White House and Congressional UFO Correspondence (1998) – PURSUE Files

Draft and final replies from the White House and members of Congress to constituents asking about UFOs, astronaut sightings and Mars photos

⚠ Note on validity: These are form-style replies to public questions, not investigations. They mostly direct people to NASA or the Air Force and state that the government does not investigate UFOs.

1998 constituent letters
Agencies	White House; offices of members of Congress
Date	Mainly 1998
Topics	Astronaut sightings, Mars photos (“Face on Mars”), Roswell and others
Released	Release 03 (June 12, 2026)
Files	1 (PDF)
Previously public?	No — appears newly public
Official releaseHistorical

This collection, released in PURSUE Release 03, holds draft and final letters from the White House and congressional offices, mostly from 1998, answering constituents’ UFO questions. Topics include alleged UFO sightings by NASA astronauts and the authenticity of photos from U.S. Mars missions.^[1]

The records

USG-UAP-D001, Congressional, White House, UFO-related Constituent Correspondence, 1998

Open USG-UAP-D001 (PDF) on war.gov →

This collection of documents, primarily from 1998, contains draft and final correspondence from the White House and the offices of members of Congress responding to constituent inquiries about Unidentified Flying Objects, or “UFOs.” These inquiries cover a diverse range of topics, including alleged UFO sightings by NASA astronauts, questions regarding the authenticity of photos collected during U.S. missions to Mars, alleged improper withholding of information by the U.S. Government, questions regarding the appropriateness of “UFO-related” governmental spending, and calls for congressional hearings regarding the nature and existence of “UFOs.” The official responses consistently state that, circa 1998, the U.S. Government is not aware of evidence supporting the existence of extraterrestrial technology, and that NASA does not actively investigate “UFOs.” The collection includes references to materials of both confirmed and unconfirmed authenticity, as provided by constituents, as well as references to historical, scientific literature addressing specific “UFO” sighting claims.
— Official PURSUE description

Analysis

Context. 1998 came shortly after NASA’s Mars Pathfinder mission (1997) and the April 1998 Mars Global Surveyor images that showed the “Face on Mars” to be an ordinary eroded hill, as well as the 50th anniversary of Roswell in 1997 and the Air Force’s “Case Closed” report. Public interest was high. The replies show the government’s routine position: it was not investigating UFOs and referred questions to NASA.

New or previously released? New.

Released files

PURSUE ID	Title	Type
USG-UAP-D001	Congressional, White House, UFO-related Constituent Correspondence, 1998	PDF

References

^ U.S. Department of War (2026). PURSUE Release 03 (June 12, 2026): USG-UAP-D001, with official descriptions. war.gov/ufo.

Source: U.S. Department of War, PURSUE (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters), war.gov/ufo. Official records are U.S. government works in the public domain; summaries and analysis on this page are by UFO UAP Wiki.