Background
The Condon Committee, officially known as the University of Colorado UFO Project, was an investigative group funded by the United States Air Force from 1966 to 1968. The group was led by physicist Edward U. Condon, hence the committee’s popular name. The objective of this committee was to examine the phenomenon of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) to determine if they presented any scientific interest.
The Condon Committee Report, also known as “Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects,” was the result of this two-year investigation. The report, nearly 1,500 pages long, was published in 1968. It included detailed analysis and discussion of dozens of UFO sightings, studies of the psychology and sociology of UFO reports, and considerations of potential physical effects and properties of UFOs.
The committee’s overall conclusion was that nothing had come from the study of UFOs in the past that added to scientific knowledge and that further extensive study of UFO sightings was not justified in the expectation that science would be advanced thereby. It also concluded that extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) was not useful in explaining the sightings.
The Condon Report is significant because it essentially marked the end of the U.S. government’s official involvement in UFO investigations. Following the report’s publication, in 1969, the Air Force discontinued Project Blue Book, its long-standing UFO investigation program. The report has been frequently cited in discussions and debates about the scientific validity and relevance of UFO studies.
However, the Condon Committee and its report were not without controversy. Critics, including many within the UFO research community, pointed to a number of issues:
- Bias: Critics argued that Edward Condon had a dismissive attitude toward the subject from the outset. They pointed to Condon’s public statements during the course of the investigation, which suggested that he didn’t believe there was anything to the UFO phenomena. Critics felt that this bias permeated the investigation and report.
- Internal Discord: The project was also marked by internal disagreements. One of the project’s key investigators, Dr. David R. Saunders, was fired during the course of the investigation and later claimed the firing was because he disagreed with Condon’s dismissive approach.
- Discrepancy in Findings: Some pointed out that there was a disconnect between the conclusions of the report and the body of the report itself. They argued that if one read the case studies in detail, they would see that a notable percentage of cases were unexplained even after thorough investigation. Therefore, they claimed the dismissal of the entire UFO phenomena based on these cases was not justified.
- Dismissal of Evidence: Critics also argued that the committee was too quick to dismiss sighting reports that couldn’t be easily explained. Rather than treating these reports as potentially significant, the committee typically labeled them as unreliable.
In the years since the release of the Condon Report, it has remained a contentious document in discussions about UFOs. For some, it’s a definitive statement on the lack of scientific basis for UFO studies. For others, it’s an example of a flawed investigation driven more by preconceived beliefs than by objective scientific inquiry.
NOTE: When I first published the “complete” report, it was obtained from the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). However, after being told it was complete, Black Vault user “Greg C.” noted that they omitted pages 256-325, which included the astronauts UFO sightings. It took about 8 months after Greg contacted me, but I finally found what is, truly, the COMPLETE version. That is available below. I archived the DTIC copy for reference.
Document Archive
COMPLETE Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects Conducted by the University of Colorado under Contract NoF44620-67-C-0035 with the United States Air Force, by Dr. Edward U. Condon [1,496 Pages, 67MB]
Incomplete Version – Archived for Reference
INCOMPLETE Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects Conducted by the University of Colorado under Contract NoF44620-67-C-0035 with the United States Air Force, by Dr. Edward U. Condon [1,425 Pages, 98.7MB]
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