Close Encounter With the Other Kind

by Ramaharitha Pusarla         January 21,2018          (thehansindia.com)

• This writer recounts a brief history of UFOs, starting with science fiction to government UFO research programs such as Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book ending in 1970. Then private scientific groups such as SETI continued this research to the present. Several scientific groups have concluded that UFOs and their advanced technologies are real. But none of the groups can convincingly authenticate their claims. Then there was Senator Harry Reid’s Pentagon Program from 2007-2012, and the mysterious cigar-shaped object Oumuamua discovered last October traveling through our solar system at 196,000 mph.

• [Editor’s Note] We seem to be at a tipping point where the general public has taken notice that the UFO phenomenon is more than science fiction, but still doesn’t know what to make of it. We cannot afford to lose the momentum in revealing the true nature and extent of the UFO phenomenon. These types of conversations are essential to continue to inculcate the public with the reality of the hidden ET presence, both positive and negative, and this crowded galaxy in which we live as the next step in humanity’s ascension in consciousness.

The idea of the existence of alien life, exploration of extra-terrestrial life and spotting of vague flying objects always enticed the scientific community. Fueling scientific passions, a genre of writers began producing a manifold variety of science fiction to whet the inherent curiosity and inquisitiveness of the science enthusiasts.

Soon, flying saucers or flying discs/Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO)s became extensively used terms in common parlance. Colloquially, references to UFO became synonymous to an alien spacecraft. While there has always been a latent obsession towards UFO, the issue started gaining more momentum ever since US government’s public disclosure.

On December 16, 2017, US Defense Department conceded that it funded a programme on UFO till 2012, which existed in various avatars. The $600 million Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which was shut down in 2012, started in 2007 at the behest of Nevada Senator Harry Reid.

New revelations suggest the programme was run by an aerospace company run by billionaire entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, a friend of Reid, who is currently working with NASA for developing an expandable raft for humans in space. Upon repeated questioning senator Reid confided that black money was used to fund the program on UFO, which was classified and designated as “Restricted Special Access Program”.

Backing the programme in 2009 government argued that “what was considered as science fiction is now a science fact”. AATIP which was started with much fanfare was mysteriously terminated suddenly in 2012. Now hell broke loose with several Pentagon officials questioning government funding since earlier projects on UFOs were called off for negative conclusions.

In the US, for long, scientific communities and defense personnel locked horns over the existence of UFOs. Scientists asserted that the overwhelming banner of UFO included not only rare sightings but an unusual phenomenon that are largely unexplained by science.

Experts argued often certain unusual natural phenomenon which is categorised as UFOs merited serious investigation and should be taken up case by case. Debunking the myth of UFOs researchers implored the government to exercise caution and not attribute everything to the existence of alien creatures.

Post-World War II, US-initiated projects to extensively investigate UFO’s on grounds of national security, which intensified during the cold war era. In 1948, US instituted the Project Sign, a highly classified programme to probe the extraterrestrial origins of flying saucers and dismantled it within a year without making the details of study public.

This was soon followed by Project Grudge, which was replaced by Project Blue Book that was officially closed in 1970 marking the end of US government’s official support to UFO programme. Ambiguous denouements of the projects frustrated defense personnel who soon withdrew from these projects.

But nonetheless, enthusiastic astronomers and scientists soon formed private scientific consortiums and pursued investigations of UFO with renewed vigour. Parallelly, bewitched by the mysteries of alien life, NASA started looking for signs of life in the Solar System. Currently, UFO investigations in the US are collectively taken up by SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) which searches for signs of life by monitoring electromagnetic radiations, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and Mars Science Laboratory.

Despite the overwhelming frenzy to reconnoitre and explore UFOs, focused investigations on the same are not discussed openly even now. UFO study is still considered a stigma by US defense personnel who questioned the justification behind allotment of huge amounts of funds for UFO investigations.

Interestingly though the existence of UFOs is often dismissed as conspiracy theory, fib of occultism and fictitious, harrowing experiences of Naval personnel and Sailors have prompted institutions and countries to investigate UFOs. Now countries like France, Sweden, Russia, China, UK, Canada and Latin American countries are pursuing UFO investigation in a big way.

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