May 2026
On May 8, the US government released 161 previously classified UAP/UFO files, including footage of unexplained objects observed during the Apollo moon missions. Officials have signaled this is only the beginning.
The US Department of War, also known as the Department of Defense, has begun releasing previously classified files related to the UAP/UFO phenomenon, thus appearing to be following up on the promise made by president Trump in a social media post in February. The May 8 release consists of 161 files – written documents as well as videos – spanning basically the entire period it is surmised governments have been documenting UAP observations, from the 1940s through the 2020s.
No government has ever disclosed UAP files on a scale like this before, points out Luís Elizondo, a former head of a section of the Department of Defense that dealt with UAP documentation, who decided to leave the position and become a whistleblower. Elizondo thinks this is a reasonable start, a “test balloon”.
In an interview with news channel News Nation, he says he knows of “tens of millions” of more documents, many in hard copy from decades ago, some of which are significantly clearer and more revealing. Nonetheless, there are interesting files also among the ones released now, Elizondo thinks. One example is a picture taken from the surface of the moon by astronauts in the Apollo program, showing three bright dots – undoubtedly not stars – forming a triangle slightly above the horizon. This is from a time when humans, as far as is known, did not have the capability to place satellites in orbit around the moon.
This and other photos from the moon missions in the 1960s and 1970s have also caught the attention of Swedish astronomer Beatriz Villarroel, who has published peer-reviewed papers suggesting that thousands of artificial objects have been orbiting our planet since before the satellite era. Villarroel finds similarities between the Apollo pictures and formations in the observatory plates she has analyzed.
Communication with astronauts of the Gemini and the Apollo missions indicate that astronauts also observed other unexplained objects. US space agency NASA has consequently played down the significance of reports of anomalous objects and their possible extraterrestrial origin.
Public interest has been huge. The website set up for the release process registered more than 500 million hits in the first 24 hours.
According to the president, this is “the first tranche,” implying that more is to come. US Congress representative Anna Paulina Luna, a member of the House Oversight Committee and chair of the special Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets, has requested the release of 46 videos that allegedly address deeper UAP encounters. These are expected to be included in a later batch.
Reaction in the UAP research community has been mixed. Some commentators are frustrated with the absence of spectacular material that would unequivocally prove the presence of some form of nonhuman intelligence. Some welcome it and look forward to subsequent releases.
Gary Heseltine, an independent UAP investigator and author of a book about the Rendlesham Forest incidents in 1980, says in a post on X: “People need to appreciate the seismic change since 2017 re UFO/UAP. For decades there was no real debate or TV coverage, now almost daily in the U.S. The first batch is just a start, 500 million hits on the gov website, patience is needed”.
Timothy Gallaudet, a retired rear Admiral in the US Navy, and a UAP whistleblower, welcomes the release. In an interview, he says he is surprised the government declassified some of these videos, because “that shows we are not in full control or understanding of what’s in the airspace and water space of what we’re operating in”.
Anders Bolling
For further exploration, see FJN topic brief “Covering Life Beyond Earth.”
