The Condon Report (1969)
🏛️ University of Colorado for the U.S. Air Force
“Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects”: an Air Force-funded study led by physicist Edward Condon at the University of Colorado from 1966 to 1968.
Key points
- Condon concluded that two decades of UFO study had added nothing to scientific knowledge, and that more large-scale study probably was not justified.
- A National Academy of Sciences panel reviewed the work and backed its methods.
- A number of the cases examined in the body of the report were left unexplained, which critics still point to.
- Its conclusions led directly to the end of Project Blue Book in December 1969.
Why it matters
For fifty years it was the main scientific reason given for governments staying out of UFO research.
Read it yourself
The summary above is ours, written in plain English. Always check the original: the official files on this page go straight to the source, and each one has a backup copy saved by the Internet Archive in case the government page moves.
University of Colorado for the U.S. Air Force. (1969). The Condon Report (1969). https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/AD0680975Related records
Project Blue Book (1952–1969)
U.S. Air Force · National Archives
The Air Force’s long-running study of UFO reports, which followed the shorter Project Sign (1947–48) and Project Grudge (1949). Its case files are now held by the National Archives.
NASA UAP Independent Study Team report (2023)
NASA
A 16-member outside panel, chaired by astrophysicist David Spergel, looked at how NASA could use science to study UAPs.
Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing, 1969
NASA
Apollo 11 was the third crewed mission to the Moon and the first to land Astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing (Volumes 1 and 2) from July 31, 1969. The document highlights three observations: one, an object on the way out to the Moon; two, flashes of light inside the cabin; and three, a sighting on the return trip of a bright light tentatively assumed by the crew to be a laser. • Page 6-33 (Vol. 1). [Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin]: “The first unusual thing that we saw I guess was 1 day out or something pretty close to the moon. It had a sizeable dimension to it, so we put the monocular on it.” The crew speculated that it could have been the S-IVB stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle. • Page 6-37 (Vol. 1). [Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin] “The other observation that I made accumulated gradually. I don’t know whether I saw it the first night, but I’m sure I saw it the second night. I was trying to go to sleep with all the lights out. I observed what I thought were little flashes inside the cabin, spaced a couple of minutes apart…” • Page 21-1 (Vol. 2). [Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin] “I observed what appeared to be a fairly bright light source which we tentatively ascribed to a possible laser.”
Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969
NASA
Apollo 12 was the fourth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon and the second to land astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, November 1969, highlighting two periods in which astronauts reported observing unidentified phenomenon: a one hour period on the fifth day, and a two minute period on the sixth day. These transcripts contain contemporaneous observations by the flight crew reacting to unidentified phenomenon. • Day 05, Hour 19, Minute 14, Second 58 through Day 05, Hour 20, Minute 12, Second 14: o At 05:19:27:25, the pilot of the Lunar Module (LMP-LM), Astronaut Alan L. Bean, described observing particles and flashes of light “sailing off in space” via the onboard Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT). He characterized these phenomenon as “escaping the Moon.” • Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 21, Second 42 through Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 23, Second 33: o Mission Commander, Charles “Pete” Conrad, described observing floating debris outside the lunar module, which had been illuminated by the module’s onboard tracking light. At 06:00:21:51, Conrad assessed that the tracking light had burnt out because he could no longer see the debris from the module.