vault backup: 2026-10-07 23:12:30

20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/NASA.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 created: 2026-05-15
-updated: 2026-05-15
+updated: 2026-10-07
 title: NASA
 aliases:
   - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
@@ -11,39 +11,152 @@ tags:
   - USA
   - Space
   - Science
+  - Parapsychology
+  - RemoteViewing
+  - UAP
 category: "U.S. Government"
-summary: "NASA is the U.S. civilian space agency established in 1958, whose relevance to this vault centers on the Apollo 14 Moon landing experience that prompted astronaut Edgar Mitchell to found the Institute of Noetic Sciences, early remote viewing experiments targeting space objects, and NASA's 2023 independent UAP study."
+summary: "NASA is the U.S. civilian space agency founded in 1958, which contracted for ESP teaching-machine research in the 1970s and in 2022 to 2023 commissioned an independent study of UAP."
 start: 1958-10-01
 location: "Washington, D.C. (HQ); Houston, Texas (Johnson Space Center); Cape Canaveral, Florida (Kennedy Space Center)"
+relations:
+  - type: contractor_to
+    with: "[[Stanford Research Institute]]"
+    reverse: true
+    start: 1973-04
+    role: "ESP teaching-machine contract NAS7-100, administered through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory"
+    fn: 2
+  - type: employed_by
+    with: "[[Edgar Mitchell]]"
+    reverse: true
+    start: 1966-04
+    end: 1972
+    role: "astronaut, lunar module pilot of Apollo 14"
+    fn: 5
+  - type: employed_by
+    with: "[[Mark McInerney]]"
+    reverse: true
+    start: 2023-09-14
+    role: "Director of UAP Research"
+    fn: 23
+  - type: employed_by
+    with: "[[Gordon Cooper]]"
+    reverse: true
+    start: 1959-04
+    role: "Mercury astronaut"
+    fn: 25
+  - type: employed_by
+    with: "[[Arthur Rudolph]]"
+    reverse: true
+    end: 1969
+    role: "Saturn V program, retired from NASA in 1969"
+    fn: 29
 ---
 
-The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. federal civilian space agency, established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act signed on July 29, 1958, and beginning operations on October 1, 1958. NASA succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and absorbed several other government research programs. Its primary mission encompasses civil aeronautics research, human spaceflight, robotic planetary exploration, and Earth observation. NASA's relevance to this vault arises through three distinct intersections: the consciousness experience of astronaut [[Edgar Mitchell]] during Apollo 14, the use of space-related targets in early government remote viewing research, and NASA's formal involvement in UAP investigation beginning in 2022.[^1]
+The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the U.S. federal civilian space agency, established by the National Aeronautics and Space Act signed on July 29, 1958, and open for business on October 1, 1958, built on the [[National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics]] (NACA).[^1] Its records include a contract for ESP teaching-machine research in the 1970s, the telepathy test that [[Edgar Mitchell]] conducted during the Apollo 14 flight, a 1977 White House request for a study of UFOs, a 2022 to 2023 study of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), and the employment of wartime German rocket engineers.
 
-### Edgar Mitchell and the Apollo 14 Experience
+### Stanford Research Institute ESP Teaching Machine Contract
 
-Apollo 14 commander Edgar Mitchell had a spontaneous experience during the return voyage from the Moon in February 1971 that he later described as a sudden overwhelming sense of unity with the universe and the understanding that consciousness was somehow fundamental to reality. This experience, which Mitchell characterized as a form of samadhi drawn from Eastern spiritual traditions, led him to undertake a scientific investigation of consciousness upon his return.
+In April 1973, the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]] (JPL) initiated a contract with [[Stanford Research Institute]] (SRI) to explore the enhancement of man/machine activities through ESP communications. The contract was initiated at the request of NASA Headquarters, which assigned JPL to monitor it and "assure an objective experimental environment."[^2] The work was performed under NASA Contract NAS7-100, JPL contract 953653 and SRI project 2613. The final report of August 1974 is credited to [[Russell Targ]], Phyllis Cole and [[Hal Puthoff]]; it describes an "ESP teaching machine," a four-state random stimulus generator that gave the subject feedback on each choice. The abstract records 148 volunteer subjects screened under various protocols, several of whom had a learning slope or mean score that departed significantly from chance expectation, and a further study of electroencephalographic output when a light was flashed in a distant room.[^2]
 
-In 1973, Mitchell founded the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences|Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)]] in Palo Alto, California, to study consciousness and what he believed were its paranormal dimensions. IONS funded and published research on remote viewing, psychokinesis, and other psi phenomena, and provided some financial and institutional support to the broader network of researchers and practitioners associated with the U.S. government's parapsychology programs.
+The NASA foreword to the report states that the SRI investigators' report (unedited by NASA or JPL) drew positive conclusions regarding ESP communications and learning. It states that JPL's review of the experiments conducted under controlled conditions, which eliminated the possibility of interaction between experimenter and observer, found "no positive evidence" of ESP or ESP learning, and that NASA had concluded "there is currently no basis" to support further investigations.[^2]
 
-During the Apollo 14 flight itself - without NASA authorization - Mitchell conducted an informal telepathy experiment with four subjects on Earth, attempting to transmit Zener card symbols during his allotted rest periods. The results, which Mitchell reported as statistically significant, were published in the Journal of Parapsychology in 1971. NASA did not sanction the experiment and was not informed until afterward.[^1]
+The strategic analyst [[Roger A. Beaumont]] wrote that "Three years ago, NASA paid $80,000 to see if" machines could teach ESP, adding "(they could not)" and "some pilot studies that measured brain waves during alleged telepathic/clairvoyant communications." He also described an SRI proposal, which SRI hoped to sell to NASA for $100,000, to predict precognitively the eclipses of Jupiter's four major moons by having a subject fly his consciousness to the planet. Beaumont wrote that "NASA declined."[^3]
+
+Puthoff and Targ later published a review of their perceptual-channel work in the Proceedings of the IEEE in March 1976. The NASA record for that paper lists the same contract, NAS7-100, as its funding source. Its abstract states that "the phenomenon is not a sensitive function of distance."[^4]
+
+### Edgar Mitchell and the Apollo 14 Experiment
+
+Edgar Mitchell served as lunar module pilot of Apollo 14, which launched on January 31, 1971 and returned on February 9, 1971, and founded the [[Institute of Noetic Sciences|Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS)]] in 1973, one year after retiring from government service.[^5] Mitchell described a spontaneous experience during the return voyage in February 1971, a sudden overwhelming sense of unity with the universe and the understanding that consciousness was somehow fundamental to reality, which he characterized as a form of samadhi drawn from Eastern spiritual traditions. He wrote that seeing the Earth from space "triggered a deep insight into the nature of existence."[^6] In Palo Alto, California, IONS studied consciousness and what Mitchell believed were its paranormal dimensions. A 1974 article describes Mitchell as the astronaut who "founds the Institute of Noetic Sciences" and who set out to investigate occurrences that "will not yield to rational explanation."[^7] IONS funded and published research on remote viewing, psychokinesis, and other psi phenomena, and provided some financial and institutional support to the broader network of researchers and practitioners associated with the U.S. government's parapsychology programs.
+
+Mitchell wrote that by 1971 he had become "an avid psychic researcher in my spare time," that he decided on the experiment "only a few weeks before lift-off," and that it "was to have been a purely personal investigation." He wrote: "I did not request permission from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) because it seemed better to do it without sanction rather than risk having permission denied."[^6] Four people on Earth, three of whom remained anonymous and the fourth of whom was [[Olaf Jonsson]] of Chicago, tried to receive the targets by telepathic communication. Mitchell described four transmission sessions during rest periods programmed into the flight, two on the way to the Moon and two on the return trip, using random numbers from 1 to 5 that he assigned, just before transmitting, to the symbols of the standard Zener cards: a cross, a square, a circle, a star and parallel wavy lines. He wrote that the launch was forty minutes late, so that "some of the sessions appeared to yield precognitive results, not telepathic ones."[^6]
+
+Mitchell wrote that the data were analyzed independently by [[J. B. Rhine]] of the Foundation for Research on the Nature of Man, by [[Karlis Osis]] of the American Society for Psychical Research, and by himself: "The results were statistically significant, not because any of the receivers got a large number of direct hits but because the number of hits was amazingly low. The statistical probability of scoring so few hits was about 3000:1."[^6] In a later account he described the results as "psi missing" for the days he performed the experiment and "precisely 'chance'" for the other days, with "one-in-three-thousand probability that the results were a random happening," from "only one hundred and fifty data points," and wrote that Rhine offered to run the analysis and to coauthor a paper for the June issue of the [[Journal of Parapsychology]].[^8] Mitchell also wrote that a psychic recruited for the experiment "leaked our project to reporters," that the press "seemed interested only in the headline: ASTRONAUT DOES ESP EXPERIMENT ON MOON FLIGHT," and that word that the experiment "turned out to be negative or without significance" was misinformation.[^8] In 1974 he wrote that the news leak, "the source of which is still unknown to me," led the press to Jonsson.[^6]
+
+Mitchell's write-up appeared as "An ESP Test From Apollo 14" in the Journal of Parapsychology, volume 35, number 2 (June 1971), pages 89 to 107.[^9] A proposal for a "direct brain action" research program, edited by [[Andrija Puharich]] from Mitchell's submission, calls the experiment "unofficial" and states that four earth-based persons tried to guess the order of symbols in Mitchell's mind, and that the results were statistically significant.[^10] A Medical Intelligence Office report stated that Mitchell made "150 separate attempts" to project his thoughts from the spacecraft to an individual on Earth, and that the results were published in the journal.[^11] Beaumont gives another account: in six sessions Mitchell "transmitted" 25 card images, and while the results exceeded statistical probability, "they were not overwhelming." Beaumont adds that "NASA was quick to disclaim official sponsorship."[^3] The Soviet authors V. P. Zinchenko, A. N. Leontiev and colleagues wrote in 1973 that Mitchell had written that the experiments were done primarily for public relations purposes, that the results were equivocal, and that the number of successes was much lower than probability theory would predict.[^12]
 
 ### Remote Viewing and Space Targets
 
-The early [[Stargate Project|STAR GATE]] remote viewing research conducted at the [[Stanford Research Institute|Stanford Research Institute (SRI)]] in the early 1970s included several experiments in which subjects attempted to describe space-related targets. In 1973, [[Ingo Swann]] was asked by researchers to describe the planet Jupiter, providing his description before NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft reached the planet. Swann's session, conducted on April 27, 1973, described Jupiter as having rings - a feature not then known. Pioneer 10 flew past Jupiter in December 1973; later spacecraft confirmed Jupiter has a faint ring system. This session was cited by remote viewing proponents as one of the most significant predictive examples in the SRI database, though critics disputed the interpretation of Swann's original description and its match to the later discovery.
+Remote viewing research at SRI that was later known as the [[Stargate Project|STAR GATE]] program included sessions in which subjects described space-related targets. On the evening of April 27, 1973, [[Ingo Swann]], then on the West Coast, began a psychic probe of Jupiter at 6:00 p.m. Pacific time, and [[Harold Sherman]] began his at 8:00 p.m. Central time, the two probes taking place simultaneously. Puthoff and Targ recorded the sessions, and after half an hour Swann reached Sherman by telephone to compare results. The transcript records that the probe of Jupiter was decided upon because NASA's Pioneer 10 was on its way to the planet, and it adds: "Neither Mr. Sherman nor Mr. Swann claim validity for their results," and that what verification might come from Pioneer 10 "remains to be seen."[^13]
 
-Similar space-target sessions were conducted with other SRI subjects during the 1972-1975 period. NASA spacecraft and planetary features were used as targets in some experiments.[^1]
+At 6:06:20 on the transcript's clock, Swann said: "Very high in the atmosphere there are crystals, they glitter, maybe the stripes are like bands of crystals, maybe like rings of Saturn, though not far out like that, very close within the atmosphere." At 6:19:55 he said: "I get the impression that that must be a band of crystals similar to the outer ones, kind of bluish. They seem to be sort of in orbit, permanent orbit down through another layer farther down which are like our clouds but moving fast."[^13] Sherman's session, recorded as Annex A of the same transcript, described Pioneer 10 as traveling on a collision course with one of the largest of Jupiter's moons unless its course were altered, and as likely to encounter powerful magnetic forces and winds of terrific velocity.[^13] NASA records Pioneer 10's closest approach to Jupiter as December 4, 1973.[^14] The JPL caption to a [[Voyager 1]] photograph states: "First evidence of a ring around the planet Jupiter is seen in this photograph taken by Voyager 1 on March 4, 1979," and describes "the extremely thin faint ring" as 30 km thick or less and invisible from Earth "because of its thinness and its transparency when viewed at any angle except straight on."[^15]
 
-### UAP Investigation
+[[Antoinette May]] wrote that Sherman "took off" from his Mountain View, Arkansas home and Swann from SRI, and that the two, nearly 2,300 miles apart, "described the same things," that each spoke of "glittering ice crystals, winds of terrific velocity, great mountain ranges and powerful magnetic forces," and that "the same conditions were later confirmed by the Pioneer 10 probe."[^16] Dolan M. McKelvy wrote in an Air War College paper that "Jupiter had faint rings like those of its neighbor Saturn," that "Astronomers scoffed at this claim," that [[Carl Sagan]] called it "ridiculous," and that "Nine years later, Voyager 1 sent back pictures of the Jovian rings."[^17] [[Jack Anderson]] wrote in a Washington Post column that the psychics of the SRI program had discovered "the rings around Jupiter years before their existence was scientifically established by photographs."[^18]
 
-In June 2022, NASA announced it was commissioning an independent study of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), conducted by a sixteen-member team under astrophysicist [[David Spergel]]. The NASA UAP Independent Study was distinct from the [[Department of Defense]]'s [[AARO|All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)]] and the earlier UAP Task Force. The study team issued its report in September 2023, finding that UAP data was insufficient for scientific conclusions and recommending that NASA develop systematic observation and reporting infrastructure for UAP investigation.
+Similar space-target sessions were conducted with other SRI subjects during the 1972 to 1975 period, and NASA spacecraft and planetary features were used as targets in some of these experiments.[^19]
 
-NASA simultaneously announced it would appoint a Director of UAP Research, and named [[Mark McInerney]] to that position in late 2023. The NASA UAP initiative represented the first formal civilian scientific agency acknowledgment that UAP warranted systematic study, distinct from the longstanding defense-intelligence framing of the issue.[^2]
+### Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Study
 
-### Relevance to Parapsychology Network
+On June 9, 2022, NASA announced that it was commissioning a study team to examine unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) from a scientific perspective. The statement of task listed eight questions, the first of which asked "What types of scientific data currently collected and archived by NASA or other civilian government entities should be synthesized and analyzed to potentially shed light on the nature and origins of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)?" Other questions concerned data held by non-profits and companies, new data NASA should collect, analysis techniques, "basic physical constraints" on the nature and origins of UAP, civilian airspace data, and reporting protocols and air traffic management data systems. The Science Mission Directorate, in consultation with the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, was to appoint the chair and members for terms of up to one year, and the terms of reference provided for approximately eight to twelve members drawn from U.S. academic, independent and commercial institutions.[^20]
 
-Several figures who appear in this vault's coverage of the government parapsychology programs had NASA connections beyond Mitchell. Astronaut [[Gordon Cooper]] claimed multiple UAP sightings during his Mercury and Gemini flights. [[Robert Bigelow]], whose [[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies|Bigelow Aerospace]] was NASA's primary commercial crew habitat contractor (BEAM module, ISS installation 2016), separately operated the [[Defense Intelligence Agency|DIA]]'s primary [[AAWSAP]] parapsychology contract through BAASS. The overlap between NASA's institutional culture - which attracted individuals with interests in frontier science - and the parapsychology research network was noted by program historians.[^1]
+On October 21, 2022, NASA announced that it had selected 16 individuals; the study began on October 24, 2022, was to run nine months and was to use unclassified data only. The NASA official responsible for orchestrating the study was Daniel Evans of the Science Mission Directorate. The team was chaired by [[David Spergel]], president of the Simons Foundation, and NASA's announcement lists [[Anamaria Berea]], [[Federica Bianco]], [[Paula Bontempi]], [[Reggie Brothers]], [[Jen Buss]], [[Nadia Drake]], [[Mike Gold]], [[David Grinspoon]], [[Scott Kelly]], [[Matt Mountain]], [[Warren Randolph]], [[Walter Scott]], [[Joshua Semeter]], [[Karlin Toner]] and [[Shelley Wright]] as the other members.[^21] The study was distinct from the [[Department of Defense]]'s [[All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office|All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO)]] and from the earlier UAP Task Force.
 
-### Footnotes
+The team's report, released on September 14, 2023, describes the team as "made up of 16 experts" and states that "we do not presently have the body of data needed to make definitive, scientific conclusions about UAP." The NASA foreword adds: "This is not a review of previous UAP incidents." The report responds to "eight charge elements that formed the Terms of Reference" and was deliberated at a public meeting on May 31, 2023.[^22] It recommends that NASA "play a prominent role in the whole-of-government effort" to understand UAP, and states that "establishing a more robust and systematic framework and data repository for UAP reporting is essential."[^22]
 
-[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis.* Little, Brown and Company, 2017. Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies.* Dell, 1997.
-[^2]: NASA Independent Study Team on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. *UAP Independent Study Report.* NASA, September 14, 2023. Available at nasa.gov.
+NASA named [[Mark McInerney]] director of UAP research on September 14, 2023 (release 23-106). The press release states that McInerney "previously served as NASA's liaison to the Department of Defense covering limited UAP activities for the agency," and that the agency was still evaluating the report's findings and recommendations at the time of release.[^23]
+
+### Gordon Cooper and Other Astronauts
+
+According to a taped interview by J. L. Ferrando, [[Gordon Cooper]] said: "I can now reveal that every day, in the USA, our radar instruments capture objects of form and composition unknown to us."[^24] Cooper called for an open inquiry into UFOs, "based on his own personal experience of sighting UFOs in space and the testimony of other Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Astronauts."[^24] Cooper was selected as a Mercury astronaut in April 1959 and piloted the Faith 7 spacecraft on May 15 and 16, 1963. Cooper claimed to have seen his first UFO while flying over West Germany in 1951, "although he denied reports he had seen a UFO during his Mercury flight."[^25]
+
+### Robert Bigelow and the BEAM Module
+
+On January 16, 2013, NASA announced a $17.8 million contract to [[Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies|Bigelow Aerospace]] to provide a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) for a two-year technology demonstration on the International Space Station, sponsored by the Advanced Exploration Systems Program.[^26] NASA lists BEAM's launch as April 8, 2016 and its installation on the station as April 16, 2016.[^27] [[Robert Bigelow]]'s Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, LLC (BAASS) was the awardee of the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]]'s order HHM402-08-C-0072, titled Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications ([[AAWSAP]]), signed September 22, 2008.[^28]
+
+### Operation Paperclip and the Marshall Space Flight Center
+
+[[Wernher von Braun]], recruited through [[Operation Paperclip]], was the first director of the [[Marshall Space Flight Center]], serving from 1960 to 1970.[^29] [[Alan Filreis]] wrote that von Braun's admissions in U.S. Army records show him to have been "an S.S. major" who frequently visited the underground rocket factory at Dora, that during one visit, according to documents shown on CNN, von Braun attended a meeting that discussed rounding up citizens off the streets of France to be brought to Dora, and that on March 23 NASA held a "Wernher von Braun birthday reception" at Marshall in Huntsville, Alabama.[^30]
+
+[[Arthur Rudolph]], Operations Director at the Mittelwerk underground V-2 factory, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1954, worked in the U.S. rocket program until his retirement from NASA in 1969, and received NASA's Distinguished Service Award at his retirement.[^29] Filreis described the 1969 award as going to Rudolph "for his work as project director of the Saturn V moon rocket."[^30] The [[Office of Special Investigations]] (OSI) of the Justice Department interviewed Rudolph twice and recommended a denaturalization action; a prosecution memorandum dated April 21, 1983 went to the Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and a memorandum of December 2, 1983 concerned the "Agreement in Rudolph Case." Under the written agreement he would leave the United States and renounce his citizenship, and he agreed not to contest allegations that he participated in the persecution of unarmed civilians at Mittelwerk; the government agreed to withhold any announcement until he had departed.[^29] Rudolph went to Germany in October 1984. He denied wrongdoing, and said that he "tried to help the poor forced laborers to have their conditions improved" and that he renounced his citizenship only to avoid the sensationalism and cost of litigation in light of his health and age.[^29] Former Congresswoman [[Elizabeth Holtzman]] asked NASA to rescind the medal, and the agency refused.[^29] Filreis reports that [[Eli Rosenbaum]], who negotiated the agreement for the OSI, said that any contention that the agreement bars the government from revoking Rudolph's medals "is utter nonsense."[^30]
+
+In 1989 Rudolph applied at the U.S. Consulate in Hamburg for a visa to reenter the United States, and was denied. In 1990 he flew to Canada, where the Canadian authorities, alerted by OSI, briefly detained him and released him on bond pending deportation proceedings; Ohio Congressman James Traficant championed his cause. The Canadian court concluded that Rudolph "called for, made use of and directed" slave laborers at Mittelwerk. He was sent back to Germany in 1992, and then sued the Department of Justice, the Attorney General, the Secretary of State and four OSI attorneys, claiming that the government had misled him into believing it had sufficient evidence to file a denaturalization suit when a key witness had exculpated him in a sworn declaration. The OSI report states that the suit was dismissed on the ground that it was barred by sovereign immunity, and that he died in Germany in 1996.[^29] A Jewish Telegraphic Agency report carried by the Detroit Jewish News on February 26, 1993 dates the agreement to 1983 and reports that a federal judge in San Jose dismissed Rudolph's suit, in which he argued that the agreement was made under duress and contained elements of fraud, and that a Canadian court had found that he directed forced labor by foreign prisoners at Mittelwerk during 1943 to 1945.[^31]
+
+### Jack Parsons and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
+
+The Jet Propulsion Laboratory grew from GALCIT Project No. 1 in Pasadena. The FBI's file on [[Jack Parsons]] records a letter of December 29, 1950 from the laboratory on the classification of seven Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports under GALCIT Project No. 1 that were in Parsons' possession at the end of his employment at Hughes Aircraft.[^32]
+
+### Brookings Institution 1960 Report
+
+The report "Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs," prepared by [[Donald N. Michael]] with the collaboration of Jack Baranson, Raymond A. Bauer, Richard L. Meier, Aaron B. Nadel, Herbert A. Shepard, Herbert E. Striner and Christopher Wright for NASA's Committee on Long-Range Studies, was issued by the [[Brookings Institution]] in December 1960. It states that "the discovery of intelligent life in other parts of the universe is not likely in the immediate future, it could nevertheless happen at any time," and that "Whenever it does occur its consequences for earth attitudes and values may be profound." It then recommends that a long-term research effort begin with "A continuing determination of emotional and intellectual understanding and attitudes regarding the possibility and consequences of discovering intelligent extraterrestrial life."[^33]
+
+A later section of the report on the implications of a discovery of extraterrestrial life states that "face-to-face meetings with it will not occur within the next twenty years (unless its technology is more advanced than ours, qualifying it to visit earth)," that "artifacts left at some point in time by these life forms might possibly be discovered through our space activities on the Moon, Mars, or Venus," and that if there is any contact in the next twenty years "it would most likely be by radio."[^33]
+
+### NASA Response to the 1977 White House UFO Inquiry
+
+In July 1977, [[Frank Press]], the director of science and technology policy in the [[Executive Office of the President]], wrote to NASA Administrator [[Robert Frosch]] suggesting that NASA answer UFO-related mail and consider whether it should conduct an active research program on UFOs. In a letter dated December 21, 1977, Frosch agreed that NASA would continue to answer UFO mail, and he wrote that "I would therefore propose that NASA take no steps to establish research in this area or to convene a symposium on this subject."[^34] Frosch wrote that "There is an absence of tangible or physical evidence available for thorough laboratory analysis," that "we stand ready to respond to any bona fide physical evidence from credible sources," and that "institutionally, we retain an open mind, a keen sense of scientific curiosity and a willingness to analyze technical problems within our competence."[^34]
+
+NASA's 1978 information sheet on unidentified flying objects states that "NASA is not engaged in a research program involving these phenomena, nor is any other government agency."[^34]
+
+[^1]: NASA, "NASA History" (nasa.gov/history/: "Since October 1, 1958, when NASA opened for business"; NASA "was built on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA)"); National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, signed by the President July 29, 1958, NASA History Office, history.nasa.gov/spaceact.html (National Archives Record Group 255).
+[^2]: Targ, Russell, Phyllis Cole and Harold Puthoff, "Development of Techniques to Enhance Man/Machine Communication," Final Report, Stanford Research Institute, Menlo Park, August 1974, NASA CR-157886, contract 953653 under NAS7-100, SRI project 2613; foreword by NASA and JPL; abstract on the NASA Technical Reports Server, ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19790003559 (accession N79-11730; full text at ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19790003559/downloads/19790003559.pdf).
+[^3]: Beaumont, Roger A., "On the Strategic Potential of ESP," undated article, CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700360003-3, citing "n.a., 'Space Experiment in ESP is Described,' New York Times, February 23, 1971, p. 40." Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^4]: Puthoff, H. E., and R. Targ, "A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research," Proceedings of the IEEE, March 1976, NTRS 19760042112 (funding NAS7-100), ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19760042112.
+[^5]: NASA, "Edgar Dean Mitchell (Captain, USN, Ret.) NASA Astronaut (Former)," biographical data, nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mitchell_edgar.pdf (Group 5, April 1966; lunar module pilot, launch January 31, 1971, return February 9, 1971; "founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences in 1973, one year after retiring from government service").
+[^6]: Mitchell, Edgar D., "Introduction: From Outer Space to Inner Space," in Mitchell, ed. John White, *Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science*, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1974, pp. 32-34 (archive.org lending copy psychicexplorati0000unse).
+[^8]: Mitchell, Edgar, with Dwight Williams, *The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut's Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds*, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1996, pp. 48-49 and 60-61, with a footnote on p. 61 stating that "The results of the experiment were published in the June 1971 issue of the Journal of Parapsychology" (archive.org lending copy wayofexplorer00mitc).
+[^7]: "Boom Times on the Psychic Frontier," article catalogued March 4, 1974, CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000700030001-3 (a second copy is CIA-RDP96-00787R000100030002-8).
+[^9]: Mitchell, Edgar D., "An ESP Test From Apollo 14," Journal of Parapsychology, vol. 35, no. 2 (June 1971), pp. 89-107; the page range is confirmed in the journal's 1971 index, archive.org/details/sim_journal-of-parapsychology_1971_35_index.
+[^10]: Puharich, Andrija, ed., proposal on "direct brain action" based on a submission by Captain Edgar D. Mitchell, undated (c. 1972), CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000100190001-2, section on the Apollo 14 experiment.
+[^11]: Medical Intelligence Office, Office of the Surgeon General, report with date of publication July 1972, CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00788R001300010001-7, footnote 82 citing "An ESP Test from Appollo 14, Journal of Parapsychology, Volume 35, Number 2, June 1971." Sole source for the 150 attempts figure.
+[^12]: Zinchenko, V. P., A. N. Leontiev, B. F. Lomov, A. R. Luria and others, "Parapsychology: Fiction or Reality?," Voprosy Filosofii (Problems of Philosophy), no. 9, 1973, translated by Maria Mihajlovic and Christopher Bird, CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00787R000500320001-3 (the author list is partly illegible in the scan). Sole source for the passage so cited.
+[^13]: "An Experimental Psychic Probe of the Planet Jupiter, 1973," transcript of the Swann and Sherman sessions of April 27, 1973 (Annex A, Sherman; Annex B, Swann, "Swann-Sherman Jupiter Touchdown Probe," printed pp. 12-13 of the PDF), Stargate collection, CIA reference NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040010-3, hosted by The Black Vault at documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/cia/NSA-RDP96X00790R000100040010-3.pdf.
+[^14]: NASA, "Pioneer 10," science.nasa.gov/mission/pioneer-10/ (key dates: "Dec. 4, 1973: Pioneer 10's closest approach to Jupiter"); NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, Pioneer 10, nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1972-012A.
+[^15]: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, photojournal PIA01484, "First Evidence of Jupiter Ring," "taken by Voyager 1 on March 4, 1979," photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA01484.
+[^16]: May, Antoinette, "Back From Beyond," CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210010-1 (publication date not recovered). Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^17]: McKelvy, Dolan M., "Psychic Warfare: Exploring the Mind Frontier," Air War College, Air University, CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00789R001001420001-3. Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^18]: Anderson, Jack, column in the Washington Post, "'Voodoo Gap' Looms as Latest Weapons Crisis," CIA reading room, CIA-RDP96-00788R001200050011-3 (undated; the column is in the first person and names "my associates Dale Van Atta and Joseph Spear"; it refers to a January 1982 event). Sole source for the passage so cited.
+[^19]: Jacobsen, Annie, *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*, Little, Brown and Company, 2017; Schnabel, Jim, *Remote Viewers: The Secret History of America's Psychic Spies*, Dell, 1997. Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^20]: NASA, "UAP: NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Independent Study," science.nasa.gov/uap (Statement of Task; Appointment of Members; Terms of Reference), as archived by the Wayback Machine, snapshot of January 8, 2023, web.archive.org/web/20230108061915/https://science.nasa.gov/uap.
+[^21]: NASA, "NASA Announces Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Study Team Members," October 21, 2022, nasa.gov/feature/nasa-announces-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-study-team-members/.
+[^22]: NASA UAP Independent Study Team, *UAP Independent Study Team Final Report*, NASA, September 14, 2023, foreword (printed p. 6), "Organization of this report" and recommendations, science.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/uap-independent-study-team-final-report.pdf.
+[^23]: NASA, press release "NASA Shares UAP Independent Study Report; Names Director," release 23-106, September 14, 2023, nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-shares-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-independent-study-report.
+[^24]: Greenewald, John, "Astronaut Gordon Cooper Admitted That Alien Craft Are Visiting Earth," The Black Vault, March 13, 2015, theblackvault.com/casefiles/?p=665, quoting a taped interview by J. L. Ferrando. Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^25]: Greenewald, John, "Astronaut Gordon Cooper Talks About UFOs on Paranormal Borderline," The Black Vault, April 6, 2016, theblackvault.com/casefiles/?p=2403, biography and "Background on UFO Sightings." Sole source for the passages so cited.
+[^26]: NASA, "NASA To Test Bigelow Expandable Module On Space Station," release 13-024, January 16, 2013, nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-to-test-bigelow-expandable-module-on-space-station/.
+[^27]: NASA, "Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM)," nasa.gov/international-space-station/bigelow-expandable-activity-module-beam/ (mission overview: launch 4/8/16, installation 4/16/16).
+[^28]: Defense Intelligence Agency, Standard Form 1449, order HHM402-08-C-0072, signed September 22, 2008, awardee Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, LLC, released in FOIA-00269-2018, documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/dia/AAWSAP/FOIA-00269-2018-.pdf.
+[^29]: U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, *Striving for Accountability in the Aftermath of the Holocaust: The Office of Special Investigations*, chapter "Arthur Rudolph - An Honored Rocket Scientist," pp. 331-340 and notes 4-6, 10, 13-15 (note 6: von Braun, "first Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center, serving from 1960 to 1970"; note 13: "Dec. 2, 1983 memo to DAAG Richard from Director Sher re 'Agreement in Rudolph Case'"; note 15: "NASA Refuses to Rescind Award," Washington Post, February 12, 1985), justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal/legacy/2011/03/14/12-2008osu-accountability.pdf.
+[^30]: Filreis, Alan, "NASA's Nazis," Literature of the Holocaust, writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/nasa-nazis.html (the essay's date is not on the page; it refers to a CNN documentary broadcast "in March of last year"). Sole source for the von Braun reception and the Rosenbaum statement.
+[^31]: "U.S. Court Dismisses Ex-Nazi's Suit," Jewish Telegraphic Agency report, Detroit Jewish News, February 26, 1993, Bentley Historical Library copy, digital.bentley.umich.edu/djnews/djn.1993.02.26.001/52/download_text (retrieved from the Wayback Machine). Sole source for the San Jose dismissal.
+[^32]: FBI, "John Whiteside Parsons," file 65-59589, Part 2, report on a December 29, 1950 letter from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, archive.org/details/JohnParsons.
+[^33]: Michael, Donald N., with Jack Baranson, Raymond A. Bauer, Richard L. Meier, Aaron B. Nadel, Herbert A. Shepard, Herbert E. Striner and Christopher Wright, *Proposed Studies on the Implications of Peaceful Space Activities for Human Affairs*, Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., December 1960, NASA NTRS 19640053196, ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19640053196 (PDF page 58 for the summary passage; PDF pages 242-243, printed pp. 182-183, for the section on the discovery of extraterrestrial life).
+[^34]: NASA Headquarters, Office of External Relations, Information Sheet 78-1, "Unidentified Flying Objects," 1978, quoting Frosch's letter of December 21, 1977 to Frank Press; copy from the Department of Defense reading room as archived by the Wayback Machine (snapshot 2022-11-13) of www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/FOID/Reading%20Room/UFOsandUAPs/nasa_u1.pdf.