The US government is holding a historic UFO hearing today. Here's how to watch

News
By Brett Tingley
last updated

The hearing will include testimony from a whistleblower who has alleged the Pentagon is hiding evidence of "non-human intelligence."

Update for 1pm ET: The hearing has concluded. See our wrap story for our coverage.

If the truth really is out there when it comes to what the U.S. government knows about UFOs, we may get a little closer to it today.

On Wednesday (July 26), the United States House of Representatives will hear testimony from three witnesses regarding unidentified anomalous phenomena, or UAP, a new term that encompasses not just unidentified flying objects (UFOs) in the air, but also any craft or phenomena that are seen in space or underwater that can't be identified.

The hearing will be held by the House's Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs and will include testimony from former U.S. military and intelligence community personnel who claim to have come in contact with craft that defy physics and known flight capabilities or have even seen evidence of "non-human intelligence."

The hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube by the House Oversight and Accountability Committee starting at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) on Wednesday (July 26). Watch it live here courtesy of the committee. 

Related: The US Congress is holding UFO hearings this week. What might we learn?

Wednesday's hearing will include testimony from two former U.S. Navy aviators, Ryan Graves and David Fravor, both witnesses to separate highly publicized encounters with what appeared to be unconventional aircraft operating in U.S. military airspace.

In addition, the hearing will call David Grusch as a witness. Grusch was the subject of a report published last month in which the decorated former combat officer and veteran of the Pentagon's intelligence community claimed to have received "extensive classified information about deeply covert programs that he says possess retrieved intact and partially intact craft of non-human origin." While Grusch's statements have been controversial to say the least, they have received attention from both major news outlets and U.S. politicians.

A still from a video taken by a U.S. Navy pilot of an alleged unidentified anomalous phenomenon in a military training range between 2014 and 2015. (Image credit: DOD)

Some members of the U.S. Congress have also insinuated that there is indeed hidden UFO/UAP knowledge that has been hidden from the public. "The Pentagon and Washington bureaucrats have kept this information hidden for decades, and we're finally going to shed some light on it," Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said in a House Committee on Oversight and Reform statement. "We're bringing in credible witnesses who can provide public testimony because the American people deserve the truth. We're done with the cover-ups."

Graves, who has been vocal about the need to better understand the UAP issue as it pertains to airspace safety, calls these unidentified phenomena an "urgent and critical national security issue" that deserve better scientific scrutiny. "If UAP are foreign assets, we must respond appropriately. If UAP continue to defy conventional explanation — we must invest in scientific research," Graves said in a press statement. 

RELATED STORIES:

 —  UFOs worth investigating despite lack of 'real evidence,' former astronaut Scott Kelly says

 — UFOs will remain mysterious without better data, NASA study team says

 —  Pentagon has 'no credible evidence' of aliens or UFOs that defy physics

This congressional hearing is only the latest in a long line of major milestones concerning UFOs/UAP and the U.S. government and its federal agencies. Nearly a year ago to the day, the U.S. Department of Defense created the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO), which aims to collect and analyze all of the data available to the U.S. military and intelligence community related to UFOs. 

In an April 2023 hearing, the director of AARO stated the office "has found no credible evidence thus far of extraterrestrial activity, off-world technology or objects that defy the known laws of physics." Those comments now stand in stark contrast to the claims of the witnesses who will testify at Wednesday's hearing.

NASA also recently held a public meeting of its independent UAP study group, and a report from the group is forthcoming.

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Brett Tingley
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.

44 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Robotron
    About 70 years too late, but sure, I'll watch the recap.

    The most entertaining thing about these developments will be the spectacular routine of mental gymnastics on display as skeptics scramble to clarify that they "knew the whole time" that there was something to all these UFO reports. Luckily, we have a lengthy public record of their endless ridicule, scorn and minimization of the issue, which reveals quite a different reality.

    While the 18 intelligence agencies the U.S. proudly claims as its own surely carry their share of the blame for delaying serious examination of the UFO topic through their tireless obfuscation, it is ultimately the pompous, condescending members of the scientific community--and their legions of defenders of the status quo--who most deserve our derision.

    Can you image how much further along the discussion would be if typical mainstream UFO pseudo-skepticism didn't pervade almost every major media outlet and institute of higher learning? I'm not talking about reasonable critical thinking about this or that particular UFO case. I mean the blanket denial of hundreds or thousands of reports from credible witnesses swept under the rug because of an inability to accept that humans may not reside on the top rung of the cosmic ladder.

    Let's hope thing change at least a little after tomorrow's hearing.
    Reply
  • Paragon_Reason
    Robotron said:
    About 70 years too late, but sure, I'll watch the recap.

    The most entertaining thing about these developments will be the spectacular routine of mental gymnastics on display as skeptics scramble to clarify that they "knew the whole time" that there was something to all these UFO reports. Luckily, we have a lengthy public record of their endless ridicule, scorn and minimization of the issue, which reveals quite a different reality.

    While the 18 intelligence agencies the U.S. proudly claims as its own surely carry their share of the blame for delaying serious examination of the UFO topic through their tireless obfuscation, it is ultimately the pompous, condescending members of the scientific community--and their legions of defenders of the status quo--who most deserve our derision.

    Can you image how much further along the discussion would be if typical mainstream UFO pseudo-skepticism didn't pervade almost every major media outlet and institute of higher learning? I'm not talking about reasonable critical thinking about this or that particular UFO case. I mean the blanket denial of hundreds or thousands of reports from credible witnesses swept under the rug because of an inability to accept that humans may not reside on the top rung of the cosmic ladder.

    Let's hope thing change at least a little after tomorrow's hearing.
    I believe it will yet again be a Huge Giant Nothing Burger 🍔 with the Wrong Sauce and No Cheese.
    Hyped and marketed by the same wastrel band of UFO grifters who sell bottles of Alien-oil for $$$, clicks and views.
    Will be rife with stories and provide no evidence, names, or locations.
    I trust no one to disclose UFO/alien history and information that uses the coverup term UAP under the guys of it being a "more inclusive term".
    None the less, I will watch, bc nothing is as cool as a guy drinking coffee in his underwear, watching a congressional hearing about Aliens 👽🛸....👁️👃👁️
    Reply
  • Paragon_Reason
    Paragon_Reason said:
    I believe it will yet again be a Huge Giant Nothing Burger 🍔 with the Wrong Sauce and No Cheese.
    Hyped and marketed by the same wastrel band of UFO grifters who sell bottles of Alien-oil for $$$, clicks and views.
    Will be rife with stories and provide no evidence, names, or locations.
    I trust no one to disclose UFO/alien history and information that uses the coverup term UAP under the guys of it being a "more inclusive term".
    None the less, I will watch, bc nothing is as cool as a guy drinking coffee in his underwear, watching a congressional hearing about Aliens 👽🛸....👁️👃👁️
    And it looks like I was correct... A huge underwhelming monstrosity of a Nothing Burger, filled with UFO grift, and devoid of names, locations, programs, specifics, or evidence.... But extra "Stories" on the side...Bucket size
    Reply
  • Dave
    Thank you to the brave souls reporting at todays hearing. Please watch if you have not done so already.
    Misdirection revealed. The crack in the glass ceiling has allowed the truth to start seeping through.
    Spacecrafts with advanced technology beyond earth's capability have been observed numerous times. As they said at the hearing. History has been made today. This is confirmation that intelligent lifeforms are observing us. Only 5% of those observing the sightings report them.
    Reply
  • Robotron
    Instead of dog and pony shows like this, watch Steven Greer's disclosure videos. There are at least 600 witnesses there, many of whom name names and places.

    The main problem with this scenario is NOT that there aren't credible witnesses, whose testimony would hold up in a court of law, but that the mass media does virtually no investigative reporting on this topic. It's all Barbie, celebrity breakups and pretty-white-girls-gone-missing.

    I don't think it was a total Nothing Burger, but without serious follow-up by mass media and academia, it's not likely to rock many boats.
    Reply
  • billslugg
    The burden of proof in law is about the same as in science, "beyond reasonable doubt". Science formalizes that as "repeatable at five nines".

    The problem with UFO testimony is there are HUGE benefits to "making it all up" and NO downside since no one can ever prove something did not exist. You can make big money off of this. Get fame and publicity. Testify before Congress. Reasonable people look at this and say: "Wait a minute!! I need more than that, I have a reasonable doubt".

    In the case of verifying the extraterrestrial origin of "some thing" we need a physical piece of it. A fingernail clipping or matchbook cover would be fine. We can do an isotopic analysis on it and tell, with absolute certainty, it is ET. We can tell you how far from the Sun it formed, and if from outside the Solar System we can tell you which Solar System it came from. If of Earthly orgin, we can tell you which mine the metal came out of.
    Reply
  • Robotron
    All
    billslugg said:
    The burden of proof in law is about the same as in science, "beyond reasonable doubt". Science formalizes that as "repeatable at five nines".
    Our judicial system is built largely on the testimony of credible witnesses, not physical evidence. The "case" for UFO reality is no different. In the hearing Grusch said he interviewed 40 people, including first hand sources, and they corroborated his claims. There are literally hundreds of government contractors and others with high clearances who have been saying the same thing for decades. People familiar with this voluminous body of evidence understand that we have surpassed the "beyond reasonable doubt" standard long ago.

    By the way, very few scientific disciplines require, let alone achieve 99.999% certainty. This standard only applies to manufacturing or highly physical sciences. Are you suggesting subjects like medicine or sociology aren't real science? The UFO problem is likely a complicated mix of multiple hard and soft sciences, so setting a bar that high is unreasonable. Most people agree that if dozens of witnesses corroborate a basic truth that puts their careers (or even lives) at risk, those witnesses should be taken seriously.

    The absence of a craft or alien body on public display doesn't prove anything other than that the military-industrial complex is good at using the trillion dollars it gets every year to compartmentalize evidence that threatens "national security."

    billslugg said:
    The problem with UFO testimony is there are HUGE benefits to "making it all up" and NO downside since no one can ever prove something did not exist. You can make big money off of this. Get fame and publicity. Testify before Congress. Reasonable people look at this and say: "Wait a minute!! I need more than that, I have a reasonable doubt".
    I don't see all these people making lucrative livings off of making stuff up about UFOs. What I do see is 700 or so ex- and current military, law enforcement or defense contractor employees in the Disclosure Project risking their careers and reputations on bringing things to light that they know are either illegal or paradigm busting, or both. Grusch and the others in the hearing today are taking huge risks. They're not making big paydays.
    billslugg said:
    In the case of verifying the extraterrestrial origin of "some thing" we need a physical piece of it. A fingernail clipping or matchbook cover would be fine. We can do an isotopic analysis on it and tell, with absolute certainty, it is ET. We can tell you how far from the Sun it formed, and if from outside the Solar System we can tell you which Solar System it came from. If of Earthly orgin, we can tell you which mine the metal came out of.
    Sure. Then join the rest of us and demand that congress and the mass media follow up on all the allegations made by Grusch and others and go investigate their claims with the powers vested in them as representatives of government and the free press.
    Reply
  • billslugg
    I am all for the government releasing whatever it knows. As taxpayers we own that information. If it leads to a physical piece of an ET vehicle then, great. It will be the greatest discovery ever. Meanwhile all of the "expert testimony" out there is nothing but words. They might be telling a truthful story about ET or they might be foisting on us a huge pile of baloney. Something that cannot be disproven. You can't prove someone didn't see something.
    On the other hand it is trivially easy to verify ET origin. If there are so many ET vehicles then where is a piece of one? First one there gets a Nobel Prize.
    Reply
  • Dave
    Yesterdays hearing was historical. The witnesses were very credible and mentioned they receive nothing for being 'whistleblowers.' We can all look forward to more testimony, as well as evidence in the future. We can now all turn the page in the understanding of this topic. The important event is the testimony being allowed to be shared with the public. This is the tip of the iceberg. As most of us suspected Intelligent lifeforms are observing us.
    They do not wish to be discovered. They do not wish to contact us.
    The reasons why are speculative in nature.
    Humanity is dangerous. We have not yet evolved to be anything beyond separate tribes. War and poverty plague us. We do not take care of our planet, or our own. We must learn to integrate ideologies. Care for the most vulnerable among us, and our world. Come together as one race. The human race. In the future we may select a world leader from amongst our current leaders to run human affairs. Only time will tell.
    Meanwhile, they are watching. You may not like it, but it is happening.
    Reply
  • Robotron
    billslugg said:
    I am all for the government releasing whatever it knows. As taxpayers we own that information. If it leads to a physical piece of an ET vehicle then, great. It will be the greatest discovery ever. Meanwhile all of the "expert testimony" out there is nothing but words. They might be telling a truthful story about ET or they might be foisting on us a huge pile of baloney. Something that cannot be disproven. You can't prove someone didn't see something.
    On the other hand it is trivially easy to verify ET origin. If there are so many ET vehicles then where is a piece of one? First one there gets a Nobel Prize.
    Why are you putting "expert testimony" in quotes? These are experts. And they are giving testimony. And of course testimony is "words." That's literally the definition of it. Grusch and the others are indeed expert witnesses by any definition of the term.

    In any case, demanding that one witness, or a dozen of them, bring out physical evidence of ET, when it's clearly the most closely guarded secret in the history of the world, is a tad unrealistic. What's he going to do, hitch the craft to his pickup truck and drive it out of Hangar 18? LOL.

    The whole point of the hearings is to pinpoint where the evidence is and who is hiding it and under what authority. Grusch and Greer and others who have been trying to crack the seal on this thing for decades say the entire operation is illegal and anti-American. Why not get on board with it and ask your representatives what the hell they're doing about it rather than waiting around for someone to sneak out an alien candy wrapper?

    Above all, watch the hearings and make a judgment about whether follow up is needed. I've never seen congresspeople so invested in a subject. They're past making quips about little green men. These men and women know there's something of crucial importance to uncover here and they're finally doing something about it.
    Reply