By the Los Angeles Times

Monday, November 3, 2003

COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- In 1967, as unmanned orbiters landed on the moon and Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first successful heart transplant, a $500,000 federally financed investigation of UFOs was well under way at the University of Colorado.

Led by prominent physicist Edward Condon, a team of scientists attempted to determine once and for all if UFOs existed.

Eight boxes of raw data collected during the study were made public by Texas A&M University in September, providing a behind-the-scenes look at what is arguably one of the most curious government investigations ever.

"We had quite an organization set up to look into reports of UFOs. It was all taken pretty seriously," said Roy Craig, the chief field investigator for the project, who donated his records to the university. "I went into the project hoping that I could find some actual, physical evidence that would pass muster."

To Craig's disappointment, he said, most sightings of alien spaceships could be explained by science.

Among his file folders, stuffed with meticulous handwritten notes, are artifacts such as a silvery material said to be taken from an alien spacecraft. It turned out to be a hunk of magnesium.

In September 1968, Craig wrote himself a note and put it in a file folder: "The existence of either alien flying vehicles or unknown natural phenomena is not indicated by evidence as we have examined."

This view was reflected in the 1,000-page Condon Report released in January 1969, which the Air Force used to close its own investigation of UFOs. The report was denounced by UFO believers, who called it a sham meant to calm a jittery public.

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