Not only researchers should evaluate UFO sightings for NASA for nine months and draw up a timetable. The team consists of 16 people.

At NASA, a 16-strong team is starting work on a multi-month UFO study this Monday. Earlier on Friday, the US space agency announced the composition of the group. This includes several scientists, but also representatives of the economy, such as the head of technology at the US satellite imagery company Maxar. The group also includes four-time astronaut Scott Kelly, science journalist Nadia Drake and a representative of the US Federal Aviation Administration. For nine months, the team is to collect non-secret data on “unidentified phenomena in the air” (UAP) and make suggestions for further analysis.

Independent analysis for NASA

NASA announced its own investigation into UFO sightings in June. Led by astrophysicist David Spergel, the independent team will now spend nine months collecting data and working out how the phenomena can best be studied in the future. The study is awaited with a particular interest in the United States, also because the public trusts no other agency as much as NASA. It is uniquely positioned to study the phenomenon “because we know how to use the tools of science and data to figure out what might be happening out there in the sky,” said Daniel Evans of NASA’s Science Division Missions (Science Mission Directorate) who is responsible for it.

The NASA study is just one consequence of real UFO hype in the USA, which goes back to media reports and a decision by the US government under ex-President Donald Trump. Shortly before he was voted out, he instructed authorities to report their findings on UFO sightings to the US Congress. The requested report was published a year ago, and the first hearing in the US Congress took place in May. According to this, the US military has compiled reports of around 400 sightings that cannot be explained. However, there are no indications that extraterrestrial technology is behind it. A department at the US Department of Defense is now investigating unidentified objects who fly, or who travel in space, in water, and between different media.