What’s in Those UAP Files Anyway? Plus, A Space Centennial
Thanks for tuning back into the BeX Files! Happy Friday the 13th and Pi Day Eve to all who observe. May the math be especially irrational and spooky today.
This week’s file is about real files! For WIRED, I wrote about Donald Trump’s announcement last month that the Pentagon would “begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs).”
It is not clear when we should expect this document dump, or if it will ever materialize at all. When I asked the Defense Department if there is any timeline, an official said it would be “as soon as possible.” Take from that what you will.
Becky Ferreira
Regardless, I wrote the above article for WIRED about what we are likely to learn from any new disclosures, based on past reports about UAP and anything remotely adjacent to alien life, such as Project Blue Book, which covered the years from 1947 to 1969, or the 1994 Roswell Report about the famous 1947 crash site.
Declassified documents often have interesting tidbits, including eerie visuals of UAP—many of which remain unexplained to this day. Past reports have also contained juicy admissions from the government about direct lies to citizenry; for instance, a CIA report in 1997 disclosed that the Air Force had made “misleading and deceptive statements to the public in order to allay public fears and to protect an extraordinarily sensitive national security project."
But no release has ever contained clarity about the existence of alien life, either out in the universe or here on Earth. Check out the article for more context about why these documents never seem to satisfy our alien obsession.
Before closing the file for the week, I also wanted to share a new article for Supercluster about the centennial of the first liquid-fueled rocket launch, which was performed by Robert Goddard on March 16, 1926, on his Aunt Effie’s field near Auburn, Massachusetts.
Goddard was frequently mocked for his visionary dreams of spaceflight by his contemporaries. One memorable headline in 1929 jeered that his “Moon rocket misses target by 238,7991⁄2 miles"—even though he had never even attempted to launch a rocket to the Moon. His mere belief in the possibility of such missions earned him ridicule.
While he did live to witness the dawn of spaceflight, Goddard's grit and boundless optimism advanced humanity’s maturation into a spacefaring species. Events honoring the centennial will be held at the Massachusetts launch site and around Goddard’s hometown of Worcester, as well as in Roswell, New Mexico, where he spent a decade developing rocketry.
And 100 years after his famous achievement, it's worth ruminating on his most cited quotation, which he delivered at his high school graduation in 1904:
"It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."
Consider this file disclosed. See you at the cosmic rest stop next Friday.
