GEIPAN

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Contents 5
GEIPAN
Ufo reports in France according of GEIPAN archives, by year
Ufo reports in France according of GEIPAN archives, by year Photo: ChatGPT 3 and 4o AI ; This data is based on GEIPAN open data, at 27.08.2024 under this… · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
TypeOrganization
Also known asGEPAN, SEPRA
On the Timeline1 event, 1985

GEIPAN (Groupe d'études et d'informations sur les phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés) is the unit of France's national space agency, CNES, that collects, investigates and publishes reports of unidentified aerospace phenomena. Founded in 1977, it is one of the longest-running official government UFO investigation offices in the world.[1][2]

History

Illustration of wreckage at a crash site
Illustration: wreckage at a crash site. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

The office was created in 1977 as GEPAN, based at CNES in Toulouse, with engineer Claude Poher as its first director, followed by Alain Esterle and Jean-Jacques Velasco. In 1988 it was reorganised as SEPRA, which also handled the study of atmospheric re-entries of space debris, under Velasco until 2004. In 2005 it was renamed GEIPAN, led successively by Jacques Patenet, Yves Blanc, Xavier Passot, Jean-Paul Aguttes, Roger Baldacchino, Vincent Costes and Frédéric Courtade.[1]

Methods

Illustration of official papers and files
Illustration: official papers and files. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

France's national gendarmerie forwards reports of sightings to the office, which investigates them with witnesses and, where there are physical traces, can use CNES laboratories and experts. Its best-known investigation is the 1981 Trans-en-Provence landing case, in which it analysed soil and plant samples.[1][3]

Open archives

Illustration of an open book about flying saucers
Illustration: an open book about flying saucers. An artist's impression drawn for this site, not a photograph of the event.

In March 2007 GEIPAN began publishing its case files online, making France one of the first countries to open its official UFO records to the public. At that time CNES said about 28 percent of cases remained unidentified; more recent figures from GEIPAN put the proportion of fully unexplained cases at around 3 percent, the rest being explained or lacking sufficient information.[1][2][4]

On the UAP Timeline

Jacques Vallée 2024
Jacques Vallée 2024 Photo: Cmichel67 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

References

This page was last edited on 31 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.

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