Documents / Official release

Congressional, White House, UFO-related Constituent Correspondence, 1998

U.S. Government · 1998 · 86 pages · text from the file's own layer

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.

  • p. 66 …review of the University of Colorado's report by the National Academy of Sciences; previous UFO…
  • p. 80 …review ofthe University of Colorado's report by the National Academy of Sciences; previous UFO studies…
The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/ facts/HTM L/FS-017-HQ.htm I' .
NASA Facts fIL£ COPYNational Aeronautics and
Space Administration
NASA Head(1Jares
Public A f0. irs Offce
CcdeP
300 E Street SW
washington DC 2054 6
FS-1997-01-017-HQ
The US Government and Unidentified
Flying Objects
No branch of the United States Government is currently involved
with or responsible for investigations into the possibility of alien life
on other planets or for investigating Unidentified Flying Objects
(UFO's). The US Air Force (USAF) and the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) have had intermittent,
independent investigations of the possibility of alien life on other
planets; however, none of these has produced factual evidence that
life exists on other planets, nor that UFO's are related to aliens.
From I 947 to 1969, the Air Force investigated UFO's; then in 1977,
NASA was asked to examine the possibility of resuming UFO
investigations. After studying all of the facts available, it was
determined that nothing would be gained by further investigation,
since there was an absence of tangible evidence.
In October 1992, NASA was directed by Congress to begin a
detailed search for artificial radio signals from other civilizations
under the NASA Towards Other Planetary Systems (TOPS)/High
Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) program (also known as the
Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project). Congress directed
NASA to end this project in October 1993, citing pressures on the
US Federal budget. The HRMS did not detect any confirmed signal
before it was stopped. However, similar work will continue in a
more limited manner through efforts of private groups and through
academic institutions. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
Institute (SETI Institute) in Mountain View, CA, effectively
replaced the Government project, borrowing the signal processing
system from NASA. The SETI Institute is a nonprofit corporation
conducting research in a number of fields including all science and
technology aspects of astronomy and planetary sciences, chemical
evolution, the origin oflife, biological evolution, and cultural
evolution.
During several space missions, NASA astronauts have reported
phenomena not immediately explainable; however, in every instance
NASA determined that the observations could not be termed
"abnormal" in the space environment. The 1947 to 1969 USAF
investigations studied UFO's under Project Blue Book. The project,
headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was
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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.