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The U.S. Department of Defense and NASA have released a new trove of government documents on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). According to Mike Gold, president of the aerospace and defense company Redwire Space and a former NASA official, the current process of releasing data, initiated by the White House and the Donald Trump administration, is an unprecedented step in combating the stigmatization of this topic.
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The term UAP (Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena) eventually replaced the concept of “unidentified flying object” (UFO), which, in turn, replaced the term “flying saucers.” However, the question of whether there is conclusive evidence of the extraterrestrial origin of certain objects remains a subject of debate.
Mike Gold, who served as one of 16 experts on NASA’s Independent Research Group on UAPs from 2022 to 2023 and previously held the positions of Assistant Administrator for Space Policy and Acting Assistant Administrator for International Affairs, and Head of the Artemis Accords development team, confirmed the space agency’s active involvement in releasing the data. Prior to that, Gold also worked at Bigelow Aerospace for 13 years, where he oversaw the launches of the Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 spacecraft.
During a 2024 hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability titled “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Uncovering the Truth,” Gold called for fearless investigation of the facts. He currently serves as a member of the advisory board for The Disclosure Foundation.
Among the recently published materials was a frame from the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972, which, when zoomed in, shows three points of light arranged in a triangle in the lower right part of the lunar sky. In addition, on May 8, 2026, footage from an infrared sensor on a U.S. military platform dating from 2024 was released, showing an object shaped like a rugby ball.
Experts emphasize that the White House’s official acknowledgment of these images as anomalous provides reassurance to scientists and U.S. Navy pilots, who regularly report UAP sightings.
Gold characterizes current events as an “evolutionary declassification,” emphasizing that the goal of the process is an objective analysis of the data without jumping to conclusions about extraterrestrial intelligence or ordinary phenomena. According to public opinion polls, most citizens are prepared for the possible confirmation of the existence of extraterrestrial life or programs to recover debris from such objects. However, questions regarding human origins and reports of abductions remain more difficult for the public to accept.
To accelerate data collection, Gold called for incorporating UAP sightings into the Aviation Safety Reporting System. This step would allow for the cost-effective collection of data not only for scientific purposes but also for national security, since the definition of UAPs includes unidentified drones belonging to potential adversaries.
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