BAASS "back door" approach

From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event

Contents 4
BAASS "back door" approach
Bigelow Aerospace President Robert Bigelow talks during a press conference shortly after he and NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver toured the…
Bigelow Aerospace President Robert Bigelow talks during a press conference shortly after he and NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver toured the… Photo: Bill Ingalls · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons
Date24 December 2008
TopicsSecrecy & cover-up (topic), Government programs (topic)
PeopleJacques Vallée, Harold Puthoff
TestimonyShellenberger testimony, p. 169
Year2008 in UFO history
Timeline2008 on the UAP Timeline
Sources13

BAASS "back door" approach — A BAASS team member says he tried to get 'back door' access to an aerospace contractor.

According to Jacques Vallée's journals, in December 2008 a member of the BAASS team told him he was cultivating contacts at an aerospace contractor he believed held UFO hardware, hoping to gain "back door" access since official channels hadn't worked.

The entry shows that AAWSAP staff were actively trying to find and reach any hidden programs, consistent with the disputed Wilson/Davis notes and with Hal Puthoff's belief that hardware was held by contractors.

Nothing came of the effort publicly. In 2024, the Pentagon's AARO said in its historical report that it found no evidence of such a program, while some former AAWSAP officials maintain they were blocked from accessing it.

People and topics

Jacques Vallée 2024
Jacques Vallée 2024 Photo: Cmichel67 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
  • BAASS — The Bigelow Aerospace division that carried out the AAWSAP contract.
  • Jacques Vallée — Computer scientist and astronomer, author of the Forbidden Science journals and a central figure in UFO research.
  • Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
  • AAWSAP — The Defense Intelligence Agency's UAP research program of 2008–2010, carried out by Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies.
  • Wilson–Davis notes — Wilson–Davis notes
  • Harold Puthoff — Physicist who co-founded the SRI remote-viewing research and later worked on AAWSAP and To The Stars Academy.
  • AARO — The Pentagon office set up in 2022 to investigate UAP.

On the Timeline

Dr. J. Allen Hynek (left) and Dr. Jacques Vallée (right).
Dr. J. Allen Hynek (left) and Dr. Jacques Vallée (right). Photo: United States Government · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

See every 2008 event on the UAP Timeline →

References

Further reading

This page was last edited on 29 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.

Discuss the article: missing sources, mistakes, or what should be added.

No discussion yet.

BrowseFeedArticlesTimelineOfficial filesMapTonight’s SkyStatsFavorites