Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (National Archives News, 2019)

NARA Report landing 1960s Official link verified

Summary

AI-assisted summary — not an official document and not authoritative. It condenses the machine-extracted text; the original is the only authoritative source. Generated by summary:claude-opus-4-8@v1; last reviewed 2026-07-06.

A National Archives News article (5 December 2019) marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force's termination of Project Blue Book, quoting the Secretary of the Air Force's 1969 statement and the project's case-count statistics.

This is a National Archives News article, published 5 December 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force's termination of Project Blue Book. According to the article, Project Blue Book investigated 12,618 reported UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969, of which 701 remained classified "Unidentified." The Secretary of the Air Force announced the project's termination on 17 December 1969, stating that its continuation "cannot be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science" — a decision the article attributes to an independent University of Colorado study, a National Academy of Sciences review of it, and the Air Force's own investigative experience. The article is published on archives.gov. This archive links the official record only and endorses no conclusion beyond what the article records.

Common questions

What is this record?
It is an archive entry pointing to a National Archives News article, published 5 December 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force's termination of Project Blue Book. The article is published on archives.gov.
What does the article say about Project Blue Book's case count?
According to the article, Project Blue Book investigated 12,618 reported UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969, of which 701 remained classified 'Unidentified.' This archive reports the article's stated figures and does not interpret them.
Why was Project Blue Book terminated?
According to the article, the Secretary of the Air Force announced the termination on 17 December 1969, citing an independent University of Colorado study, a National Academy of Sciences review of it, and the Air Force's own investigative experience. This archive reports the article's stated rationale and does not endorse it.
Can I read the full article on this archive?
No. This archive is link-only and hosts no copy of the article. To read it, use the official National Archives News source linked from this record, which is authoritative.

Source & Classification

Record metadata

Record type
Report landing
Decade
1960s
Review status
published
Publication status
published

Official source link

https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/project-blue-book-50th-anniversary

Documents are linked to their official source pages, with a local preservation copy of the public-domain U.S.-government document where available; the official source is authoritative. Videos are linked, not hosted. Copyright and license notes are recorded per source.

Topics

Cite this record

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). "Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (National Archives News, 2019)". 1960s. Official source: https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/project-blue-book-50th-anniversary. Cataloged by the independent UAP Records Archive (not an official or government source): https://uap-archive.org/uap/records/nara-project-blue-book-50th-anniversary/.

APA

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). (1960s). Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (National Archives News, 2019). https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/project-blue-book-50th-anniversary

MLA

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). "Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (National Archives News, 2019)." 1960s, https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/project-blue-book-50th-anniversary.

Chicago

National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). "Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (National Archives News, 2019)." 1960s. https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/project-blue-book-50th-anniversary.

BibTeX

@misc{uaprecords_nara-project-blue-book-50th-anniversary,
  title  = {Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (National Archives News, 2019)},
  author = {National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)},
  year   = {1960s},
  howpublished = {Official source: https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/project-blue-book-50th-anniversary},
  note   = {Cataloged by the independent UAP Records Archive — not an official or government source},
  url    = {https://uap-archive.org/uap/records/nara-project-blue-book-50th-anniversary/}
}

Embed this record

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<figure style="max-width:600px;margin:0;">
  <a href="https://uap-archive.org/uap/records/nara-project-blue-book-50th-anniversary/"><img src="https://uap-archive.org/og/records/nara-project-blue-book-50th-anniversary.png" alt="Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (National Archives News, 2019) — UAP Records Archive" width="600" style="width:100%;height:auto;border:0;" loading="lazy"></a>
  <figcaption style="font-size:13px;line-height:1.5;">National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). &quot;Public Interest in UFOs Persists 50 Years After Project Blue Book Termination (National Archives News, 2019)&quot;. 1960s. Official source: https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/project-blue-book-50th-anniversary. Cataloged by the independent UAP Records Archive (not an official or government source): https://uap-archive.org/uap/records/nara-project-blue-book-50th-anniversary/. <a href="https://uap-archive.org/uap/records/nara-project-blue-book-50th-anniversary/">View record →</a></figcaption>
</figure>

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Evidence

License note (source-level)

National Archives News article, a U.S. Government work generally in the public domain under 17 U.S.C. §105.

Archivist note

A National Archives News article, published 5 December 2019, marking the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Air Force’s termination of Project Blue Book. According to the article, Project Blue Book investigated 12,618 reported UFO sightings between 1947 and 1969, of which 701 remained classified “Unidentified.” The Secretary of the Air Force announced the project’s termination on 17 December 1969, stating that its continuation “cannot be justified either on the ground of national security or in the interest of science” — a decision the article attributes to an evaluation of an independent University of Colorado study, a National Academy of Sciences review of that study, and the Air Force’s own investigative experience across the 1940s–1960s. This record links the official National Archives News article and its archived snapshot; it hosts no local copy. This archive is independent and is not an official or government source, asserts no extraterrestrial origin, and endorses no conclusion beyond what the official article records.

Uncertainty / Limits

Archive state (this release)

  1. Official source archives.gov ↗
  2. Archived 2026-04-27 ↗
  3. Added to archive
  4. Last revised
Record status
Official link verified
Review status
published
Publication status
published
Local copy
Not stored in U3
Summary
Published
Translation
Published — View in 中文 →

U3 does not download or locally store source files; the official National Archives News article and its archive snapshot are the authoritative public access points.

Translation

View in 中文 →