SPACE SCIENCE, APPLICATIONS AND ADVANCED RESEARCH, 1963-69 



259 



A significant part of the problem has been that the sightings reported have not 

 been accompanied by so-called hardware or materials that could be investigated and 

 analyzed. So we are left with hypotheses about the nature of the UFO's. These hypoth- 

 eses range from the conclusion that they are purely psychological phenomena, that is, 

 some kind of hallucinatory phenomena; to that of some kind of natural physical 

 phenomena; to that of advanced technological machinery manned by some kind of 

 intelligence, that is, the extraterrestrial hypothesis. 



We take no stand on these matters. Indeed, we are here today to listen to their 

 assessment of the nature of the problem; to any tentative conclusions or suggestions 

 they might offer, so that our judgments and our actions might be based on reliable 

 and expert information. We are here to listen and to learn. 



Chairman Miller, in welcoming the participants to the sympo- 

 sium, took great pains to underline his apprehension: 



I want to point out that your presence here is not a challenge to the work that 

 is being done by the Air Force, a particular agency that has to deal with this sub- 

 ject. * * * I want you to know that we are in no way trying to go into the field 

 that is theirs by law, and thus we are not critical of what the Air Force is doing. 

 We should look at the problem from every angle, and we are here in that respect. 

 I just want to point out we are not here to criticize the actions of the Air Force. 



In general, those who testified recommended that UFO sightings 

 merited scientific study, rather than ridicule. One committee member, 

 Representative Jerry L. Pettis (Republican of California), an experi- 

 enced pilot, indicated that a number of his fellow pilots had observed 

 unusual phenomena caused by "UFO's" which they had been reluctant 

 to report for fear of being exposed to ridicule. 



At one point, Representative Roush asked Dr. Sagan whether he 

 believed in extraterrestrial life, and Dr. Sagan responded: 



Congressman Roush, I have enough difficulty trying to determine if there is 

 intelligent life on Earth, to be sure if there is intelligent life anywhere else. 



One witness, Dr. Baker, stated his preference for the term "anom- 

 alistic observational phenomena" rather than "unidentified flying 

 objects." When Roush protested that his Hoosier constituents might 

 not cotton to the lengthy new characterization, and would prefer the 

 term "UFO," Dr. Baker insisted that his new phrase "comes trip- 

 pingly off the tongue" and the phenomena could be labeled "AOP's." 



The symposium continued until after 4:30 p.m. on July 29 before 

 adjourning. As indicated, no report or conclusions were issued on 

 behalf of the committee, and no further action was taken on the 

 subject. 



TRACKING AND DATA ACQUISITION 



In the period from the creation of NASA to the end of the I960 

 decade, close to $1 billion was spent on building and operating the 

 tracking networks and acquiring the almost endless flow of data which 

 spewed forth from manned and unmanned missions, and many far out 



