A Nasa press conference in May detailing its research into UFO sightings sparked headlines about extraterrestrial visitors – but, as DAVID CLARKE explains, these stories are nothing new
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Nasa’s recent public comments on UFO sightings reflect a recent resurgence in interest in the topic. The comments revealed that the Pentagon’s UAP [unexplained anomalous phenomenon] Taskforce is currently investigating hundreds of unexplained sightings reported by military personnel. Back in 2017, a New York Times story claimed that a secret Pentagon-funded project had been looking at reports of UFOs by US Navy pilots and military sources since at least 2007. The official US government line has always been that the Air Force Project Blue Book, which ran from 1947 to 1969, was the last government-funded investigation of odd things in the sky, and that a report from the University of Colorado concluded there was no scientific interest or defence threat. Since then, Nasa’s position has been that it isn’t interested in UFOs, so the 2017 story was a big surprise.
Nasa has always been very reluctant to discuss the subject of UFOs. That was clear even back in the 1970s, when the US secretary of defense asked the space agency to consider reopening an investigation – long after Project Blue Book had closed – because the then president, Jimmy Carter, reported having seen a UFO [in Georgia in 1969]. Now Nasa has finally been dragged back into the UFO debate – and, as was the case in the 70s, it’s because of a groundswell of public and media fascination about the subject.
People seeing odd things in the sky is nothing new. If you look at any British newspaper published just before the outbreak of the First World War, for instance, you will find people claiming that they had seen strange lights in the sky, beams of light coming down to the ground, and elongated objects moving around that they were convinced were German Zeppelins sent to spy on the British Isles. People were anxious: they knew there was a war coming and they’d been told that the Germans would be sending airships to drop bombs on the nation.
Resurgences in UFO sightings tell us something about the period in which they were made. There’s a clear correlation between numbers and types of reports and the release of films and TV shows about UFOs. It’s a
