Recent Congress, Media Sensationalizing UFO "Sightings" Defuses Real Work When "Objects" Likely Not Extraterrestrial

Press Should Quit Pandering to Thrill Seekers

By Robert Weiner and Lori Salazar

The Cape Canaveral space center is working hard with science that will assure future moon and Mars Trips. As NASA is setting up dates for a return to the moon without astronauts on August 29^th, September 2^nd, and September 5^th, thanks to the DOD and congress they are instead focused on UFOs. At a time when NASA should be focused on landing on mars or the moon, instead Congress and the media appear transfixed on conducting and covering hearings about unidentified aerial phenomena (UFOs). The media uses sensational headlines like Bloomberg and the Washington Post's recent "What are the Chances We've Been Visited by Aliens? (May 25) and "NASA joins the Hunt for UFOs" (June 9) to rile up thrill seekers to believe the hearings are proof of extraterrestrial life. The press ignores that UFOs are likely foreign spy satellites or asteroids of varied shapes. The "flashes of light" are likely sunlight reflections. The media and congress are pandering on the unproven instead of focusing on future missions to the moon and Mars. NASA and the press should quit pandering to UFO thrill seekers and consider UFOs as serious security threats to our country.

Rep. Andre' Carson, the chairman of the House Intelligence Counterterrorism, Counterintelligence, and Counterproliferation Subcommittee, opened the UAP (unidentified aerial phenomena) hearings May 17th saying that "for far too long, the stigma associated with UAPs has gotten in the way of good intelligence analysis." Carson states that in the past "DOD officials swept the issue of UAPs under the rug" because they were "fearful of a skeptical national security community." Yet even he stated that "UPAs are unexplained, it's true," before he asserts that "any threats they pose needs to be mitigated." The threats would be the spy satellites of China, Russia, Iran, maybe others. We just don't want to tell people. Better to leave the myth...

Last year, The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Pentagon's UAP Task Force released a report "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon" (June 25th, 2021) discussing 144 different observations of unidentified aerial objects. The report included video evidence, statements, and other observations of UAP sightings between 2004 to 2021. The ODNI concluded that most of the reported UAPs did not exhibit "unusual flight characteristics'' and that they needed to conduct "additional rigorous analysis."

The House Intelligence Committee is exploring three possible explanations of the unidentified objects. The committee assumes that these reports might contain a lot of sensor or instrument errors. Second, the committee believes that these UAPs could be new weapon systems or other international technology being tested by adversaries such as China or Russia. Lastly, the committee also believes these pilots might have spotted classified American technology, which is known as blue-on-blue sightings.

On June 9, 2022, a U.N. watchdog agency reported that Iran has removed 27 cameras monitoring its nuclear activity, which could prevent international inspectors from monitoring their uranium work sites. Iran's removal of these cameras could potentially end the 2015 nuclear deal that prevented the country from developing nuclear weapons. With this lack of transparency, individuals must wonder if any foreign adversary or countries would be willing to admit to flying satellites, planes, and other forms of UAPs in United States airspace. Of course not.

On June 10th, Thomas Zurbechen, the head of NASA's science mission directorate, commented in a speech at the National Academies of Science that this "high-risk, high-impact" research should "not shy away from investigating this controversial field of study." Zurbechen and NASA both conclude that "there is no evidence UAPs are extraterrestrial in origin."

NASA has assigned the UAP study to be led by David Spergel, a previous chairman of the astrophysics department at Princeton University, and Daniel Evans, a research leader at NASA. The study is set to begin this fall and last up to nine months. Zurbuchen commented that "NASA's study will be independent from the investigation done by the Pentagon." NASA's spokesperson commented that the report might show that "there is a concern that U.S. airspace is increasingly crowded with many different types of air vehicles."

In a "Breakfast from Space" presentation at the National Press Club, Washington D.C (September 15^th, 2016), astronaut Mark Kelly and former air force pilot Col. Terry Virts discussed why NASA is having a difficult time being able to get the mission for Mars funded. Kelly and Virts state that there is a "lack of political will" because our country has spent trillions of dollars on failed wars instead of investing in our scientific future with space travel. Now they might add that there is too much effort on UFOs that could be spent on real future missions.

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