Astronauts aboard NASA’s Gemini 7 mission reported seeing a mysterious “bogey” object in orbit more than six decades ago, according to newly released Pentagon files that are fueling fresh debate over unidentified aerial phenomena and long-hidden government records.
The documents, made public Friday as part of a major Pentagon disclosure initiative ordered under President Donald Trump, include mission transcripts from December 1965 in which astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell described a strange object and swarms of glowing particles moving through space alongside their spacecraft.
“We have a bogey at 10 o’clock high,” Borman radioed to mission control during the Gemini 7 mission on Dec. 5, 1965.
At first, NASA personnel on the ground questioned whether the astronauts were merely seeing their own discarded booster rocket or another explainable object. But Borman insisted what they were observing was something separate.
“We have debris up here. This is an actual sighting,” he responded.
The exchange quickly became more unusual.
After confirming he could also visually identify the booster, Borman reported seeing what appeared to be “hundreds of little particles” moving nearby several miles away from the capsule.
“We have very, very many, ah — it looks like hundreds of little particles going by to the left out about three or four miles,” he said.
According to the transcript, portions of Borman’s next transmission became partially garbled, but he appeared to describe the objects moving at “90 degrees” relative to the spacecraft’s path before entering what he called a “polar orbit.”
Then Jim Lovell — who would later command the famous Apollo 13 mission dramatized in the 1995 Tom Hanks film — added his own striking description.
“I have the booster on my side,” Lovell said before describing another object visible ahead of the spacecraft.
“It’s a brilliant body in the sun against a black background with trillions of particles on it … it’s ahead of us at two o’clock, slowly tumbling.”
The transcript was among 162 newly declassified files released Friday through a new Pentagon website dedicated entirely to unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAPs, commonly referred to as UFOs.
The Department of War announced the document release as part of what officials described as a broader transparency effort following a February executive order signed by President Trump.
“The American people can now access the federal government’s declassified UAP files instantly,” the Pentagon said in a statement posted on X. “The latest UAP videos, photos, and original source documents from across the entire United States government are all in one place — no clearance required.”
The administration contrasted the release with previous government approaches to UFO reports, arguing earlier administrations often attempted to minimize or dismiss public interest in the subject.
The Gemini 7 files were not the only newly disclosed records involving strange observations in space.
Another transcript from the Apollo 17 moon mission in 1972 captured astronauts describing unexplained bright particles floating outside their spacecraft.
“Now we’ve got a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver,” astronaut Ronald Evans reported during the mission.
Fellow astronaut Harrison Schmitt compared the visual phenomenon to fireworks.
“There’s a whole bunch of big ones on my window down there — just bright,” Schmitt said. “It looks like the Fourth of July out of Ron’s window.”
The Pentagon release also included photographs taken during Apollo missions that continue to spark speculation decades later. One image from Apollo 17 appeared to show three unexplained objects hovering in triangular formation above the lunar surface.
While the image has circulated publicly before, the Pentagon acknowledged there remains “no consensus about the nature of the anomaly.” Officials added that preliminary government analysis now suggests the image “is potentially the result of a physical object in the scene.”
Additional Apollo 12 materials released Friday included photographs showing five unidentified objects near the moon’s surface during the 1969 mission.
Congress formally established a Pentagon office in 2022 tasked with collecting, analyzing, and releasing information related to UAP investigations. Friday’s release represents one of the largest coordinated public dumps of such material to date, and administration officials indicated more documents would continue appearing online in the coming months.
