Inside the Pentagon's Newly Released UFO Files

The files include vivid accounts from astronauts and civilians alike. Transcripts from the Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions show crew members describing inexplicable lights — Buzz Aldrin recalled "a fairly bright light source" the team tentatively identified as a laser, while Apollo 17's Jack Schmitt exclaimed it was "like the Fourth of July out there." A 1948 Top Secret memo from the U.S. Air Force Directorate of Intelligence cited recurring sightings over Europe, noting Swedish intelligence officers believed they showed "a high technical skill which cannot be credited to any presently known culture on earth." More recent entries describe metallic ovoid objects hovering above treelines in 2023 and military video clips of unresolved phenomena recorded over Iraq, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates in 2022.

Reactions to the release have been mixed. Congressman Tim Burchett, a long-time advocate of UFO transparency, called the move "a great start" in a post on X. However, veteran UFO researcher Dennis Anderson told the New York Post that the government is selectively sharing only the "most innocuous" material, arguing that authorities "know something exists" but will never publicly admit they cannot defend against it. Anderson also warned that the rolling release strategy may rely on the public's "short attention span" to obscure further withholding. Several recently disclosed files remain partially redacted, including the 2023 sighting near restricted airspace, and the Pentagon has not indicated when, or whether, the full archive will become available.