Documents / Official release
This 1998 NASA file holds UFO-related letters from constituents that were forwarded by members of Congress, together with NASA's handling records. Senator Olympia Snowe forwarded letters from Maine residents, including a 12-year-old who asked for Roswell documents and listed a number of reported sightings. Senator Charles Grassley forwarded a question about astronaut UFO sightings. NASA's reply says it has no UFO program and has not withheld anything. The reply enclosed a NASA fact sheet and James Oberg's article, which explains the Gemini-4 McDivitt object as the spacecraft's own booster.
From the source:Release of 2026-06-12 Released with redactions. This collection of documents, primarily from 1998, contains draft and final correspondence from the White House and the offices of members of Congress responding to constituent inquiries about Unidentified Flying Objects, or “UFOs.” These inquiries cover a diverse range of topics, including alleged UFO sightings by NASA astronauts, questions regarding the authenticity of photos collected during U.S. missions to Mars, alleged improper withholding of information by the U.S. Government, questions regarding the appropriateness of “UFO-related” governmental spending, and calls for congressional hearings regarding the nature and existence of “UFOs.” The official responses consistently state that, circa 1998, the U.S. Government is not aware of evidence supporting the existence of extraterrestrial technology, and that NASA does not actively investigate “UFOs.” The collection includes references to materials of both confirmed and unconfirmed authenticity, as provided by constituents, as well as references to historical, scientific literature addressing specific “UFO” sighting claims.
“Mission Control”7 pages
--------Author: {~ (6) <(o) (6) at internet
Date: 7/6/98 04 :48 PM
Priority: Normal
TO: chuck grassley at Grassley-DC
Subject : NASA
This is a continuation of an e-mail I just sent you. These are some
alleged conversations and observations made from NASA Astronauts. If
there is ANY truth to this, there is a big sha~e shame, on NASA. If you
could contact NASA on my behalf about t hese incidences ·r would be very
grateful.
(o) (6)
Major Gordon Cooper
One of the original Mercury Astronauts and the last American to fly in
space alone. On May 15, 1963 he shot into space in a Mercury capsule for
a 22 orbit journey around the world. During the fina l orbit, Major
Gordon Cooper told the tracking station at Much (near Perth Australia)
that he could see a glowing, greenish object ahead of him quickly
approaching his capsule. The UFO was real and solid, because i t wa s
picked up by Muchea's tracking radar .
Cooper's sighting was reported by the National Broadcast Company, which
was covering the flight step by step; but when Cooper landed, reporters
were told that they would not be allowed to question him about the UFO
sighting.
Major Cooper was a firm believer in UFOs. Ten years earlier, in 1951 he
had sighted a UFO while piloting an F-86 Sabrejet over Western Germany.
They were metallic, saucer-shaped discs at considerable altitude and
could out-maneuver all American fighter planes.
Major Cooper also testified before the United Nations:
"I believe that these extra-terrestrial vehicles and their crews are
visiting this planet from other planets ... Most astronauts were
reluctant to discuss UFOs."
"I did have occasion in 1951 to have two days of observation of many
flights of them, of different sizes, flying in fighter formation,
generally from east to west over Europe . "
And according to a taped interview by J. L. Ferrando, Major Cooper said:
"For many years I have lived with a secret, in a secrecy imposed on all
specialists in astronautics. I can now reveal that every day, in the
USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition
unknown to us. And there are thousands of witness reports and a quantity
of documents to prove this, but nobody wants to make them public.
Why? Because authority is afraid that people may think of God knows what
kind of horrible invaders. So the password still is: We have t •o avoid
panic by all means."
"I was furthermore a witness to an extraordinary phenomenon, here on
this planet Earth. It happened a few months ago in Florida . There I saw
with my own eyes a defined area of ground being consumed by flames, with
four indentions left by a flying object which had descended in the
middle of a field. Beings had left the craft (there were other traces to
prove this). They seemed to have studied topography, they had collected
soil samples and, eventually, they returned to where they had come from,
disappearing at enormous speed .. . I happen to know that authority did
just about everything to keep this incident from the press and TV, in
fear of a panicky reaction from the public." Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 86 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.