US Congress will hold another UFO hearing today. Here's how to watch

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The U.S. government is holding another hearing on UFOs today, and you can watch it live.

The U.S. House of Representative's Committee on Oversight and Accountability will administer the hearing, titled "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth." The name of the event refers to UFOs by their new preferred acronym, which is more inclusive of sightings that might take place not only in the air but also in space, as well as those that take place across multiple domains.

The hearing will be held at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington D.C. at 11:30 a.m. ET (1630 GMT) on Wednesday (Nov. 13). You can watch it live here on Space.com, courtesy of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.

This marks the second congressional hearing U.S. Congress has put together in order to "further pull back the curtain on secret UAP research programs conducted by the U.S. government, and undisclosed findings they have yielded," according to a House statement. The hearing will examine the U.S. Department of Defense's strict classification policies when it comes to UAP and related topics, and will explore ways to "make sure the American public is better informed on this topic."

This will be a joint hearing, led by representatives Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), who argue that "the American people are tired of the obfuscation and refusal to release information by the federal government," according to the House's statement.

"Americans deserve to understand what the government has learned about UAP sightings, and the nature of any potential threats these phenomena pose. We can only ensure that understanding by providing consistent, systemic transparency. We look forward to hearing from expert witnesses on ways to shed more light and bring greater accountability to this issue," Mace and Grothman said in the statement.

Expert witnesses in the hearing will include Luis Elizondo, a decorated former counterintelligence officer who has claimed for years that the U.S. government is hiding knowledge of UAP, including materials recovered from crashed flying saucers.

"The cover-up and disinformation campaign has been so successful that most scientists do not even know UAP are real," Elizondo wrote in his 2024 book "Imminent." The book also claims that four "deceased nonhuman bodies" were recovered from the infamous 1947 crash in Roswell, New Mexico and that "China and Russia do not have the same stigma and can employ their scientists to work on this topic for them."

Elizondo has also claimed firsthand knowledge of U.S. programs that employ individuals with psychic powers to "remote view" distant locations. Most recently, the former counterintelligence officer held a paid event where a photo was shown that Elizondo claimed was a "real photo" of a "mothership" UFO above a U.S. embassy. Within days, the photo was found to be the reflection of a lamp in a window.

The House hearing will also include Tim Gallaudet, a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral who unidentified submersible objects, arguing that "these underwater anomalies jeopardize US maritime security." Gallaudet has also told interviewers that his daughter is a "medium" who can communicate with spirits.

Other speakers at the hearing include journalist Michael Shellenberger, who has also claimed the U.S. government is hiding UFO crash retrieval programs, and former NASA Associate Administrator of Space Policy and Partnerships Michael Gold, who is a member of NASA's independent UAP study team.

According to NASA Administrator Bill Nelson's remarks in September 2024 when the team's report was released, "the top takeaway from the study is that there is a lot more to learn." 

"The NASA independent study team did not find any evidence that UAP have an extraterrestrial origin, but we don't know what these UAP are," Nelson said.

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Brett Tingley
Managing Editor, Space.com

Brett is curious about emerging aerospace technologies, alternative launch concepts, military space developments and uncrewed aircraft systems. Brett's work has appeared on Scientific American, The War Zone, Popular Science, the History Channel, Science Discovery and more. Brett has English degrees from Clemson University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In his free time, Brett enjoys skywatching throughout the dark skies of the Appalachian mountains.

  • GJKamburoff
    I am a techie, having served at the AF Flight Test Center when we had all three variants of Blackirds, both Mach Three XB-70 bombers, our X-15s, NF-104s and other pursuits of hard knowledge.
    But I saw one. A UFO. Last year I was using google earth to scan over the Nevada Test Site, where it was as clear as possible, and there it was; a shiny circular disk. No question about it . I was too shaken to get the coordinates and knew I did not want to have to justify the picture, and hurriedly left.
    Reply
  • grtblu
    The nice thing about UFO's is that they are UNIDENTIFIED. They may be solid objects or just clusters of photon's, who knows? With today's megapixel camera's, one ought to see at least 1 sharp and in focus picture. there are none. All, even from military cameras are blurry. same for loch ness monster and bigfoot. BLURRY.
    I support the view of a stand up comedian, all pictures of ufo's are blurry because they are fuzzy blurry things. So watching a bunch of politicians hear a variety of speculation, no facts, about blurry objects is laughable.
    Reply
  • Unclear Engineer
    Now that everybody has AI that can generate sort-of-realistic pictures, I am sure we will see some non-blurry pictures of UFOs, and maybe even their crews. And, counting fingers won't help identify AI-generated "evidence" in this case.

    So, it is going to take some DNA, at least. And we had better hurry getting that, before the CRISPR gurus figure out how to make genomes from scratch.
    Reply
  • Zaphod the Elder
    Wow, congress is taking more, serious looks at UFOs. Believe it or not, this is about the most non-crazy thing the US government and leaders are doing. CRAZY times.
    Reply
  • COLGeek
    I fully expect to get exactly zip/zilch/nadda in any meaningful way from this event. Just more to spin up the conspiracy theorists, unfortunately.

    Maybe I'll be surprised, but not likely.
    Reply
  • Unclear Engineer
    GJKamburoff said:
    I am a techie, having served at the AF Flight Test Center when we had all three variants of Blackirds, both Mach Three XB-70 bombers, our X-15s, NF-104s and other pursuits of hard knowledge.
    But I saw one. A UFO. Last year I was using google earth to scan over the Nevada Test Site, where it was as clear as possible, and there it was; a shiny circular disk. No question about it . I was too shaken to get the coordinates and knew I did not want to have to justify the picture, and hurriedly left.
    Screen shot or "it didn't happen".
    Reply
  • Dave
    It is quite an accomplishment and we should applaud them. Both the DOD and the Pentagon have lied, misdirected and covered up the truth about UAP's for decades. How did they achieve this successful goal.
    1. Specific wings of the military disclosed no information to the public.
    2. Credible witnesses were both intimidated and threatened by the military.
    3. Secret wings of the military do everything in their power to discredit credible witnesses who saw with their own eyes spacecraft that defied the laws of physics. Intelligent lifeforms are observing our world and the truth is being kept from the public.

    It is with great anticipation that we continue to hear the truth during these congressional meetings. We should all applaud the bipartisan members of congress who are steadfast in their efforts to uncover the truth. Enormous amounts of money are spent on these secret programs which the military say of course do not exist.
    Reply
  • George²
    Something that I shot before a month in the sky. Zoomed and screenshot from my phone. UFO or not it was not moving and for unarmed eyes like just bright star.
    Reply
  • Gibsense
    George² said:
    https://i.postimg.cc/5NmtD03J/Screenshot-2024-11-01-22-27-07-56-e5d3893ac03954c6bb675ef2555b879b.jpgSomething that I shot before a month in the sky. Zoomed and screenshot from my phone. UFO or not it was not moving and for unarmed eyes like just bright star.
    If you saw that in the sky it was a UFO by definition
    Reply
  • SawSaturnVLaunch
    I don't understand what skeptics do with the Navy pilot UAP/UFO sightings. Clearly these craft are exhibiting flight characteristics and engineering that have no known origins on this planet - or at least let's hope not - because if they originate from our adversaries, we are royally screwed. A reminder of the facts: The craft exhibit no known flight required surfaces. No exhaust or thermal plume. Make right angled turns. Instantaneous acceleration and stops - which would turn any human pilot into orange juice. Trans medium travel from air to water. Speeds that so far have been unattainable by any earthly engineered aircraft. What do you do with these observations? Tell these highly-trained, best of the best, flying multi-million dollar aircraft pilots in our military they don't know what the hell they are talking about? C'mon....

    Here's the other thing: if you think that the Navy pilot UAP sightings are the only example of legitimate witness reports or sightings your ignorant of the data. That's not meant as an insult, it just means you haven't taken a serious look at vetted witness sightings, reports, or for that matter - photographs. The fact is there are thousands of sightings going back hundreds of years from reliable witnesses that are as yet unexplained and those are just the ones we know about. We also know there are plenty of witnesses - especially commercial pilots - who refuse to make an official report for fear they will be called wingnuts - just as is intimated here. Google the following UFO events then just explain them away: The McMinville UFO photo (remember this was before digital manipulations existed), Japanese air cargo FLT 1628, the Cash-Landrum incident, the Malstrom Nuclear missile incident, and the Ariel school report in Zimbabwe. (Even as adults their reports of what happened hasn't wavered in decades.) Those are just the tip of the iceberg. If all of these events can be explained away as hallucinations, hoaxes, incorrect identification of existing craft, weather events, or something else, or are just the result of substance-induced imaginations then that phenomena is even more rare than the idea these are intelligent beings visiting our planet. Name one other similar event in history that can even come close to the scope and breadth of this one that can be dismissed in a similar fashion. You can't, because it doesn't exist.

    We now know they are likely billions of earth-like worlds in our galaxy alone. Last estimate I heard was that there's a potential of two trillion galaxies in the universe. Let's put two and two together here. The chances are extremely likely that other intelligent lifeforms have developed on some of those planets. And please don't give me the tired, old-argument, "Even so...we're too far away for a visit." Of course that's true, if you use our understanding of conventional propulsion (which these UAPs don't appear to use.) What about for a civilization that's hundreds of year in advance of our engineering? What if that civilization is thousands of years ahead of us? What about millions? (As astronaut Storey Musgrave has hypothesized...is he a wingnut too?) So...why haven't they landed at the UN or the Whitehouse and shooks hands with world leaders? Asking that question of a civilization that has figured out intergalactic travel to a civilization that hasn't even walked on Mars yet - and has thousands of nuclear warheads aimed at each other threatening to innihilate the planet - is like asking why we haven't initiated diplomatic relationships with the common ground squirrel. What's the point? Furthermore to assign all human psychological motivations and purpose to an alien civilization is ridiculous.
    Reply