Project Blue Book Closure — Condon Committee and USAF Decision

Project Blue Book was the US Air Force's third and longest-running official UAP investigation program, operating from March 1952 to December 17, 1969, at Wright-Patterson AFB under the Air Technical Intelligence Center. It investigated 12,618 reports, of which 701 (5.5%) were officially classified as 'Unknown' — could not be explained after investigation. The program was publicly positioned as evidence the USAF took UAP seriously while internally operating under a 1953 Robertson Panel directive to reduce public interest in UAP through debunking. Captain Edward Ruppelt, who headed Blue Book 1951–1953, documented systematic pressure to explain away reports in his 1956 memoir. Congress funded the University of Colorado to conduct an independent study (the Condon Committee, 1966–1968). The Condon Report concluded UAP investigation offered no scientific benefit, despite a significant minority of the committee's own case analyses producing 'Unknown' classifications. The USAF used the Condon Report to justify Blue Book's closure. The complete Project Blue Book case files — 12,618 reports spanning 1947–1969 — were declassified and transferred to the National Archives. They are publicly accessible at NARA as microfilm records and digitized by the National Archives. The files constitute the largest single public collection of official government UAP investigation records.