Every NASA record on unidentified anomalous phenomena, from Apollo-era astronaut observations through the 2023 NASA UAP Independent Study Team final report and the 2024 establishment of the Director of UAP Research position.
NASA's institutional posture toward UAP is historically more guarded than the Department of War's, primarily because NASA's mission charter does not include atmospheric-surveillance authority. That changed materially in 2022 when Administrator Bill Nelson commissioned the agency's first independent UAP study.
The 2023 NASA UAP Independent Study Team. Chaired by astrophysicist David Spergel, the 16-member panel met for nine months and published its 36-page final report on September 14, 2023. The report's principal recommendation — that NASA assume a structured role in standardising UAP data collection — was accepted in part with the appointment of a Director of UAP Research.
Apollo-era observations. The most-cited NASA-era UAP material predates the 2023 study by decades: Apollo astronaut transcript references (the December 1972 Apollo 17 'three-dot' lunar-surface observation is on this site as its own event), Gemini-era radar anomalies, and Skylab-era unidentified-object recordings. All are linked from the events on this page.
Why this matters. The 2023 study explicitly framed NASA's role as 'collecting and analysing data', not 'investigating phenomena' — a deliberate division of labour with AARO. That framing is now the baseline for how NASA's atmospheric and space-domain assets contribute to the wider UAP record.
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The Trump administration launches PURSUE — the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters — and the Department of War publishes 160 declassified UAP-related files in the first tranche: 117 PDFs, 29 sensor videos, and 14 photographs spanning 1944 to 2026. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth says the goal is 'maximum transparency.'
NASA's Science Mission Directorate published a Frequently Asked Questions page addressing the agency's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) Independent Study, commissioned in 2023. The page clarifies the study's scope, team composition, methodology, and conclusions, confirming that the 16-member independent study team — led by astrophysicist David Spergel — was charged exclusively with identifying how scientific data and tools could be applied to UAP going forward, not with reviewing past UAP incidents. The FAQ also states that NASA has found no credible evidence of extraterrestrial life and no data supporting the hypothesis that UAP represent alien technologies. The document provides institutional context for NASA's UAP engagement: the nine-month study was conducted under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA), required financial disclosures and ethics briefings from all members, and was overseen by Daniel Evans, Assistant Deputy Associate Administrator for Research at NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The FAQ further notes that NASA does not actively search for UAP, has not established a dedicated UAP program, and that study funding was consistent with other external review groups convened through NASA's Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) process. The page also references NASA's commitment to cooperating with the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), citing President Trump's direction for whole-of-government transparency.
On June 9, 2022, NASA announced it was commissioning an independent study team to examine unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) from a scientific perspective. The study focused on identifying existing data holdings, determining how best to collect future data, and assessing how NASA's scientific capabilities could advance understanding of UAP. The effort was organized under NASA's Science Mission Directorate in consultation with the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and was governed by terms of reference consistent with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The UAP Independent Study Team held a public meeting on May 31, 2023, broadcast live and open to public participation. On September 14, 2023, the team published its final report containing a series of recommendations for advancing the scientific study of UAP. The initiative reflects NASA's stated commitment to scientific transparency and rigor, and represents the first formal, agency-wide scientific study of UAP conducted by a civilian space agency. Contact for UAP inquiries was designated as Daniel A. Evans of NASA.
Apollo 17 was the ninth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon, and the sixth to land Astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 17 Crew Debriefing for Science on January 8, 1973, in which Dick Henry, co-investigator on the ultraviolet experiment on Apollo 17, discusses seeing results that were unexpected. • Pages 119-120. “One of the most exciting results of X-ray astronomy was the fact that an X-ray background was observed over the sky that nobody had expected, and
NASA Skylab program mission transcripts (1973–1974) released by the Department of War as part of PURSUE Release 01. Astronauts logged in-mission observations of unidentified objects from a sustained orbital platform.
A NASA still from Apollo 17 — released for the first time as part of PURSUE Release 01 — shows three small dots in a tight triangular formation in the lunar sky. Released alongside Apollo 17 crew transcripts and technical debriefings.
Five NASA-archived photographs (VM1–VM5) and the Apollo 12 mission transcript released as part of PURSUE Release 01 (May 2026). The first public release of these specific images.
NASA technical crew debriefing transcript from Apollo 11 (July 1969), released by the Department of War as part of PURSUE Release 01. Contains crew references to in-flight observations of unidentified objects.
December 1965 NASA Gemini 7 air-to-ground transcripts in which crew Frank Borman and Jim Lovell report tracking an unidentified 'bogey' in orbit. Released by the Department of War in PURSUE Release 01.
Non-fiction titles by named witnesses, Pentagon insiders, and investigative journalists referenced in this archive.
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U.S. material is the single largest body in the public UAP record, but it isn't the only one. France's GEIPAN has run a transparent case database since 1977; the UK MoD released ~60,000 pages between 2008 and 2017; Japan's evolving track is the program currently moving fastest in 2026. Every state-run UAP-investigation body with a public archive — fifteen countries to date — is catalogued in one place.
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