Robert Frosch
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 👤 Person
Contents 6
| Type | Person |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Frosch |
| On the Timeline | 1 event, 1977 |
Robert Alan Frosch (22 May 1928 – 30 December 2020) was an American physicist who served as NASA Administrator from 1977 to 1981. In December 1977 he decided, after a request from the White House, that NASA would not begin an investigation of UFOs.[1][2]
Career
Frosch earned degrees in theoretical physics at Columbia University and worked at its Hudson Laboratories from 1951 to 1963. He then joined the Advanced Research Projects Agency, where he directed nuclear test detection work (Project VELA) and became deputy director, and from 1966 served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research and Development. From 1973 to 1975 he was assistant executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme.[1]
NASA
Frosch was NASA's fifth administrator, serving under President Jimmy Carter from 21 June 1977 to 20 January 1981, a period dominated by the development of the Space Shuttle.[1]
The 1977 UFO request
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In 1977 Carter's science adviser, Frank Press, asked Frosch whether NASA should handle UFO mail from the public and consider an active research program. NASA leaders, including Frosch and space science chief Noel Hinners, were reluctant. In a reply dated 21 December 1977, Frosch said NASA would continue answering UFO enquiries and would examine physical evidence if a credible source presented any, but saw no basis for a research program.[2][3]
Later life
After NASA, Frosch became vice president for research at General Motors' research laboratories in 1981. He died in South Hadley, Massachusetts, in 2020.[1]
On the UAP Timeline
- Carter request and NASA's UFO decision (1977) (13 December 1977) — A NASA safety chief writes that a possible UFO fragment was studied at Los Alamos.
References
- Robert A. Frosch — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- NASA correspondence on UFOs (1977), Department of Defense FOIA Reading Room · esd.whs.mil · archived copy
- David Clarke, "'Fraught with perils'", Substack · drclarke.substack.com · 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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