Pentagon Releases First Batch of UFO Files: 5 Highlights

The disclosure includes reports from Apollo astronauts of unexplained phenomena seen during lunar missions.

Published: 5/8/2026, 10:06:27 PM EDT

Pentagon Releases First Batch of UFO Files: 5 Highlights — The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command reported a UAP that resembled a football-shaped body near Japan in 2024. The image was released on May 8, 2026. (Department of War)

Apollo 11 astronauts reported seeing a “sizeable” object close to the moon with a “fairly bright light source” that they described as a “possible laser,” in a newly released post-mission crew debriefing from NASA.

That document, along with videos and images of unknown objects in airspace from nearly all corners of the globe, was included in newly released files from the Pentagon related to the U.S. government’s investigations into unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). The first tranche of files was released on May 8.

“As for my promise to you, the Department of War has released the first tranche of the UFO/UAP files to the Public for their review and study,” President Donald Trump wrote on social media Friday morning.

“With these new Documents and Videos, the people can decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!”

While the Pentagon had been increasingly declassifying various UFO and UAP files throughout the past decade, Trump threw the topic back into public focus when he suggested in February that a document release could be coming soon.

The first batch of released files includes FBI interviews and internal communications, State Department cables, NASA crew transcripts, and videos of potential UFOs.

Here are five highlights from a partial review of the new file release.

Moon Sightings

The newly released documents reveal that NASA astronauts encountered a series of unexplained phenomena during multiple Apollo missions.

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin reported witnessing a “fairly bright light source” which he described as a “possible laser” while in lunar orbit, according to a previously confidential crew debriefing of Apollo 11 taken on July 31, 1969.

The Apollo 12 flight crew observed two separate incidents of an “unidentified phenomenon” in November 1969.

Apollo 12 astronaut Alan L. Bean described observing particles of light “sailing off in space,” that looked as if they were “escaping the Moon.” Charles “Pete” Conrad made a separate observation of seeing floating debris outside the lunar module.

Apollo 17 astronauts reported three different unexplained events on three separate days of their 1972 mission.

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt said he observed a flash on the lunar surface north of the Grimaldi crater. He described it as a “thin streak of light.”

Schmitt experienced another unexplained event with Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, as they observed “very bright particles or fragments” drifting and “tumbling” near the spacecraft.

“There’s a whole bunce (sic) of big ones on my window down there—just bright,” Schmitt said. “It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron’s window.”

In a separate incident on the same Apollo 17 mission, Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan said he experienced an intense, “imposing” light flashing between his eyes like it was a train headlight.

Amid those sightings, the astronauts took a photo of what appeared to be three dots in a triangular formation in the sky above the moon. NASA noted that while the image has been released previously, “there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly.”

A NASA file photo from the Apollo 17 Mission, taken in December 1972, shows an unidentified anomalous phenomenon in the sky above the moon. (Courtesy of the Pentagon) — A NASA file photo from the Apollo 17 Mission, taken in December 1972, shows an unidentified anomalous phenomenon in the sky above the moon. Courtesy of the Pentagon

'Eight-Pointed Star'

The Epoch Times reviewed all the videos included in the Pentagon’s initial UFO file release. Potentially the most striking video came from U.S. Central Command in 2013, which shows an aerial object that was described as “an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length.”

The object appears to be hovering in the one-minute forty-six-second video.

A newly released video of a potential UAP by the Pentagon shows an aerial object that was described as “an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length.” (Courtesy of the Pentagon/Screenshot by The Epoch Times) — A newly released video of a potential UAP by the Pentagon shows an aerial object that was described as “an eight-pointed star with arms of alternating length.” Courtesy of the Pentagon/Screenshot by The Epoch Times

U.S. Central Command reported another potential UFO that was filmed from an infrared sensor aboard a U.S. military platform in 2022. The report described the object as a “possible missile” quickly moving across the field of view.

In a third video, another U.S. military infrared sensor films two bright objects that seemingly track across the sky in formation. The objects appear with high contrast against the sky’s backdrop.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command submitted a video from 2024 to the Pentagon that was also filmed with an infrared sensor, tracking a potential UFO through an area containing multiple windmills.

FBI Probes Multi-Witness Sighting

The file dump included multiple heavily redacted FBI interview reports from a multi-witness sighting at an unknown U.S. testing facility in September 2023.

In one report, a woman describes a strange series of events that occurred one morning when she and several government contractors were working on a special project under restricted airspace.

While trying to enter a remote-controlled gate at the undisclosed U.S. testing facility, the gate “opened just a little and then closed on three separate tries” before finally opening on the fourth attempt.

The report said the gate had zero operational issues before or after the incident occurred.

As the woman’s vehicle drove through the gate entrance, she “looked up and saw a cigar-shaped object with an extremely bright light” anywhere between 500 and 3000 feet above the nearest treeline.

She described it as “metallic bronze in color” and the length of two to three Black Hawk helicopters “lined up nose to tail.” The woman and another unnamed contractor watched the object for five to 10 seconds before it disappeared, leaving no contrails.

The FBI included a composite sketch of the reported object.

In this handout image provided by the Department of War, an actual site photo with FBI Lab rendered graphic overlay depicting corroborating eyewitness reports from September 2023 of an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky, 130-195 feet in length, and disappearing instantaneously. (US Department of War via Getty Images) — In this handout image provided by the Department of War, an actual site photo with FBI Lab rendered graphic overlay depicting corroborating eyewitness reports from September 2023 of an apparent ellipsoid bronze metallic object materializing out of a bright light in the sky, 130-195 feet in length, and disappearing instantaneously. US Department of War via Getty Images

These were not the only witnesses. The FBI interviewed a drone pilot operating near the same testing facility who also claimed to see the object, and other redacted witnesses driving towards the facility that day who saw it as well.

‘Cobalt Ray’ Telegram

One of the seemingly strangest documents seen thus far by The Epoch Times in the Pentagon’s initial UFO file release is an internal FBI memo from 1967, sent from the Bureau’s legal attaché in Mexico City to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Marked as “classified SECRET,” the memo reproduces a telegram sent to Mexico’s Federal Security Police by a W.R. Hanawalt, who reportedly sent it from Harlingen, Texas, in December 1966.

Hanawalt tells of a strange technological object that he describes as a “laser ray, or cobalt ray” that is “self-enshrouding” and “similar in use to a cocoon around a silk worm.” He says the ray can enclose a person’s entire nervous system, allowing the operator to produce “visions of flying objects.”

“Breathing and heartbeat can be absolutely manipulated—your lie detector tests can be positively controlled without your knowledge,” Hanawalt writes, adding that the ray can manipulate a person’s five senses.

“They have infiltrated almost every business level,” he says, referring to those who operate the alleged technology.

“I have stated the possibility of premeditated murder from the standpoint of the operator, his vehicle and add to this the same conditions for the other vehicles involved. These are manipulated by the ‘rotten apples’ in the barrel of any Federal security arm, who are untouchable because of betrayal of Federal top secrets they have sworn to defend,” Hanawalt adds.

Other than the “SECRET” stamps on the document and barely legible handwritten notes, the only notation from the FBI is that the Bureau had no information in its files on Hanawalt.

'Bright Light of Enormous Intensity'

The trove of files also included multiple State Department cables and documents.

In one cable, dated Jan. 31, 1994, an object was reportedly seen over Kazakhstan by Tajik air pilots, who described it as a “bright light of enormous intensity” that approached them from over the horizon.

“They watched the object for some forty minutes as it maneuvered in circles, corkscrews, and made 90-degree turns at rapid rates of speed and under very high [G-forces],” the cable said. “After some time, the object adopted a horizontal high-speed course and disappeared over the horizon.”

The captain took photos of the object with a pocket Olympus camera. Those photos were not included with the report.

In another State Department cable dated Jan. 28, 1985, a “high-altitude, high-speed aircraft” was observed over Papua New Guinea by the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby.

Local residents reportedly became frightened by unidentified aerial objects flying overhead. The reports described “fast-moving objects with lights, contrails, and noise.”

A pilot reported seeing an aircraft on radar “flying south to north at high altitude and high speed.”

The State Department told Papua New Guinea’s National Intelligence Organization that it knew of no overflights of U.S. military B-52s, or U.S. aircraft in the area on the night of the reported incidents.

From The Epoch Times