Project Pandora and the Moscow Signal
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 8
| Date | 2014 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Secrecy & cover-up (topic) |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 178 |
| Year | 2014 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 2014 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
From 1953 to 1976 the Soviet Union beamed low-level microwave radiation at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, a phenomenon known as the Moscow Signal. In the 1960s the Pentagon's research agency, then ARPA, ran Project Pandora to study whether such microwaves could affect behaviour or health.[1][2]
The Moscow Signal
The signal, at about 2.5–4 gigahertz, came from an apartment building about 100 metres east of the ten-storey embassy and mainly struck the east side between the third and eighth floors. Its intensity, about 5 microwatts per square centimetre, was roughly a thousandth of the maximum permitted leakage from a microwave oven, though about a hundred times above Soviet exposure standards. It was detected in 1953; shielding was installed eleven years later, the signal intensified in 1975, and its existence was not acknowledged publicly or to many embassy staff until February 1976. The United States protested to the Soviet leadership at the Glassboro summit in June 1967, but the beam continued.[1]
Purpose and health
Theories of its purpose ranged from jamming or powering eavesdropping devices to deliberate attempts to affect staff health or behaviour. Ambassador Walter Stoessel fell ill in 1975 and later died of leukaemia, and Henry Kissinger privately linked his illness to the microwaves. A State Department study by epidemiologist Abraham Lilienfeld, completed in 1978, found no adverse health effects among embassy staff, though a 2019 reanalysis reported higher cancer mortality.[1]
Project Pandora
Pandora, with related studies, examined whether microwaves of this kind could affect behaviour or health, including experiments on monkeys; the results were inconclusive. A May 1969 committee meeting discussed plans for tests on eight human subjects, which were not pursued, and the program was shut down. Records about Pandora and a related effort called "Bizarre" were released in later years, and the National Security Archive published more in 2022.[1][2][3]
Later relevance
The history gained new relevance with "Havana Syndrome", the mysterious health incidents reported by U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers from 2016. Researchers have also linked the Moscow Signal to Cold War intelligence games that touched on the UFO world.[2][3]
People and topics
- DARPA — The Pentagon's advanced research agency.
- Havana Syndrome — Health incidents reported by U.S. diplomats from 2016.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- Bearden's vacuum energy claim (2013) (24 December 2013) — Thomas Bearden claims he saw energy extracted from the quantum vacuum.
- Navy metamaterials research (2014) (March 2014) — A Navy budget document mentions research on metamaterials to control electromagnetic waves.
See every 2014 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Moscow Signal — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "The secret history of diplomats and invisible weapons", Foreign Policy (Aug 2017) · foreignpolicy.com · archived copy
- National Security Archive document on Project Pandora (PDF) · nsarchive.gwu.edu · archived copy
- nsarchive.gwu.edu · nsarchive.gwu.edu · archived copy
- ufotrail.blogspot.com · ufotrail.blogspot.com · archived copy
- web.archive.org · web.archive.org · archived copy
Further reading
- Majestic 12 — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- Majestic 12 file — FBI Vault · vault.fbi.gov · archived copy
- UFO documents — CIA Reading Room · cia.gov · archived copy
- Dwight D. Eisenhower — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
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.
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