A little-known exemption might be enabling the U.S. government and its private contractors to conceal evidence regarding unidentified objects traversing outer space.
This viewpoint is put forth by Dillon Guthrie, a former Capitol Hill policy advisor and attorney, in an article for the **Harvard National Security Journal** published in January. Guthrie, who previously served as a legislative assistant for Senator John Kerry and subsequently for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, characterizes this matter as a “definitional gap” in how Congress defines UFOs.
“Congress has redefined what were once referred to as ‘unidentified flying objects’ (UFOs) to ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ (UAP) in 2021, and then in 2022 to ‘unidentified anomalous phenomena’ [also UAP],” Guthrie explained to *Mashable*.
The alteration in terminology aimed to eliminate the stigma linked to UFOs and promote serious investigation into credible UAP sightings, particularly those made by military personnel. However, this transition may have inadvertently created a loophole that permits spaceborne-only UAP to remain unreported.
### The Loophole in UAP Reporting
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) mandates yearly reports on UAP, yet Guthrie highlights that the law’s definition of UAP leaves out objects that are exclusively in space.
“According to the current statutory definition, there are three categories of unidentified anomalous phenomena,” Guthrie clarified. “The first consists of airborne objects or phenomena that are not immediately recognizable. The second involves submerged objects or phenomena in the ‘sea domain.’ The third category includes ‘transmedium objects’—those that shift between space and the atmosphere or between the atmosphere and water.”
This indicates that any unidentified object observed solely in space does not need to be reported. Consequently, intelligence agencies or military divisions monitoring such objects could legally refrain from disclosing that information to Congress.
This gap raises significant concerns, particularly since the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) reported **49 cases of UAP in outer space** in its 2024 annual report. However, the report specified that none of these instances were detected by space-based sensors; rather, they were reported by pilots or ground observers.
### A Failure of Reporting?
Chris Mellon, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, suspects that the absence of space-based sensor data likely stems from a failure in reporting rather than an absence of detections.
“Why is it that none of America’s unparalleled space surveillance systems captured and reported what these pilots witnessed?” Mellon posed in an essay for *The Debrief*. “Did these systems genuinely fail to gather any data, or is this yet another instance where the information is simply not being communicated to AARO or Congress?”
Mellon, a longtime proponent for UAP transparency, recounted an event from the 1990s when the Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) system detected several bright objects moving in unison across the sky. These objects were too slow to be meteors but too fast and high to be recognized aircraft. Nonetheless, there was no motivation at that time to report the information.
Today, cutting-edge space monitoring technologies like Space Fence, NORAD’s Solid-State Phased Array Radars (SSPAR), and the Space-Based Infrared Monitoring System (SBIRS) could potentially be gathering similar data—but it may remain classified because of the spaceborne-only loophole.
“If there are no obligations to report on spaceborne-only UAP,” Guthrie remarked, “then there are no mandates for defense and intelligence agencies to reveal data gathered from these highly sensitive space collection sensors.”
### The Need for Greater Oversight
The 2004 USS Nimitz “Tic Tac” UFO incident, which garnered significant attention from *The New York Times* in 2017, is said to have involved objects identified in space. According to Navy radar operator Kevin Day, the USS Princeton’s missile defense team detected unexplained tracks at 80,000 feet.
“Our ballistic missile defense personnel were extremely concerned,” Day told *Mashable*.
Despite increased public interest in UAP, NASA’s attempts to investigate the phenomenon have stagnated. The agency announced a dedicated UAP research director in 2023, but reportedly the position has been vacant since September 2024.
Guthrie attributes these challenges to a lack of comprehensive political oversight.
“There have been so many agencies supposedly involved in the UAP issue,” he stated. “It’s all too simple for any of these agencies to shift responsibility.”
Former Pentagon official Luis Elizondo has called on Congress to create a single point of contact to oversee UAP investigations across the government.
“At present, the White House, CIA, NASA, the Pentagon, Department of Energy, and others contribute to the process, but no one appears to be in charge,” Elizondo told Congress in November.