Las Vegas hosted the world’s largest UFO database — until it vanished

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — In a hidden Las Vegas facility, the world's largest UFO information warehouse was compiled by a concealed authorities programme — astatine slightest until the Pentagon pulled the plug. But what secrets did researchers observe beforehand, and wherefore is the information inactive shrouded successful mystery?

In 1977's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," fictional French idiosyncratic Claude Lacombe, portrayed by histrion François Truffaut, led an planetary effort to survey and yet pass with extraterrestrial visitors. That quality was inspired by real-life researcher Jacques Vallée, a stone prima successful the satellite of UFO investigations. Vallée's relationship with Las Vegas billionaire Robert Bigelow led to a collaboration connected behalf of the Defense Intelligence Agency to signifier the largest acknowledged UFO survey ever funded by the US government. It was called the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP).

AAWSAP

The programme was kept wholly concealed wrong a subdivision of Bigelow Aerospace, which aimed to make the eventual UFO database, supervised by Vallée.

“We ended up with fundamentally a information warehouse with 260,000 filtered cases from each implicit the world, each successful English," Vallée said. The UFO cases, gathered from erstwhile US authorities programs, overseas governments, and civilian collections, became the largest compilation known to exist.

Vallée, a pioneer successful the tract of artificial intelligence, had intended to instal an AI constituent that would hunt for patterns successful the information and yet recognize what it was seeing. However, AAWSAP, initially a five-year program, lasted lone 27 months. Its achromatic fund funding, championed by Sen. Harry Reid, was chopped disconnected erstwhile Pentagon officials opposed to UFO probe discovered its existence.

Vallée mentioned that though helium and everyone other moving for AAWSAP received top-secret information clearances, determination were interior accusation silos. This meant that not everyone progressive successful the programme was permitted to spot oregon sermon the accusation contained successful each of the 12 main sections of the information warehouse. As a result, determination was small to nary connection betwixt them.

Forbidden Science, Scattered Sastles

Vallée's newest book, "Forbidden Science 6: Scattered Castles," is simply a candid, idiosyncratic diary astir the years surrounding his information successful AAWSAP. In the book, helium openly acknowledges what has agelong been suspected — that the U.S. authorities and defence contractors person recovered and studied materials from crashed UFOs.

Bigelow spent astir $1 cardinal to retrofit his aerospace works successful anticipation of receiving and analyzing antithetic materials that had been hidden for decades. Dr. James Lacatski, a Defense Intelligence Agency expert who managed AAWSAP, publically acknowledged that 1 intact trade had been recovered. David Grusch, a erstwhile quality officer, testified nether oath to Congress that specified recoveries had occurred. Bigelow had engaged successful conversations with Lockheed astir transferring immoderate of the mysterious worldly to AAWSAP.

“I was portion of those discussions, and I deliberation they're still... down the veil," Vallée said. "I could not beryllium definite that I [could] springiness you a implicit answer.”

Although helium nary longer has a information clearance, Vallée said helium is cautious astir crossing a enactment and discussing matters that stay highly classified. He and colleagues, including Dr. Garry Nolan of Stanford, person acquired their ain bits and pieces from UFO incidents and clang sites and are subjecting those samples to rigorous investigating utilizing caller technologies.

Although the information warehouse created nether AAWSAP has ne'er been released to the public, it is successful usage by different authorities entities progressive successful UFO studies.