NASA Administrator Frosch Rejects Carter Administration UFO Panel Request

In December 1977, NASA Administrator Robert Frosch formally declined a request from White House Science Advisor Frank Press to establish a scientific panel reviewing new UFO evidence since the 1968 Condon Report. The refusal effectively closed a brief window during which the Carter administration considered re-engaging the civilian UAP question.

The Incident

In July 1977, Frank Press — serving as Science Advisor to President Jimmy Carter and Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy — wrote to NASA Administrator Robert Frosch suggesting NASA convene a panel to assess whether post-Condon findings warranted renewed scientific investigation. The request was prompted in part by President Carter's personal interest in the topic, stemming from his own 1969 UFO sighting in Leary, Georgia. Frosch initially responded with apparent openness to the request.

NASA's Response

By December 1977, Frosch formally declined, citing the absence of what he described as bona fide physical evidence that would justify a government research program. His letter concluded that NASA could not productively pursue the investigation and declined to host either a formal research program or a scientific symposium on the topic.

Significance

The Press-Frosch exchange is cited by researchers as a pivotal moment in which the executive branch foreclosed a serious scientific engagement with the UAP question. It is documented in Leslie Kean's "UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record" (2010) as an example of institutional resistance during a period of rare political openness. The decision contributed to the perception that the US government considered the UFO topic settled, even as pilot, military, and civilian reports continued to accumulate.