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I
HALL I · 2017 — present

The Modern Disclosure Era

In December 2017, The New York Times revealed the existence of a Pentagon program studying unidentified aerial phenomena. What followed reshaped public discourse: authenticated military footage, the standing of a permanent Department of Defense office — the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) — congressional hearings in 2023 and 2024, the long-pending AARO Historical Record Volume II in 2025, and a White House / Department of War declassified UAP files release in May 2026. The cadence of admission has compressed from decades to months.

12 EXHIBITS · CHRONOLOGICAL
AATIP and the 2017 Disclosure
December 16, 2017№ 01
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

AATIP and the 2017 Disclosure

The Pentagon program revealed

On December 16, 2017, The New York Times reported the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). The story, accompanied by two authenticated Navy gun-camera videos (FLIR1 and GIMBAL), marked the first acknowledgment by the U.S. government in nearly fifty years that it was studying the subject. The $22 million Department of Defense appropriation that ran inside the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2007 to 2012 in fact funded AAWSAP (the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program, administered through BAASS/Bigelow Aerospace); AATIP itself was a related but distinct, less formally budgeted effort that Luis Elizondo ran within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense. The 2024 AARO Historical Record Report distinguishes the two programs explicitly.

· DIA· AATIP· AAWSAP
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The UAP Task Force
August 4, 2020№ 02
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

The UAP Task Force

Pentagon stand-up of the immediate predecessor to AARO

Formally announced by the Deputy Secretary of Defense in August 2020, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) was charged with detecting, analyzing, and cataloguing UAP that posed a threat to U.S. national security. It absorbed the Office of Naval Intelligence's earlier informal UAP cell and produced the data set that became the 2021 ODNI Preliminary Assessment.

· DoD· UAPTF
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ODNI Preliminary Assessment on UAP
June 25, 2021№ 03
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

ODNI Preliminary Assessment on UAP

The first unclassified U.S. intelligence community report

Mandated by the Intelligence Authorization Act for FY2021, the nine-page assessment examined 144 UAP reports collected by the UAP Task Force between 2004 and 2021. Of these, 143 remained unexplained; eighteen displayed unusual flight characteristics. The report explicitly stated that the data was insufficient to attribute the events to any single explanation, including advanced foreign technology.

· ODNI· intelligence
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The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office
Established July 2022№ 04
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office

A permanent U.S. government office for UAP

Established by the Deputy Secretary of Defense in July 2022, AARO consolidates and replaces prior task forces. Its mandate covers detection, identification, and attribution of unidentified anomalous phenomena across air, sea, space, and trans-medium domains. AARO publishes unclassified annual reports to Congress and operates a public reporting mechanism.

· DoD· policy· office
OPEN →
The 2023 Congressional Hearing
July 26, 2023№ 05
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

The 2023 Congressional Hearing

Sworn testimony before the House Oversight Committee

Three witnesses — former Navy pilots Ryan Graves and David Fravor, and former intelligence officer David Grusch — testified under oath before the House Subcommittee on National Security. Grusch alleged a decades-long government effort to retrieve and reverse-engineer non-human craft. The Department of Defense rejected the allegations. The hearing was, at the time, the most consequential public UAP testimony on record; the November 2024 follow-up hearing and the 2025 Grusch supplemental statements extended that line.

· Congress· testimony· Grusch
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ODNI 2022 Annual Report on UAP
Released January 12, 2023№ 06
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

ODNI 2022 Annual Report on UAP

366 new reports, eleven near misses

The first annual report mandated by §1683 of the FY2022 NDAA documented 366 newly catalogued UAP reports — bringing the post-UAPTF total to 510 — and acknowledged 'safety of flight' concerns including eleven instances categorised as near-mid-air collisions. Roughly half of the new reports were assessed as commonplace (balloons, drones, debris); 171 remained 'uncharacterised'.

· ODNI· report
OPEN →
NASA Independent UAP Study
Published September 14, 2023№ 07
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

NASA Independent UAP Study

A civilian scientific panel reports to NASA

Chaired by astrophysicist David Spergel, the sixteen-member panel reviewed unclassified UAP data and recommended that NASA play a coordinating role in collecting standardized, scientific-grade observations. The report concluded there was no evidence of extraterrestrial origin in the cases reviewed, while explicitly identifying the absence of high-quality data as the central obstacle to scientific evaluation. NASA simultaneously named its first Director of UAP Research.

· NASA· science
OPEN →
UAP Disclosure Act of 2023
Introduced July 13, 2023№ 08
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

UAP Disclosure Act of 2023

A bipartisan Senate amendment on records and eminent domain

Authored by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Mike Rounds, the amendment to the FY2024 NDAA proposed a presidentially appointed UAP Records Review Board modeled on the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, plus federal eminent-domain authority over recovered 'technologies of unknown origin'. The eminent-domain language was stripped in conference; the records-board provisions were significantly narrowed. The fight over the bill's full text became a public marker of the dispute over UAP classification.

· Congress· Schumer· policy
OPEN →
AARO Public Reporting Portal
Launched October 31, 2023№ 09
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

AARO Public Reporting Portal

A government website for UAP witnesses

AARO opened a secure web portal for current and former U.S. government employees, service members, and contractors to report direct knowledge of UAP and related programs. The site went live in October 2023; reports from members of the general public were initially routed through public affairs, with a broader public reporting mechanism added in 2024.

· AARO· reporting
OPEN →
AARO Historical Record Report, Volumes I & II
Vol. I: March 8, 2024 · Vol. II: July 2025№ 10
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

AARO Historical Record Report, Volumes I & II

A government audit of its own UAP record

In March 2024, AARO published a 63-page Volume I review of the U.S. government's investigative effort from 1945 to the late 1960s. The report concluded that no verifiable evidence exists for the recovery of extraterrestrial technology, while acknowledging that a significant percentage of cases remain unresolved due to insufficient data. Volume II, covering 1969 through the present, was released in July 2025 and brought the official audit through the modern era.

· AARO· report
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November 2024 Joint UAP Hearing
November 13, 2024№ 11
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

November 2024 Joint UAP Hearing

House Oversight follows up with new witnesses

The House Subcommittee on National Security held a second public hearing titled 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.' Witnesses included former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Gallagher, former AARO director Tim Phillips, retired Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, and journalist Michael Shellenberger. Testimony focused on alleged restrictions on whistleblower disclosure and on naval encounters of 'transmedium' objects.

· Congress· testimony
OPEN →
White House / Department of War UAP Files Release
Released May 2026№ 12
Tier 1–2 · Documentary

White House / Department of War UAP Files Release

Second tranche of declassified imagery and sensor records

In May 2026, the Department of War — with coordinated White House communications — published a second tranche of declassified Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena material. The release included infrared sensor footage from a U.S. military platform inside U.S. Central Command capturing a four-craft formation over water near Iran in August 2022, and a December 2019 Northern Command East Coast capture showing a single object holding position over open water. The release is the first Tier 1 disclosure of UAP imagery published directly under executive-branch communications channels.

· DoW· WhiteHouse· declassified
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CONTINUE THROUGH THE MUSEUM
HALL II
The Pilot Encounters
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HALL III
Cold War Files
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HALL IV
Foundational Mysteries
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HALL V
Global Disclosure
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AFTER HALL I

Carry this hall forward

The Forecast
Return to the standing window for First Contact
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The Archive
Walk the curated halls of disclosure
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