USG-UAP-D002, Interagency Correspondence Concerning Space Fragments, 1962-1964
This file contains a series of memoranda and correspondence exchanged among senior Executive Branch officials between October 2, 1962, and May 26, 1964, concerning the development of a policy framework and communications strategy for the recovery, handling, analysis, and disposition of materials associated with U.S. and foreign activities in space. Over the course of multiple drafts and revisions spanning nearly two years, the file documents efforts to establish jurisdictional boundaries based on the suspected origin and character of recovered material. In general, the proposed framework contemplated that material associated with a U.S. Department of Defense mission or equipment would be received, analyzed, and disposed of by the Department; that foreign space material would be turned over to the Department of Defense or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), depending on the circumstances; and that the Department of State would coordinate with foreign governments to secure access to such material when recovered abroad. The correspondence also reflects efforts to assign responsibility for hazardous or radioactive materials to the Atomic Energy Commission. Various drafts alternated between assigning responsibility for handling materials whose origin could not be readily determined to the Department of Defense or to NASA. The correspondence also reflects concern with public perception regarding recovery activity and includes draft public statements describing the proposed framework. This public messaging included language designating NASA as the holding authority for foreign materials, while private correspondence described a parallel plan to exploit such materials for technical analysis. Ultimately, although these negotiations did not produce a settled policy framework, the correspondence illustrates interagency deliberations between senior officials in the context of the Space Race and the broader Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The summary above is sourced from the released file metadata as published to war.gov. The analysis sections below are original to this tracker.
Text of the document
Machine-extracted from the PDF war.gov published (its text layer or OCR), so expect errors, especially in names, numbers and handwriting; the PDF is the authoritative copy. Lines that did not extract as readable text are left out. Showing about 993 words from pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 of 72.
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LBJ LIBRARY DOCUMENT WITHDRAWAL SHEET Page 1 Doc# DocType Doc Info Classification Pages Date Restriction qi iLifJ l4 [Duplicate of #25] Collection Title National Security File, Files of Charles E. Johnson Folder Title "Space Vehicle Fragments - Responsibilities and Procedures" Box Number 018 Restriction Codes 1/13/2009 (A) Closed by Executive Order 13292 governing acc... to national security Information. ~ (B) Closed by statute or by the agency which originated the document (C) Closed In accordance with restrictions contained In the donor's deed of gift.
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LBJ LIBRARY DOCUMENT WITHDRAWAL SHEET Page2 Doc# DocType Doc Info Classification Pages Date Restriction Collection Title National Security File, Files of Charles E. Johnson Folder Title "Space Vehicle Fragments - Responsibilities and Procedures" Box Number 018 Restriction Codes 1/13/2009 (A) Closed by Executive Order 13292 governing accns to national ncurlty lnfonnatlon. (B) Closed by statute or by the agency which originated the document Initials (C) Closed In accordance with restrictions contained In the donor's deed of gift.
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NASA HEADQUARTERS ROUTING SLIP CODE NAME (if necessary) 1. Charles Johnson 2. National Security INVESTIGATE AND ADVISE NOTE AND FORWARD NOTE AND RETURN PER REQUEST SEE ME REPLY FOR SIGNATURE OF: Underlined sections have been added since the last draf't.
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MANNED SPACECRAFT CENTER -- ATTN: DR . GILRUTH AND ..J-lJANcty UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE, THE FOLLO~aNG IS THE RESPONSE TO Of'::.:"·tI:~G SA- 6 BOOSTE • NO QUERIES VE BEEN RECEIVED PREDICTION . . NO INFORMATION IS BEi rG VOLU-TEERED. THIS RAS BEEN COORDINATED BY OUR INTERNATION.7\L PROGRAMS OFFICE WITH THE STATE DEPARTME.t."rr . . ALL ADDITIONAL RESPONSE OVER AND ABOVE THE FOLLOWING WILL. BE ONLY BY THE ADMINISTRATOR , THE DEPUTY ADtUNISTRATOR OR THE ASSOCIATE ~"vlINISTRATOR. QUERIES REQUIRING SUCH ADDITIONAL RESPONSES SHOULD BE REFERRED TO THEM. •A. Oij SIZE OF FRAGMENTS: ACTUAL SIZE AND NUMBER OF FRAGMEN'l'S CANNOT BE PREDICTED. DEC IFIED
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ON LOCATIOM OF Ii ·1'£1'1 SINCE T!US VEHICLE IMPROBABLE INCIDENT WOULD BE HEAVILY COl"JECTURAL. ON 'Ii-IE ORIGIN OF AN OBJECT . RA •ER . IT DESIR.ES TO OF SUCH AN OBJECT.
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.STUDY AND PROMPT PUBLIC 1..N!: U&CEMEN WILL BE MADE t'JHE.N ANALYSIS BAS BEEN COMPLET~D." JULIAN SCHEER FOR PUBLlC AFFAIRS Julian Scheer, Asst. Administra- ( ..
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FROM DATE OF DOCUMENT DATE RECEIVED NO: CHECK WHETHER ACTION COPY TO -------------------------1 COPY COPY DESTROYED ( DATE AND NO.) NUMBER OF COPIES CLASSIFICATION SUSPENSE DATE POST OFFICE MATERIAL~ REGISTRY NO. cret REFERRED TO REC'D. BY DATE REFERRED TO REC'D BY DATE DESCRIPTION ( MUST BE UNCLASSIFIED) C&T to ries □ NO REPLY NASA MAIL CONTROL FORM NASA 416A
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( PLACE NASA CONTROL FORMS HERE) This sheet and NASA Control Forms must be attached to Secret material while in the custody of NASA Headquarters. The attachment contains information affecting the National Defense of the United States within the meaning of the espionage laws,· Title 18, U.S.C., Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revelation of which in any manner to an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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RE: Queries on Fragment Return from NASA Spacecraft or Space Vehicles A much abbreviated guideline for RrQ, has been provided by Mr. Scheer to various NASA officials who might be queried on this subject. The following more extensive responses are provided as background information to be used by the Administrator, Deputy Administrator, or Associate Administrator of NASA, in their judgment, in event of queries on the • return of space vehicle fragments to the earth. It is suggested that the minimum inf_ormation be used to satisfy a given query. (A) FOR USE PRIOR TO AND AFTER A PARTICUIAR IAUNCH BUT BEFORE ANY KNOWN IMPACT OF RETURNING FRAGMENTS: l. Do fragments from (satellite X) pose a threat to life or The probability that fragments from (satellite X) may cause damage or injury is remote. The probability of injury from natural meteorites is far greater. 2. a. What is the probability of impact? There are many factors (e.g., time in orbit, atmospheric conditions, how the vehicle breaks up, dispersal pattern, etc.) involved and the calculations are extremely complex. We have assured ourselves, however, that the hazard is far less than many hazards encountered in everyday living. 3. Has NASA taken steps to lessen the fragment problem? Yes. NASA is actively engaged in minimizing it. For example, on the SA-5 satellite, NASA used 13,000 lbs. of harmless sand as ballast and roughed up the nosecone so that it would burn on reentry. On the GT-1 spacecraft, NASA bored large holes in the heat shield to assist burning during reentry. In addition to specific steps such as these, studies are underway to assist NASA in further coping with the overall reentry problem. ANY INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT USED IN RESPONSE 'ID QUERIES ISd AU.TO.MA ;TICALLY E.O. intorvals; not automatically r~
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5. If any fragments come down, where are they most likely to impactt The small number of' fragments surviving f'rom any satellite will be dispersed over an area of thousands of' square miles, most of' which are likely to be oceans, seas, or other water surface. 6. Can the fragment problem be further decreased by exploding the orbiting element? Explosion or destruct of' the orbiting element could produce more fragments and,· hence, increase the possibility of' fragment 7. If one were to be hit by a fragment, would it be lethal? In the remote possibility that one were to be struck by a . :fragment, it might, depending upon area of' body struck, be Meteorites are natural phenomena. Do you consider NASA justified in increasing the possibilities of a lethal impact, no matter how improbable? Many human activities carry with them a demonstrable probability • of casualty--flying, automobile driving, golfing; during an electrical. storm. But we do not stop driving, f~ or golf Downgraded at 12 year decl as sifio'd
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9. Will this sort of thing be a continuing hazard? In some degree, yes. In time, it should become possib1~ to develop some solutions such as ensured return over water, but these will take a great deal of research and development as
Where this file fits in the PURSUE archive
This file is one of U.S. Government's 2 files in the Trump PURSUE disclosure. Within the U.S. Government agency block it ranks #1 of 2 by Anomalousness Index. Across the entire 478-file archive it ranks #472 of 478.
That places it in the lower-scoring band of the archive (472 of 478 by score), typical of investigative-record style files where the report is paper-based rather than instrumented.
Anomalousness Index: 50/100
Evidentiary weight that this encounter remains unexplained after conventional analysis. Not a probability of extraterrestrial origin - that number is not honestly computable from the released files and this tracker refuses to publish it.
🤖 AI-ASSISTED SCORING · methodology
The six rubric components break down for this file as follows. Each component has a weighted contribution to the final score; the per-component explanation below describes what this file's particular value on that component means in the rubric's framework.
Reported by a witness with no instrumented record. The lowest tier in the rubric's sensor axis. Eyewitness perception in field conditions, even when the witness is highly credentialed, scores below capture by any instrumented modality. This report reached the federal record through the federal government.
Civilian witness whose report entered the federal record through investigative channels. The rubric weights civilian credentialed witnesses below uniformed personnel because the report enters the federal record at a remove rather than directly from a mission context.
Single-witness or single-instrument capture. This is the corroboration tier for the overwhelming majority of the PURSUE archive on the released metadata - the rubric records the honest limit of the underlying record rather than inferring multi-witness corroboration that the released summaries do not establish. A small number of files with an independent second witness or instrument score on the multi-witness/multi-instrument tier above this one.
No kinematic measurements - speed, acceleration, vector - are published in the released file with sufficient precision to score on the kinematic axis. The rubric does not infer kinematic anomaly from narrative observer estimates. Every file in the archive carries this value, which is itself an observation about the disclosure: kinematic-grade telemetry was not part of what was released.
A conventional candidate explanation has been considered but is not dispositive. Every file in the archive scores this way - reflecting that the underlying release metadata systematically caveats strong determinations in either direction. The released summaries warn against reading them as conclusive analytical judgments, and the rubric respects that.
Released as open after formal review by the originating agency. The file passed through a review process and was published in that posture - a stronger disposition signal than 'unresolved with no review,' because review has occurred and the open status is the agency's published conclusion.
Bottom line on the score: the Anomalousness Index of 50/100 reflects evidentiary weight that this specific file's encounter remains structurally unexplained by the rubric's six axes - it is not a claim that the underlying event involved anything non-conventional, and it is not comparable across rubrics that use different weights. For the full per-axis weights and the rubric JSON, see /methodology.
Related files in U.S. Government
Other PURSUE files in the same category, ranked by Anomalousness Index.
ODNI-UAP-D001, USPER Narrative, Senior USIC Official
CIA-UAP-002, Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects, Report, 1952-1953
CIA-UAP-003, The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance; The U-2 and OXCA…
CIA-UAP-004, CASE 17708 (CLOSED) and DR. Leon Davidson
CIA-UAP-005, German Scientist's Article on 'Flying Discs'
CIA-UAP-006, Sighting Of Unconventional Aircraft
Verification
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