govweird/archive
IMG · NASAPURSUE Release 01

Department of War PURSUE File

NASA-UAP-VM6, Apollo 17, 1972

Moon·1972

Declassified

Government description

As part of the review of historical UAP materials under PURSUE, DOW has opened a case to investigate the accompanying NASA photograph from the Apollo 17 mission, taken December 1972. The image contains three “dots” in a triangular formation in the lower right quadrant of the lunar sky that is clearly visible upon magnification of the image. While this photo has been previously released and discussed by keen observers, there is no consensus about the nature of the anomaly. New preliminary US government analysis suggests the image feature is potentially the result of a physical object in the scene. Additionally, as part of this investigation, the government has obtained the original film from the Apollo 17 mission and the results of the full NASA and DOW analysis will be released when completed.

Caption issued by the U.S. Department of War on war.gov/ufo. Verbatim, unedited.

Originating agency

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Record type

IMG

Incident date

1972

Incident location

Moon

Release tranche

Release 01 (May 8, 2026)

Distribution

Cleared for public release

Released imagery

NASA-UAP-VM6, Apollo 17, 1972

Image hosted by war.gov.

More from NASA

Source: war.gov/ufo · PURSUE Release 01

PURSUE = Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters. Records released by the U.S. Department of War on May 8, 2026 are unresolved cases for which the government cannot make a definitive determination, and the Department has invited private-sector analysis.