Overview
- The U.S. government’s third public tranche of UFO files, released Friday, includes previously classified NASA audio from a post‑Apollo 16 briefing.
- In the 55‑minute recording a participant refers to a “great big hole” near Van de Graaff crater and says, “It could be an alien star base or something,” a line delivered with laughter and a quick move to the next slide.
- The release comprises roughly 72 files compiled from FBI, CIA and Pentagon records and contains video, testimony, artistic renderings and redacted eyewitness reports dating back to the 1940s.
- The audio discussion grew out of the Apollo 16 mission, which orbited the Moon in April 1972 while astronauts John Young and Charles Duke explored the lunar highlands and Ken Mattingly remained in orbit.
- Officials and reporters stress that the remark reads as informal speculation rather than evidence, and the files’ publication is likely to spur further public scrutiny and calls for clearer context from agencies reviewing the archives.