F. Robert Naka and NORAD space tracks
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 7
| Date | 14 February 1968 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Military encounters (topic) |
| People | Robert Low, Edward Condon, F. Robert Naka, Jerome Clark |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 71 |
| Year | 1968 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1968 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 6 |
According to UFO historian Jerome Clark, notes kept by Robert Low, coordinator of the University of Colorado's UFO study, record a conversation on 14 February 1968 with F. Robert Naka, a radar and surveillance scientist at the MITRE Corporation, who reportedly said that NORAD radars had tracked unexplained objects entering the atmosphere from space.[1][2]
Naka
Naka (1923–2013) was born in San Francisco and was interned with his family at the Manzanar camp in 1942–43. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota and earned a doctorate from Harvard in 1951, then joined MIT's Lincoln Laboratory. At MITRE from 1959 he became technical director of its Applied Science Laboratories. In 1968 he directed a classified Air Force study on improving surveillance of objects in space, whose recommendations eventually led to the Space-Based Infrared System. He was deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office from 1969 for about three years and chief scientist of the U.S. Air Force until 1978.[3]
The Condon study
The Colorado project, led by physicist Edward Condon under an Air Force contract from 1966, was criticised for bias, and Low's 1966 memo suggesting the study could appear objective while finding nothing became notorious. The final report, released in January 1969, concluded that further UFO study was unlikely to advance science, though it left a number of radar and other cases unexplained. The Air Force closed Project Blue Book later that year.[2][4]
Assessment
Critics argue that information like Naka's, if accurate, should have been given more weight. The claim rests on interview notes reported in Clark's UFO Encyclopedia rather than on NORAD data.[1][2]
People and topics
- MITRE Corporation — A federally funded research center that administers the JASON group.
- Condon Report — Condon Report
- NORAD — The U.S.–Canadian air defence command.
- Unidentified anomalous phenomena — The U.S. government's current term for unidentified objects in the air, in space and underwater.
- Robert Low — Project coordinator of the Condon Committee.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
- Edward Condon — Physicist who led the University of Colorado UFO study (1966–68).
- F. Robert Naka — MITRE radar scientist and later chief scientist of the Air Force.
- Jerome Clark — Author of The UFO Encyclopedia.
- U.S. Air Force — The U.S. military service that ran the official UFO projects from 1947 to 1969.
- National Reconnaissance Office — The U.S. agency that builds and operates spy satellites.
On the Timeline
- Lyndon Johnson's informal UFO study (1968) — A study for President Johnson reportedly says UAP are real and under intelligent control.
- Nepal space debris (1968) (March 1968) — The DIA tracks a crashed circular metal disc recovered in Nepal, later tied to Project Moon Dust.
See every 1968 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Jerome Clark, *The UFO Encyclopedia* (3rd ed.), Amazon · amazon.com · archived copy
- Condon Committee — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "F. Robert Naka", Memorial Tributes vol. 21 (2017), National Academy of Engineering · nationalacademies.org · archived copy
- "The full Condon Committee report on UFOs (1968)", The Black Vault · theblackvault.com · archived copy
- Edward Condon and the UFO studies archive — CU Boulder Libraries · libraries.colorado.edu · archived copy
- amazon.com · amazon.com · archived copy
Further reading
- NORAD — 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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