 in part and withheld 31, noting that most of the lawsuit case files had been destroyed under records retention rules. The enclosures include court declarations, a 2003 appeal decision ordering a broader search, a 2019 FOIA response, and Stan Gordon's account of the missing NASA fragology files.
“Headquarters”17 pages
JSC F1JBL Ie Arm!", FilX' 713- 483-48761 Jan 72004
\ P.l:?
I
I : .
BACKGROUND ON THE JtsfFRAGOLOGY FILES
The NASA FRAGOLOGY Files ..i. Destroyed or Missing?
Did NASA mle ContAin Inforrriation on J(ccksburg,]
j I ..
Even though informants told me that they ha .e sei~ the military recovery report on the
Kecksburg object, no such documents have e}er si.ufaccd. But many other documents that
concern Project MOONDUST have been relelLsed' by 'various agencies. Project
MOON DUST involved the government funcilons that dealt with the recovery of space
objects that survived re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere. A 1973 Stale Department
document released to New Mexico researchd Clifford Stone states that "The designator
MOONDlJST is used in cases involving the e\.am)oatio'n of non-US space objects or
objects of unknown origin." " ~
" . .. ,
Various State Department documents show t~at N'A'SA played a role in the recovery and
examination of space object debris. So far, no,NASA documents bavc bcenfcalCd
concerning the Keckshurg event, even t houg~ I h<l;ve receIved information at a NASA
representative was sent (0 the site of the crash and interviewed some witnes about the
incident.
1n October of 1994, a FOLA request was made to NASA Headquarters for information
that concerned the operational guidelines thar~ASA penolUlcl followed when involved
with cases that dealt with the recovery and examination of space material. I also
requested copies of all reports that would have invoh'ed NASA in these types of evenls
from 1960 through 1970. This search was iO include any sucb event that rOuld have
occurred within the United States or worldwide.
In April of 1995, I received a response to this~eques1. While I did not receive the
panicular material that I had requested, another document was sent that was quite
interesting, to say the least. The document, a records transmittal 3ud rec;;cipt form, !released by NASA's HiMory office, discusses '~'NASA Fragology FHes consisting of
reports ofspace Objects recovery, arulysis of fragments to detcnnine national ownership
and vehicle origin." The single page paper was marked "highest classification
CVN.flDENTII\L, ' 0 tn;: {~lcu:;cd only upon 'nubori~lujon ofNA,5t\." Tbe single p:t.ge
contained a hand-written notation that stated "!Still at Fed. Records Center 9129/94."
!,
The document indicates tbat the reports for the Fragoiogy Files were made berwcen1962
and \967 . Reports contained within tbe document are marked such as ·'F33· Venezuela
Object" and "Moon Dust - KA TOTO Estate. ' ~ The list of records begins with F I and ends
with f48 . Interestingly, there are gaps in the sequeacing of the reports listed in the
document. ,,
Upon receipt of this document, t quickly sent'll FOIA request to NASA Headquarters fOT
:I. copy of each report HJ;ted in the FragologyFiles .~ ln May, 1995, NASA responded that I
had 10 send an ad,' Anced payment to begin ful'fiUing this search request from the Federal
I
RlF FOIA release, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 223 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.