The White House ordered several agencies to make public records related to unidentified flying objects and other unexplained phenomena, and the Pentagon led the rollout on Friday by releasing a large collection of documents.
Along with the Pentagon, the director of national intelligence, the Energy Department, NASA and the FBI were directed to share relevant material. The administration has consolidated the releases on a newly unveiled government website for public access.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the files had been kept behind classification and “have long fueled justified speculation — and it’s time the American people see it for themselves.” In total, some 162 files were posted, including old State Department cables, FBI records and NASA transcripts from crewed spaceflights. The release also includes images and more than 20 videos captured by military sensors in locations ranging from Syria and Japan to North America. The documents span several decades, with the most recent items dated January 1 of this year.
Among the items are NASA-related accounts, including testimony that astronaut Buzz Aldrin observed a “fairly bright light source” while aboard Apollo 11. A photograph from the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 showing three dots in a triangular formation was included; Pentagon notes say there is no consensus about the anomaly, though a preliminary analysis suggested it could be a physical object.
Other entries describe recent military and civilian sightings. One intelligence official recounted seeing a “super-hot” orb hovering and then moving roughly 20 miles while the observer was in a helicopter; the official later saw several more orbs that flared up and down. A drone pilot told the FBI in 2023 that they observed a “linear object” with a brightness that revealed bands of light; the pilot said the object was visible for five to ten seconds before its light went out and it vanished.
Released material also includes aerial photos and investigator renderings of eyewitness reports, such as a military operator’s account of an unidentified object seen over African airspace.
Former President Donald Trump praised the disclosure as “complete and maximum transparency,” adding in a statement that with the new documents and videos “the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’” He encouraged the public to review the material.
To date, none of the released files contain verifiable evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life.
Critics have argued the disclosures may serve as a diversion from other policy controversies, including the U.S. military campaign against Iran and domestic political issues. “I really don’t care about the UFO files. I just don’t. I’m so sick of the ‘look at the shiny object’ propaganda,” former Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on social media.
The newly published trove follows a pattern of past government releases on contentious topics that have long attracted conspiracy theories, such as files related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
Officials say the purpose of the release is to increase transparency and allow the public and researchers to examine the material themselves. The documents may prompt renewed interest and debate, but they do not, so far, change the scientific consensus that there is no confirmed evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence.