The U.S. government took one of its most sweeping steps yet toward transparency on unidentified aerial phenomena on May 8, 2026, releasing 162 declassified documents that span nearly eight decades of official investigation into UFO sightings and unexplained anomalies. The files, now publicly available at war.gov/UFO, were compiled from agencies including the FBI, NASA, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and the Department of Energy.
The release came at the direction of President Donald Trump, who ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to begin a declassification effort described by officials as unprecedented in scale. Hegseth confirmed the Pentagon is aligned with the administration’s goal of bringing transparency to files that had been classified for decades.
What is the PURSUE initiative?
The effort operates under a program called PURSUE, which stands for Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said the initiative coordinates all 18 U.S. intelligence agencies in what she described as a sweeping review of government holdings covering tens of millions of records, many of which exist only in paper form and span several decades of accumulated investigation.
Officials have emphasized that May 8 represents the first wave of releases, not the last. The Department of War plans to make new materials available on a rolling basis every few weeks as researchers manually review and declassify additional files from federal archives.
Astronauts and pilots among the witnesses documented
Among the most striking contents of the newly released files are firsthand accounts from Apollo astronauts and military pilots. Documents from the 1972 Apollo 17 mission describe two astronauts reporting flashing lights while on the lunar surface. Astronaut Ronald Evans noted seeing very bright particles drifting nearby, while Harrison Schmitt likened the visual display to a Fourth of July celebration. The Pentagon noted that no official consensus has been reached about the nature of those anomalies.
Earlier records are equally compelling. A 1947 report documents Naval pilot Ray Virgil Hatfield’s sighting near Myrtle Creek, Oregon, where he described a spherical, glistening object moving at approximately 1,000 miles per hour. A transcript from the 1965 Gemini 7 mission captures astronaut Frank Borman describing a debris field surrounded by hundreds of particles, while astronaut James Lovell reported seeing a brilliant object accompanied by what he described as trillions of particles.
More recent entries in the collection include infrared and thermal imagery from September and December 2025, showing unidentified objects captured over the western United States, as well as military video footage from 2025 and 2026 recorded by U.S. operators over airspace in the Middle East, Greece, Africa, and domestically.
What experts are saying about the files
Garrett M. Graff, author of UFO: The Inside Story, reviewed the newly released documents and said they appear consistent with material that has been disclosed in prior releases. He cautioned that the collection does not appear to contain definitive proof of extraterrestrial contact or visits from other planets, and that further releases would be needed to determine whether more consequential evidence exists within the broader archive. Despite that measured assessment, Graff welcomed the government’s increased openness, noting that the releases demonstrate a commitment to acknowledging what U.S. intelligence has been unable to explain in the skies and in low orbital space.
A long running national fascination reignites
The disclosure arrives at a moment of renewed public interest in UFOs and government secrecy. Former President Barack Obama stoked that curiosity in February when he made remarks suggesting extraterrestrial phenomena are real, though he said he has not personally seen evidence of alien life. Independent analysts have already begun scrutinizing the newly released infrared imagery and military video footage.
Public curiosity on the subject is not difficult to explain. According to recent polling, 56 percent of Americans currently believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life. Whether these 162 documents ultimately advance that conversation or simply add more questions to an already long list remains to be seen, but the government has made clear this is only the beginning.
