I file “ufologici” delle missioni lunari Apollo rilasciati dal Pentagono sono vecchia fuffa
Ieri sono stati pubblicati dal Pentagono 161 documenti finora segreti riguardanti osservazioni di fenomeni aerei insoliti e non identificati: una definizione che, mi affretto a precisare, include moltissimo altro in aggiunta ai presunti veicoli extraterrestri che scatenano gli entusiasmi degli appassionati del settore. Ma si tratta di roba già vista e per nulla entusiasmante.
Turandomi il naso per il linguaggio ossessivamente adulatorio e nordcoreano dell’annuncio, che riesce a citare ed elogiare Trump ben nove volte in poche righe, e glissando sulla demenzialità di aver cambiato il nome del Dipartimento della Difesa in Department of War (un nome, un programma), sono andato a leggermi in dettaglio il materiale “ufologico” in questione: è talmente poco interessante che persino vari ufologi hanno espresso il proprio disappunto [The UFO community has been waiting for answers. Has the Pentagon delivered?, BBC]. Siamo di fronte ai soliti video sgranatissimi di puntini indefiniti che potrebbero essere mille cose assolutamente banali, per cui occorre applicare la Regola degli Zoccoli: se sento rumore di zoccoli, l’ultima cosa a cui devo pensare è un unicorno.
Preparatevi a sbadigliare: raramente mi sono annoiato così tanto per fare un’indagine.
I file in questione sono pubblicati presso www.war.gov/ufo/#release, con un’interfaccia che rende assurdamente complicato trovare o linkare uno specifico documento, con buona pace dell’asserita trasparenza: è impossibile selezionare il testo nell’elenco dei file rilasciati, non c’è nessun link diretto ai singoli file in questo elenco, non funziona neppure il classico clic destro per aprire una specifica voce in una scheda separata del browser, e cliccare sul pulsante Back del browser dopo aver consultato un file non riporta a dove si era nell’elenco ma riporta alla pagina principale.
Con fatica sono riuscito a trovare i link diretti ai documenti etichettati “NASA” e li riporto qui sotto, insieme ai testi originali di presentazione, nella speranza di evitare ad altri di perdere un’ora abbondante di tempo prima ancora di poter studiare l‘argomento.
In estrema sintesi: gli “avvistamenti” attribuiti agli astronauti non sono affatto una rivelazione, tanto che in almeno un caso (quello che ho verificato a campione) i documenti “inediti” del Pentagono sono in realtà in giro da decenni. E comunque si tratta di resoconti di avvistamenti di detriti o di foto che includono macchioline indistinte che potrebbero essere graffi o granelli di polvere depositata sulla pellicola oppure riflessi interni della fotocamera. Non c’è assolutamente nulla, in questi documenti, che faccia pensare che gli astronauti abbiano visto veicoli extraterrestri. Si tratta di noioissima fuffa, pubblicata forse con l’intento di distrarre l’opinione pubblica dalle guerre scatenate e dagli altri fallimenti della politica statunitense.
Vi lascio ai documenti. Preparatevi un caffè forte.
255_413270_UFO’s_an dd_Defense_What_Should_we_Prepare_For
This file contains an independent report on UFOs written by the French association COMETA (previously published in the French magazine VDS in 1999), which details the results of a study by the Institute of Higher Studies for National Defence. The file also includes a letter from Carol Rosin in which she notes that she was spokesperson for von Braun during the last years of his life.
NASA-UAP-D3, Gemini 7 Transcript, 1965
Gemini 7 was the tenth crewed American spaceflight. This document is a transcript of communications between the flight crew, Astronauts James “Jim” Lovell and Frank Borman, and the Manned Flight Center (now known as Johnson Space Center) in Houston, Texas. The transcript begins with Borman’s report of a “bogey,” contemporary nomenclature for an unknown aircraft, as well as a debris field. Borman described the debris field as consisting of “very, very many […] hundreds of little particles.” He estimated the particles’ distance from the spacecraft to be four miles. Lovell described observing a “brilliant body in the sun against a black background with trillions of particles on it.”
This document also includes handwritten notes documenting the encounter, annotated with the phrase “UFO Sighting by Borman” in the top right corner.
NASA-UAP-D3A, Gemini 7 Audio Excerpt, 1965
This audio recording contains air to ground communications and the NASA Public Affairs audio feed with commentary, recorded during the flight of the Gemini 7 mission. In this excerpted segment of audio, Astronaut Frank Borman reports to NASA mission control in Houston his sighting of an unidentified object, which he referred to as a “bogey.” This sighting occurred on December 5, 1965. The dialogue includes Borman’s initial report, as well as additional comments by Astronaut Jim Lovell, Borman’s fellow crew member.
NASA-UAP-D1, Apollo 12 Transcript, 1969 (materiale già pubblicato da anni qui)
Apollo 12 was the fourth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon and the second to land astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, November 1969, highlighting two periods in which astronauts reported observing unidentified phenomenon: a one hour period on the fifth day, and a two minute period on the sixth day. These transcripts contain contemporaneous observations by the flight crew reacting to unidentified phenomenon.
- Day 05, Hour 19, Minute 14, Second 58 through Day 05, Hour 20, Minute 12, Second 14:
At 05:19:27:25, the pilot of the Lunar Module (LMP-LM), Astronaut Alan L. Bean, described observing particles and flashes of light “sailing off in space” via the onboard Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT). He characterized these phenomenon as “escaping the Moon.”
- Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 21, Second 42 through Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 23, Second 33:
Mission Commander, Charles “Pete” Conrad, described observing floating debris outside the lunar module, which had been illuminated by the module’s onboard tracking light. At 06:00:21:51, Conrad assessed that the tracking light had burnt out because he could no longer see the debris from the module.
NASA-UAP-D2, APOLLO 17 TRANSCRIPT, 1972
Apollo 17 was the ninth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon, and the sixth to land astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 17 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, December 1972, highlighting three periods in which astronauts reported observing unidentified phenomenon: a nine minute period on the first day, a three hour period on the second day, and a six minute period on the third day.
- Day 00, Hour 03, Minute 34, Second 10 through Day 00, Hour 03, Minute 42, Second 29:
o Command Module Pilot (CMP), Ronald Evans, reported observing “very bright particles or fragments” drifting and “tumbling” near the spacecraft as it maneuvered. Lunar Module Pilot (LMP), Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, described the phenomenon as looking “like the Fourth of July.” The astronauts speculated that the phenomenon may be attributable to ice or paint fragments dislodging from a separated component of the spacecraft (S-IVB) but characterized that assessment as a “wild guess.”
- Day 02, Hour 18, Minute 42, Second 34 through Day 02, Hour 21, Minute 07, Second 05:
o Mission Commander, Eugene A. Cernan, reported difficulty sleeping and described having observed “some sets of the streaks.” He also described an intense light flashing between his eyes, describing its intensity as comparable to that of a train headlight and characterizing it as “imposing.” Over the next three hours, Cernan described observing several flashing, rotating phenomenon that he assessed as corresponding to physical objects in space rather than a purely optical phenomenon. LMP Schmitt also reported observing similar phenomenon, though he again assessed the source of his observation to be a separated rocket stage (S-IVB). At 02:20:55:22, Cernan reported observing two additional distant flashing objects, though he assessed them as Spacecraft/Lunar Module Adapter panels (SLA panel), another separated component of the Saturn V rocket.
- Day 03, Hour 15, Minute 33, Second 25 through Day 03, Hour 15, Minute 39, Second 46:
o At 03:15:38:09, LMP Schmitt exclaimed that he had observed a flash on the lunar surface north of Grimaldi (crater).
NASA-UAP-D4, APOLLO 11 TECHNICAL CREW DEBRIEFING, 1969
Apollo 11 was the third crewed mission to the Moon and the first to land Astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 11 Technical Crew Debriefing (Volumes 1 and 2) from July 31, 1969. The document highlights three observations: one, an object on the way out to the Moon; two, flashes of light inside the cabin; and three, a sighting on the return trip of a bright light tentatively assumed by the crew to be a laser.
• Page 6-33 (Vol. 1). [Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin]: “The first unusual thing that we saw I guess was 1 day out or something pretty close to the moon. It had a sizeable dimension to it, so we put the monocular on it.” The crew speculated that it could have been the S-IVB stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
• Page 6-37 (Vol. 1). [Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin] “The other observation that I made accumulated gradually. I don’t know whether I saw it the first night, but I’m sure I saw it the second night. I was trying to go to sleep with all the lights out. I observed what I thought were little flashes inside the cabin, spaced a couple of minutes apart…”
• Page 21-1 (Vol. 2). [Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin] “I observed what appeared to be a fairly bright light source which we tentatively ascribed to a possible laser.”
NASA-UAP-D5, APOLLO 17 CREW DEBRIEFING FOR SCIENCE, 1973
Apollo 17 was the ninth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon, and the sixth to land Astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 17 Crew Debriefing for Science on January 8, 1973, in which Dick Henry, co-investigator on the ultraviolet experiment on Apollo 17, discusses seeing results that were unexpected.
• Pages 119-120. “One of the most exciting results of X-ray astronomy was the fact that an X-ray background was observed over the sky that nobody had expected, and part of this is the gamma-ray background that Dr. Trombka talked about. In the UV, nobody knows, but you never know until you look. You do have to deal with this background of stars that we know is there. So, we did look at a large number of different points at high galactic latitudes, both north and south. The spectrum that we see is above this dark count. In other words, this abnormally high dark current did not, in fact, interfere with that experiment. The spectrum that we see looks like the spectrum of the hot star; however, we know that there were no hot stars within our field of view. Therefore, the most conservative interpretation, I think, is that what we’re seeing is light from hot stars in the galactic plane going up out of the plane and reflecting off interstellar dust. There are certain characteristics of the spectrum, though, that don’t fit that theory, and it’s at least possible that this is extragalactic radiation. I’m looking forward very much to the detailed computer study of this, but it’s going to take a long time.”
NASA-UAP-D6, APOLLO 17 TECHNICAL CREW DEBRIEFING, 1973
Apollo 17 was the ninth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon, and the sixth to land Astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 17 Technical Crew Debriefing on January 4, 1973, in which astronaut Harrison Schmitt reported seeing light flashes.
• Page 24-4. [Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt]: “We had light flashes just about continuously during the whole flight when we were dark adapted. I had one which I thought was a flash on the lunar surface. That one period of time when we had the blindfolds on for the ALFMED [Apollo Light Flash Moving Emulsion Detector] experiment there were just no visible flashes, although that evening, that night, before I went to sleep, I noticed that I was seeing the light flashes again.”
NASA-UAP-D7, SKYLAB TECHINCAL [sic] CREW DEBRIEFING, 1973
Launched on May 14, 1973, Skylab was the United States’ first laboratory in space. From 1973 to 1974, the station was visited by three crews. This document contains excerpts from all three crews to visit the station. In the first excerpt taken from Skylab 1/2 [first crew] Technical Debriefing from June 30, 1973, highlights crew observations of light flashes. The second excerpt taken from Skylab 1/3 Technical Crew Debriefing from October 4, 1973, highlights two observations—a satellite in similar orbit and another object with a “reddish hue to it.” The final excerpt taken from the Skylab 1/4 Technical Crew Debriefing from February 22, 1974, highlights an observation of flashing lights outside Skylab.
• Skylab 2 crew observation:
o Page 23-20. [Science Pilot for Skylab 2, Joesph Kerwin] “We saw light flashes. I think all of us saw them. I saw them most often when I was in the sack at night with my eyes closed but awake naturally. They tended to wax and wane in frequency.”
• Skylab 3 crew observations:
o Page 7-4. [Science Pilot for Skylab 3, Owen Garriott] “We saw that satellite about a week before splashdown. That was one of the most unusual things that we saw and I guess Jack [Lousma] noticed it looking out the window. This bright reddish object was out there and we tracked it for about 5 or 10 minutes. It was obviously a satellite in a very similar orbit to our own.”
o Page 20-1. [Science Pilot for Skylab 3, Owen Garriott] “Jack [Lousma] first noticed this rather large red star out the wardroom window. Upon close examination, it was much brighter than Jupiter or any of the other planets. It had a reddish hue to it, even though it was well above the horizon.”
• Skylab 4 crew observation
o Page 7-8. [Commander for Skylab 4, Gerald P. Carr] “One other area of unusual events that we reported on the dump tapes was that on occasion we saw some lights flashing outside with very a definite motion relative to ours. We presumed that they were other pieces of Skylab, or possibly other satellites.”
This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features a highlighted area of interest slightly to the right of the vertical axis of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible.
This image has been modified from its original state to assist viewers in identifying specific areas of interest. These highlights are provided for contextual purposes only. Such alterations do not constitute an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the nature or significance of the subject matter.
This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features two highlighted areas of interest, labeled “Area 1” and “Area 2,” slightly to the right of the vertical axis of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible.
This image has been modified from its original state to assist viewers in identifying specific areas of interest. These highlights are provided for contextual purposes only. Such alterations do not constitute an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the nature or significance of the subject matter.
This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features a highlighted area of interest near the right edge of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible.
This image has been modified from its original state to assist viewers in identifying specific areas of interest. These highlights are provided for contextual purposes only. Such alterations do not constitute an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the nature or significance of the subject matter.
This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features a highlighted area of interest slightly to the left of the vertical axis of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible.
This image has been modified from its original state to assist viewers in identifying specific areas of interest. These highlights are provided for contextual purposes only. Such alterations do not constitute an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the nature or significance of the subject matter.
This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features five highlighted areas of interest, labeled “Area 1” through “Area 5,” above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible.
This image has been modified from its original state to assist viewers in identifying specific areas of interest. These highlights are provided for contextual purposes only. Such alterations do not constitute an analytical judgment, investigative conclusion, or factual determination regarding the nature or significance of the subject matter.
As part of the review of historical UAP materials under PURSUE, DOW has opened a case to investigate the accompanying NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission, taken December 1972. The image contains three “dots” in a triangular formation in the lower right quadrant of the lunar sky that is clearly visible upon magnification of the image. While this photo has been previously released and discussed by keen observers, there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly. New preliminary US government analysis suggests the image feature is potentially the result of a physical object in the scene. Additionally, as part of this investigation, the government has obtained the original film from the Apollo 17 mission and the results of the full NASA and DOW analysis will be released when completed.
Fonti aggiuntive
Hovering objects and flashing lights: what we learned from UFO documents released by the Pentagon, BBC (2026)
