WASHINGTON: NASA officially joined the hunt for unidentified flying objects (UFOs) on Thursday but reflecting the stigma attached to the field, the US space agency kept secret the identity of the person leading a new program tracking mysterious flying objects for hours.
The official’s appointment is the result of NASA’s annual fact-finding report on what it calls “unidentified anomalous phenomena,” or UAPs.
“At NASA, it’s in our DNA to investigate — and to ask why things are the way they are,” said agency chief Bill Nelson.
An independent team of 16 researchers concluded in the report that the search for UAP “requires a rigorous evidence-based approach.”
NASA is well positioned to play a significant role with its satellite capabilities and other technical advantages. However, the agency stressed in its report that any findings of possible extraterrestrial origin “must be a hypothesis of last resort – an answer to which we turn only after all other possibilities have been ruled out.”
“We want to move the conversation about UAP from sensationalism to science,” Nelson said.
While it initially withheld the name of the program leader, NASA finally relented on Thursday evening, saying in an updated press release that it had named Mark McInerney director of UAP research.
In government capacity since 1996, McInerney has served as NASA’s liaison to the Pentagon on UAP issues.
While NASA has long explored the heavens, finding the origin, identity and purpose of the growing number of unexplained flying objects above planet Earth presents unprecedented challenges.
Military and civilian pilots alike offer numerous reports of strange sightings all the time. However, decades of alien movies and sci-fi books mean that the whole subject is mostly derided by the public as the territory of lunatics.
This atmosphere explained NASA’s unusual decision to initially withhold the identity of the senior UAP official.
“We need to ensure that the scientific process and methods are free,” said Daniel Evans, who worked on the NASA report leading up to the announcement.
“Frankly, some of the threats and harassment were above average,” Evans said.
More than 800 “events” have been collected over 27 years, of which two to five percent are considered possibly anomalous, the report’s authors said in May.
These are defined as “anything that is not easily understood by the operator or sensor” or “something that does something weird,” said team member Nadia Drake.
The U.S. government has begun to take UAP issues more seriously in recent years, in part because of concerns that they are related to foreign surveillance.
One example of an as yet unexplained phenomenon was a flying metal ball spotted by an MQ-9 drone at an unknown location in the Middle East. The UAP footage was presented to Congress in April.
NASA’s work, which relies on unclassified material, is separate from the Pentagon’s parallel investigation, although the two coordinate how to use scientific tools and methods.
In July, a former US intelligence officer made headlines when he told a congressional committee that he “absolutely” believes the government possesses unidentified anomalous phenomena – as well as the remains of their extraterrestrial operators.
“My testimony is based on information provided to me by individuals with a long tradition of legitimacy and service to this country — many of whom also shared compelling evidence in the form of photographs, official documentation and secret oral testimony,” David Grusch told lawmakers.
Earlier this week, the alleged bodies of two “inhuman” beings were presented during a congressional hearing in Mexico, prompting a mixture of surprise, disbelief and ridicule on social media.
The alleged mummified remains, which had a grayish color and body shape resembling a human body, were brought forward by Jaime Maussan, a controversial Mexican journalist and researcher who said he found them in Peru in 2017.
