Case File · NASA · Cold War / Blue Book Era (1953-1969) Declassified May 8, 2026 · PURSUE Release 01

Apollo 12, 1969 — Moon [d147]

UFO Photographic / Video Evidence

A cold war / blue book era case from Moon. This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12.

1969
Moon
Source document: NASA-UAP-VM3, Apollo 12, 1969
Source document: NASA-UAP-VM3, Apollo 12, 1969 · Source: declassified document

Background

In 1969, in Moon, U.S. government investigators recorded an unidentified-object incident later released to the public on May 8, 2026 as part of the Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE). The incident is a Cold War-era case investigated under the Air Force’s Project Blue Book or its predecessors. The case appears in declassified U.S. government records.

What the document records

This archival photograph depicts the lunar surface as viewed from the landing site of Apollo 12. This image features a highlighted area of interest near the right edge of the frame, above the horizon, in which unidentified phenomena are visible. This image has been modified from its original state to assist viewers in identifying specific areas of interest.

The number of witnesses is not specified in the released document.

Type of case

The case includes photographic or video evidence of the unidentified object.

Status

All records released under the PURSUE program are designated unresolved by the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) by default. The federal government has not concluded that the events were anomalous, has not concluded that they were conventional, and has not ruled out either possibility. Conventional candidates for sightings of this period include experimental aircraft, weather balloons (especially the Project Mogul series in the late 1940s), atmospheric optical phenomena such as sundogs and lenticular clouds, and astronomical objects including Venus, the Moon, and meteors near the horizon.

Sources