DOW-UAP-D168, BAASS Project Management Plan, December 2008
WAR.gov / Department of War PURSUE Release 07
The Project Management Plan (overview paper) of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) under contract HHM402-08-C-0072, dated December 2, 2008.
Document Highlights
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Short overview
The Project Management Plan (overview paper) of Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) under contract HHM402-08-C-0072, dated December 2, 2008. In it the contractor sets out for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) how it intends to cover the program’s twelve technical areas, from lift and propulsion to human effects and armament, through nine projects.
Why this is interesting
BAASS states that it deliberately chose to study craft it says already display novel behaviour rather than the academic state of the art, with the exception of “Project Physics”, which the DIA mandated and for which Earthtech was to deliver about 24 position papers by July 31, 2009. The other projects aim at field observation and even “Communication and or Contact” in areas with frequent sightings, cooperation with the DIA on film, hardware and files, university grants, a merged database, oral-history interviews with retired insiders, and files the plan says were kept out of Project Blue Book and are held at Los Alamos National Labs (LANL). “Project Northern Tier” targets incursions over Air Force bases with nuclear weapons in the 1960s and 1970s, “Project Colares” the 1977 events on the Brazilian island of Colares, which the plan describes as having caused injuries and deaths. Key recommendations include fast security clearances, DIA requests to the Brazilian Air Force and to NORAD, and access to biological material through military laboratories. Appended as exhibits are a poorly legible Air Materiel Command opinion on “flying discs”, a sealed 2002 affidavit about Roswell in July 1947 and a UK Ministry of Defence report on an F-86D incident of May 20, 1957.
Selected passages
- “The importance of this study lies in the possibility that some of these advanced aerospace craft may represent a threat to the security of the United States including its airspace and nuclear facilities.”
- “It is known to BAASS personnel that a comprehensive group of files of advanced aerospace activity, documented by several branches of the United States military, exists in a secure location at Los Alamos National Labs (LANL).”
- “Multiple human witnesses were involved in many dozens of successful efforts. These intensified in 2007 and 2008.”
Background
This document is an administrative, programmatic, or contractor-produced record related to the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP), a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)-administered program active from 2008 to 2012. AAWSAP’s official scope of work identified 12 technical research areas relating to potential aerospace threats over a time horizon of more than 40 years. As part of the broader program record, the file documents how AAWSAP was scoped, organized, tasked, funded, executed, or described at a particular point in time. This December 2008 Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) Project Management Plan is an overview paper setting out the contractor’s proposed strategy, priorities, and milestones for executing contract HHM402-08-C-0072 (AAWSAP). The plan states that BAASS would address the program’s 12 technical areas through a smaller number of selected projects, including initiatives focused on physics research, project cooperation with government-held information, academic engagement, database development, oral-history interviewing, and collection or review of materials described as excluded from Project Blue Book. The plan argues that the most productive approach would be to study “craft” or events already believed by BAASS to demonstrate novel behavior across the 12 technical areas, rather than concentrating primarily on then-current academic or industrial state-of-the-art research.