Document · Government record · 1962-1964 (EOP memo 29 May 1963)
Space Council file on recovering space-vehicle fragments (1962-1964)
A 1962-1964 White House and Space Council file, with a one-page May 1963 memo, on who recovers fragments of space vehicles that come down in or into the hands of the United States. Foreign objects, 'including whole vehicles', go first to the Defense Department for intelligence, DOD 'collection teams' pick up deorbiting objects, and later handling follows 'existing intelligence collection procedures'. NASA's press rule was never to conjecture on an object's origin, and a Space Council staffer wrote that the Pentagon and Air Force wanted to use NASA as a 'cover'. No UFO is named.
Overview
- Recovery chain: foreign objects and whole vehicles to DOD first for intelligence; DOD collection teams for deorbiting objects; residual 'all other fragments' kept by NASA.
- Disclosure posture: 'UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES' conjecture on origin; minimum information; NASA as a 'cover' for DOD and the Air Force.
- Not stated: Moon Dust and Blue Fly are not named; the link to them is an inference.
On the record
- USG-UAP-D002, 72 pages, LBJ Library, NSF files of Charles E. Johnson; agencies involved were NASA, DOD, CIA and USIB, AEC, State, the Smithsonian, Justice and OST.
- Johnson (NSC): 'if we believe the satellite were hostile that we would not return it to its point of origin.'
- The only material actually named is 'stainless steel pieces of Atlas skin'. The NSAM stayed a draft and no final policy is recorded.
- No category is labelled 'unidentified'; the residual 'all other fragments' is what press called a third category.
Open questions
- What were the 'existing intelligence collection procedures' the draft NSAM pointed to?
- Was the NSAM ever signed in another form?
Connected
PURSUE Release 07 (war.gov, 23 October 2026) documentNASA orgCentral Intelligence Agency orgUnited States Air Force org