Project Capella, December 2008
🏛️ Department of War
This document is an administrative, programmatic, or contractor-produced record related to the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-administered program active from 2008 to 2012. AAWSAP’s official scope of work identified 12 technical research areas relating to potential aerospace threats over a time horizon of more than 40 years. As part of the broader program record, the file documents how AAWSAP was scoped, organized, tasked, funded, executed, or described at a particular point in time. This December 2008 report developed for Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) outlines Project Capella, a proposed data warehouse framework for the capture, processing, classification, and retrieval of information relating to “unusual” aerial phenomena and related anomalies. The report describes a methodology for integrating existing catalogues, standardizing classification and reliability measures, reviewing foreign and private databases, and building personnel and software capacity to support analysis, literature review, and potential future field investigations. It presents the project as a means of consolidating disparate historical and contemporary case materials into a structured research system capable of supporting multiple BAASS initiatives. By proposing a data architecture centered on unusual aerial phenomena and related anomalies, the document helped lay the groundwork for later BAASS efforts, seeking to formalize UAP-oriented data collection and analysis within BAASS’s execution of AAWSAP.
Key points
- 🏛️ Official U.S. government release — batch 7 (Oct 23, 2026)
- Official file: DOW-UAP-D167
- When: 12/10/2008
- Where: San Fransisco, California
- Parts of this file are redacted by the government.
📖 In the encyclopedia
Read it yourself
The description above is the government’s own, from the official release. The official file is linked on this page.
Department of War. (2008). Project Capella, December 2008. https://www.war.gov/medialink/ufo/release-07/documents/DOW-UAP-D167-Project_Capella-December-2008.pdfRelated records
Triangular UAP AARO Memorandum for Record, 2026
Department of War
This document is a memorandum for record documenting an AARO witness debrief concerning reported unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) observations at a sensitive national security site in the western United States over two days in 2026. AARO considers this incident to warrant further investigation due to the close alignment of the phenomena’s reported morphological features and kinematic profiles with those of other reported incidents in the western United States region. The memorandum records an interview with two Federal Special Agents and incorporates a corroborating account from a third official positioned at a separate observation post. The memorandum describes a primary event in which the reporting individuals stated that a triangular object rose vertically, remained stationary, and then banked and descended into a canyon. It records their descriptions of the object’s shape, color, apparent thermal signature, perceived lack of conventional propulsion features, and absence of an associated audible signature. The memorandum further records a secondary observation on the following evening, and a subsequent ground search that found no visible debris or evidence of an impact in the accessible survey area. The file is an investigative record preserving witness accounts, chronology, and associated analytic support material developed by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) and does not present a conclusive finding regarding the nature or origin of the reported object or objects. All descriptive and estimative language reported by the individuals interviewed reflects their subjective interpretations at the time of the event. Such characterizations should not be interpreted as a conclusive indication of the presence or absence of any intrinsic object features or performance characteristics.
BAASS Self-Assessment of UAP Analysis Capabilities, November 2010
Department of War
This document is an administrative, programmatic, or contractor-produced record related to the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-administered program active from 2008 to 2012. AAWSAP’s official scope of work identified 12 technical research areas relating to potential aerospace threats over a time horizon of more than 40 years. As part of the broader program record, the file documents how AAWSAP was scoped, organized, tasked, funded, executed, or described at a particular point in time. This November 2010 Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) contractor-authored capability statement presents BAASS’s analysis as technically rigorous and strategically valuable. The document appears intended not only to describe BAASS’s analytical capabilities but also to reinforce the case for the organization’s continued relevance and for the continuation of AAWSAP. The document summarizes the company’s self-assessment of the suitability of its personnel, software, equipment, field sensor, and data warehousing capabilities for analyzing unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) and unidentified submerged objects (USOs). It includes excerpted case findings and uses selected case studies and modeling exercises as demonstrations of BAASS’s analytical capabilities. The report describes BAASS as combining field collection resources, historical databases, and computational tools such as ANSYS Multiphysics to model UAP incidents through engineering and physics analysis, including work on radar cross section, fluid behavior, acoustics, and aerodynamic performance. It also presents BAASS’s in-house capabilities as supporting both threat assessment and the study of advanced aerospace technologies, while asserting that analysis of UAP performance characteristics could inform future developments in propulsion, stealth, detection, and weapons systems.
Utah Ranch Investigation Report, April 2010
Department of War
This document is an administrative, programmatic, or contractor-produced record related to the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-administered program active from 2008 to 2012. AAWSAP’s official scope of work identified 12 technical research areas relating to potential aerospace threats over a time horizon of more than 40 years. As part of the broader program record, the file documents how AAWSAP was scoped, organized, tasked, funded, executed, or described at a particular point in time. This April 2010 Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) investigation report documents field deployments to a Utah property and surrounding communities during March and April 2010. The report states that BAASS personnel interviewed local residents, law enforcement officers, ranchers, business owners, and tribal community members about reported anomalous events; used handheld sensors to collect environmental measurements; planned plant-based biosensor experiments; and sought photographic, acoustic, and chemical evidence of purported anomalous phenomena. It also records extensive reported accounts involving “dog-like bipedal creatures,” orbs of light, “little people,” “prehistoric-looking” birds, among other phenomena, and states that BAASS intended to use interactive methods to attempt communication with the presumed source of reported anomalous activity.
BAASS Monthly Report, November 2009
Department of War
This document is an administrative, programmatic, or contractor-produced record related to the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-administered program active from 2008 to 2012. AAWSAP’s official scope of work identified 12 technical research areas relating to potential aerospace threats over a time horizon of more than 40 years. As part of the broader program record, the file documents how AAWSAP was scoped, organized, tasked, funded, executed, or described at a particular point in time. This November 2009 Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) progress report summarizes contractor activities for the period November 1–30, 2009. The report focuses on AAWSAP investigative activity based on information received via the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), progress on investigations centering on a ranch in Utah, and a preliminary report on a “blue orb” incident. It also records BAASS’s continued emphasis on field investigation, case database expansion, and focused inquiry into events at the Utah ranch and surrounding area, including creation of a separate database for those incidents.