DISCLOSURE / FILE
Written testimony of Mike Gold, NASA's former Associate Administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships and a member of the NASA UAP Independent Study Team, submitted to a House Oversight UAP hearing on November 13, 2024, arguing that NASA can help resolve the UAP issue by combatting stigma and collecting open civilian data.
Written testimony of Mike Gold, NASA's former Associate Administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships and a member of the NASA UAP Independent Study Team, submitted to a House Oversight UAP hearing on November 13, 2024, arguing that NASA can help resolve the UAP issue by combatting stigma and collecting open civilian data.
Mike Gold, currently Chief Growth Officer at Redwire Space and a former NASA Associate Administrator who served on the NASA UAP Independent Study Team (IST), submitted written testimony to the House Oversight subcommittees for the November 13, 2024 hearing 'Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth.' His central argument is that the stigma around UAP blocks the scientific data-gathering needed to understand it, and that NASA, with its global brand and vast archives, is well positioned to help. He lays out concrete recommendations: convene symposia, run AI/ML searches across NASA's archival imagery, reach out to the 47 Artemis Accords signatories and other international partners, and build a civilian UAP reporting pipeline modeled on NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System, which has logged more than 1,940,000 reports over 47 years. Gold speaks only for himself, not NASA or Redwire, and frames the data NASA collects as open to the public rather than restricted like the national-security stream handled by AARO.
My name is Mike Gold, and I am currently Chief Growth Officer at Redwire Space. I have also served as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Associate Administrator for Space Policy and Partnerships, Acting Associate Administrator for the Office of International and Interagency Relations, and Senior Advisor to the Administrator for International and Legal Affairs.p.1
Unfortunately, for decades this topic has been suffering from a stigma that has prevented much needed study and public discourse.p.1
NASA is an agency that operates on data. Data is the lifeblood of NASA and science in general. Without data, nothing can be achieved. This is why the stigmatization of the UAP phenomena is so harmful.p.2
If not for the work of the Advanced Aerospace Weapon Systems Applications Program (AAWSAP), Commander Dietrich’s experience may have been lost to history.p.2
The Artemis Accords, developed and driven by NASA and the Department of State, now have 47 signatories with many additional countries likely to join in the months and years ahead.p.3
With 47 years of confidential safety reporting, ASRS has received more than 1,940,000 reports, averaging approximately 100,000 per year.p.4
Moreover, science is driven by anomalies. Anomalies are the foundation upon which scientific breakthroughs are built.p.5
As the saying goes, the truth is out there, we just need to be bold enough and brave enough to face it.p.5