Stephen Spignesi - The Big Book of UFO Facts, Figures & Truth: A Comprehensive Examination

Copyright 2019 by Stephen Spignesi & William Birnes

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Rain Saukas

Print ISBN: 978-1-51072-085-5

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-51072-086-2

Printed in United States of America

DEDICATION

Stephen Spignesi

This book is dedicated to my friends Colin Andrews & Synthia Andrews

William Birnes

I dedicate this book to my wife and co-host on Future Theater , Nancy Birnes,

and to my wonderful cast and crew on the History Channels UFO Hunters series.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

This Used to Be Our Playground

To introduce this new edition of this book, we once again would like to briefly step aside and defer to two men who share the name of John.

The first is author John White, from his book, The Meeting of Science and Spirit:

If UFOs do not exist, then neither do stars. Some of the same types of evidence which long ago convinced us stars exist suggest that UFOs are a reality as well: visual sightings around the world by competent witnesses, photographs and films of their appearance in the sky (pronounced genuine by many reputable experts), and observable secondary effects such as skin burns (equivalent to sunburn) and other radiational effects seen on those who claim to have had UFO encounters.

The evidence is in: UFOs are real.

The second is seventeenth-century poet John Donne, from his essay, Meditations Upon Our Human Condition:

Men that inhere upon nature only, are so far from thinking, that there is anything singular in this world, as that they will scarce think, that this world itself is singular, but that every planet, and every star, is another world like this; they find reason to conceive, not only a plurality in every species in the world, but a plurality of worlds; so that the abhorrers of solitude, are not solitary; for God, and nature and reason concur against it.

It is incredibly arrogant on the part of mankind to believe that in a universe unimaginably vast, humans are the only life form in existence.

Perhaps the chapters that follow will mitigate this foolhardyand ultimately dangerous terran narcissism.

The galaxyand beyondis not only mankinds playground anymore and the skies await us.

Godspeed.

STEPHEN SPIGNESI

WILLIAM BIRNES

Currently Uninvolved: NASAs Official Statement on the US Governments Involvement in Investigating UFO Reports

This is what the US government has to say about its current involvement in the UFO controversy. Your reaction to this statement will depend in a large part on your personal point of view regarding the UFO phenomenon.

FS-1997-01-017-HQ:
The US Government and Unidentified Flying Objects

No branch of the United States Government is currently involved with or responsible for investigations into the possibility of alien life on other planets or for investigating Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs). The US Air Force (USAF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have had intermittent, independent investigations of the possibility of alien life on other planets; however, none of these has produced factual evidence that life exists on other planets, nor that UFOs are related to aliens. From 1947 to 1969, the Air Force investigated UFOs; then in 1977, NASA was asked to examine the possibility of resuming UFO investigations. After studying all of the facts available, it was determined that nothing would be gained by further investigation, since there was an absence of tangible evidence. In October 1992, NASA was directed by Congress to begin a detailed search for artificial radio signals from other civilizations under the NASA Towards Other Planetary Systems (TOPS)/High Resolution Microwave Survey (HRMS) program (also known as the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project). Congress directed NASA to end this project in October 1993, citing pressures on the US Federal budget. The HRMS did not detect any confirmed signal before it was stopped. However, similar work will continue in a more limited manner through efforts of private groups and through academic institutions. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI Institute) in Mountain View, CA, effectively replaced the Government project, borrowing the signal processing system from NASA. The SETI Institute is a nonprofit corporation conducting research in a number of fields including all science and technology aspects of astronomy and planetary sciences, chemical evolution, the origin of life, biological evolution, and cultural evolution.

During several space missions, NASA astronauts have reported phenomena not immediately explainable; however, in every instance NASA determined that the observations could not be termed abnormal in the space environment. The 1947 to 1969 USAF investigations studied UFOs under Project Blue Book. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was terminated December 17, 1969. Of the total of 12,618 sightings reported to Project Blue Book, 701 remain unidentified.

The decision to diskontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects; a review of the University of Colorados report by the National Academy of Sciences; previous UFO studies; and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. As a result of experience, investigations, and studies since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book were: (1) no UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever a threat to our national security; (2) there was no evidence submitted to, or diskovered by, the Air Force that sightings categorized as unidentified represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge; and (3) there was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as unidentified were extraterrestrial vehicles.