A newly published document from the Department of War’s PURSUE archive, dated May 8, 2026, contains detailed accounts from three Skylab crews who reported seeing unexplained lights and objects during their missions in 1973. The file, designated NASA-UAP-D7, is now publicly accessible and represents a formal record of observations made by trained astronauts during government debriefings. The Skylab 2 crew reported multiple visual anomalies.
Science Pilot Joseph Kerwin described seeing light flashes most frequently at night with his eyes closed while awake, occurring at a rate of two to three per minute. Kerwin specifically stated these were “not an hallucination.” Commander Charles Conrad observed sunbursts and streaks in his peripheral vision, while Paul Weitz reported seeing cosmic particles that left entrance and exit streaks across his field of view.
The Skylab 3 crew tracked a reddish object for several minutes, maintaining a visual fix on it. The Skylab 4 crew reported flashing lights that exhibited “definite motion” relative to the space station itself. This detail is significant because objects moving relative to a spacecraft in orbit cannot be stars, planets, or space debris drifting at the same velocity.
The release occurs during a period of increased government transparency regarding unidentified aerial phenomena. The 2021 Office of the Director of National Intelligence report and the 2022 establishment of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) have shifted the official posture from one of studied indifference to active investigation.
However, those efforts have focused primarily on military pilots and sensor data. The Skylab file represents a different category of evidence, coming from the civilian space program. The PURSUE archive, a federal repository operating under the Department of War, has established a pattern of releasing documents followed by additional disclosures.
The archive has indicated the existence of other NASA records, including reports from Apollo and Gemini missions, some of which remain classified. Several explanations for the sightings were considered at the time.
Kerwin referenced the South Atlantic Anomaly, which produces particle hits, but this does not account for the structured red object tracked by Skylab 3 or the flashing lights with motion reported by Skylab 4. The cosmic particle theory could explain Weitz’s sighting but not the others. The implications of this release are twofold. Either the government has possessed knowledge of unexplained phenomena in low Earth orbit for five decades, or this file confirms that such observations were documented and preserved.
The AARO now has a mandate to investigate these historical reports, providing a starting point that predates modern sensor systems. While the data is decades old, the phenomenon it describes may not be confined to the past.
