For decades, the United States government maintained a simple position on UFOs: there's nothing to see here. That position has collapsed. Here's how we got from Project Blue Book to aliens.gov — a timeline of the slow, grinding shift from institutional denial to something that looks increasingly like disclosure.
// 1947 — THE BEGINNING
June 1947 — Kenneth Arnold sighting. Pilot Kenneth Arnold reports nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier, Washington at speeds he estimated at over 1,200 mph. A journalist coins the term "flying saucers." The modern UFO era begins.
July 1947 — Roswell. The Army Air Forces announces recovery of a "flying disc" near Roswell, New Mexico, then quickly retracts the statement, claiming it was a weather balloon. The incident becomes the most famous UFO case in history and a symbol of government coverup.
// 1948-1969 — THE STUDY ERA
1948 — Project Sign. The Air Force launches its first official UFO investigation. An early estimate concludes UFOs are likely interplanetary — the report is rejected by leadership and allegedly destroyed.
1952 — Project Blue Book. The Air Force's longest-running UFO investigation begins, eventually cataloging 12,618 sightings. Of those, 701 remain officially "unidentified."
1953 — The Robertson Panel. A CIA-sponsored panel recommends that UFO reports be debunked and public interest discouraged to prevent mass hysteria. This sets the tone for decades of official dismissal.
1966 — Congressional hearings. The House Armed Services Committee holds open hearings on UFOs. The Air Force recommends an independent scientific study.
1969 — Blue Book closes. Following the Condon Report, which concludes UFO study has no scientific value, Project Blue Book is terminated. The Air Force declares it will no longer investigate UFOs. The door officially closes.
// 1970-2016 — THE QUIET YEARS
1970s-2000s — Official silence. For nearly five decades, the U.S. government maintains no public UFO investigation program. Behind the scenes, the story is different — classified programs and informal investigations continue, but officially, the subject is dead.
2007 — AATIP begins. The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program is quietly established within the Pentagon, funded with $22 million at the request of Senator Harry Reid. Its existence won't be public for a decade.
// 2017-2020 — THE DAM BREAKS
December 2017 — The New York Times bombshell. The Times reveals the existence of AATIP and publishes three Navy videos showing encounters with unidentified objects. The Pentagon confirms the videos are authentic. After 50 years of silence, UFOs are back on the record.
2019 — Navy establishes reporting guidelines. The U.S. Navy creates formal procedures for pilots to report UAP encounters — a tacit acknowledgment that these encounters are real and frequent enough to require institutional response.
April 2020 — Pentagon officially releases UFO videos. The Department of Defense formally declassifies three Navy UAP videos (FLIR1, Gimbal, GoFast), confirming they show genuinely unidentified objects.
// 2021-2023 — INSTITUTIONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENT
June 2021 — DNI Preliminary Assessment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence releases the first official government UAP report, acknowledging 144 encounters. Only one is explained. The report states UAPs pose potential flight safety and national security concerns.
May 2022 — Congressional hearings resume. The House Intelligence Subcommittee holds the first open congressional hearings on UFOs in over 50 years. Pentagon officials testify under oath about UAP encounters.
July 2022 — AARO established. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office is created within the DoD as the successor to AATIP and the UAP Task Force. For the first time, the government has a permanent, named office for UAP investigation.
July 2023 — Grusch testimony. Intelligence officer David Grusch testifies before Congress that the U.S. government possesses retrieved non-human craft and has been running a decades-long reverse engineering program. Other witnesses, including Navy pilots Ryan Graves and David Fravor, corroborate encounters with unknown objects displaying extraordinary capabilities.
July 2023 — UAP Disclosure Act introduced. Senators Schumer and Rounds introduce the UAP Disclosure Act, modeled after the JFK Records Act, seeking mandatory declassification of all UAP records.
// 2024-2026 — THE DISCLOSURE ERA
December 2023 — NDAA passes with UAP provisions. A stripped-down version of the Disclosure Act survives in the FY2024 NDAA. The eminent domain and review board provisions are removed, but reporting requirements and whistleblower protections are strengthened.
2024-2025 — Continued hearings and AARO reports. Additional congressional hearings feature new witnesses. AARO releases its historical review, which is criticized as incomplete but does acknowledge genuinely unexplained cases. Bipartisan support for full disclosure continues to grow.
March 17, 2026 — Aliens.gov registered. CISA registers aliens.gov and alien.gov through the official .gov registrar. No announcement accompanies the registration. The domains remain dark. The internet takes notice.
// WHERE WE STAND
The trajectory is unmistakable. In 1969, the government closed the book on UFOs. In 2026, the government registered aliens.gov. Whatever lies between those two points — classified programs, retrieved materials, decades of institutional secrecy — the public-facing posture has fundamentally shifted.
The question is no longer whether the government takes UAPs seriously. The question is what they're preparing to tell us.
We're watching. So should you.