The Condon Report: Did Science Close the Book on UFOs?
An Air Force-funded study at the University of Colorado concluded in 1968 that 21 years of UFO study had added nothing to scientific knowledge.
The Condon Report was an Air Force-funded UFO study at the University of Colorado, made public in January 1969. It concluded that 21 years of UFO study had added nothing to scientific knowledge, and it led to the closing of Project Blue Book.
In 1966 the Air Force paid the University of Colorado in Boulder to study UFOs scientifically. The physicist Edward U. Condon led the roughly $500,000 project. The report was delivered in November 1968 and made public in January 1969. It ran to about 1,485 pages in hardcover and included 59 detailed case studies, covering photographs, radar-visual reports and sightings by astronauts.
Condon's summary is famous: "Our general conclusion is that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to scientific knowledge." The report even recommended "that teachers refrain from giving students credit for school work based on their reading of the presently available UFO books and magazine articles." A National Academy of Sciences panel reviewed the study and agreed that "the least likely explanation of UFOs is the hypothesis of extraterrestrial visitations."
The project was controversial before it was finished. In an August 1966 memo, project coordinator Robert Low suggested the study could appear to the public as "a totally objective study" while looking to scientists like "a group of non-believers trying their best to be objective." When the memo came out in 1968, Look magazine ran a story called "Flying Saucer Fiasco," and the civilian group NICAP cut ties with the project.
The report ended Project Blue Book. According to the National Archives, the Air Force closed Blue Book on December 17, 1969, after evaluating the University of Colorado study and the National Academy of Sciences review of it. Blue Book's final tally was 12,618 reported sightings, 701 of them unidentified. In announcing the closure, the Air Force said there had been "no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as 'unidentified' are extraterrestrial vehicles." The New York Times summed up the Colorado report in a headline: "U.F.O. Finding: No Visits From Afar."
A federally funded scientific report formally advised teachers not to give students credit for school work based on UFO books and magazines.
The Condon team found ordinary explanations for most cases, and a National Academy of Sciences panel agreed with its conclusion. Critics, including NICAP, argued that the Low memo showed the study had made up its mind in advance.
