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NASA announces new ‘UFO Research Director’ following hearing

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NASA is formalising and accelerating efforts to better understand Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) after a public hearing. With a new Research Director hired, will this be a boon for those chasing infallible evidence of otherworldly visitors?

While once terms like UAP and UFO were uttered mostly by foil-hat wearing conspiracists in the Deep South or Nevada, we’re increasingly hearing them discussed in an official capacity.

The floodgates for acceptable ‘alien talk’ were seemingly opened last month, when former US intelligence officer David Grusch allegedly blew the whistle on classified UFO salvage operations during a congressional hearing on UAP in Washington.

While some scepticism was forthcoming for Grusch’s revelations, the sheer scope of eyewitness testimony and evidence provided demanded proceedings be taken seriously. At the start of this week, however, many in the field believe we took a gargantuan step back in the aim of credentialing UAP investigations.

As you’ve probably already seen on X (Twitter), images of two small, allegedly non-human beings are making the rounds and causing quite a stir.

The dubious exhibits – which look unerringly like mardi gra creations featuring elongated heads and three finger hands – were presented to officials by long-time UFO enthusiast Jaime Mussan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vb1BBpWe0w

Mussan claimed both otherworldly bodies were found in Peru in 2017 and are not related to any known life on Earth. On the contrary, Peruvian officials are miffed about how the removal of what they call ‘pre-Hispanic bone remains’ went undetected and quickly lodged a complaint to the Ministry of Culture.

Immediately after proceedings wrapped in Mexico, the inevitable backlash ensued. ‘Yesterday’s demonstration was a huge step backwards for this issue,’ said former US Navy pilot Navy Graves, who has provided testimony on several occasions of UAP encounters.

‘I am deeply disappointed by this unsubstantiated stunt.’

This indignation was, for the most part, shared by the scientific community and by NASA, which held its own hearing on UAP yesterday morning.

Having launched a wide scale probe last year into hundreds of mysterious sightings, the panel amassed to hear what conclusions had been drawn.

For those tuning in (including myself) the answer would ultimately be a disappointing one: the report offers no conclusive evidence that aliens are behind UAP, but cannot discount the possibility. So, about as square one territory as it gets then.

https://youtu.be/nLV0A1Y-2r8

Nicola Fox, an associate administrator at NASA, suggests that while certain sightings may be compelling, ultimately there isn’t enough data to make definitive scientific conclusions about the origin of UAP. Nevertheless, proactive steps are being taken to ensure this may not be the case for the foreseeable future.

The space agency has appointed a new head of UAP research to ‘establish a robust database for the evaluation of future data’. For obvious reasons, the identity of this person shall remain anonymous.

What can be revealed is that AI is slated to become an ‘essential tool’ for identifying and classifying UAP, as well as crowdsourcing techniques.

This essentially means that the newly bolstered UAP research department will begin to standardise how civilian UAP reports are collated through ‘open-source smartphone-based apps’ – meaning we will become the dataset for machine learning systems.

Suffice to say, the stigma around UAP encounters is now well and truly gone. While decades ago, people may have kept quiet about witnessing something unexplainable through fear of being ridiculed, the world’s largest space agency is now literally asking for our help.

Oh, how the tables have turned.

Tech Editor London, UK

I’m Jamie (He/Him), the Deputy Editor and a Senior Writer at Thred. Keeping up with social media updates and revolutionary technology is my forte, but when away from my keyboard, you’ll probably find me wrapped around a large Tango ice blast at the latest mediocre horror flick. Follow me on Twitter, LinkedIn and drop me some ideas/feedback via email.

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