This was not a hearing on any one sighting. Rep. J. Edward Roush chaired a one-day symposium where scientists from different fields gave their views, and six more sent written papers for the record.
J. Allen Hynek spoke first. Atmospheric physicist James E. McDonald of the University of Arizona said he had interviewed several hundred witnesses in about two years and urged a much bigger scientific effort. Carl Sagan, then at Cornell, talked about the odds of life elsewhere and refused to take either side on what UFOs were. Sociologist Robert L. Hall, engineer James A. Harder and aerospace scientist Robert M. L. Baker Jr. rounded out the panel.
Written papers came from the astronomer and well-known sceptic Donald Menzel, and from Stanton Friedman, R. Leo Sprinkle, Garry Henderson, Roger Shepard and Frank Salisbury.
Six months later the Condon Report concluded that further study was unlikely to add to science, and Project Blue Book closed in December 1969.
I have interviewed several hundred witnesses in selected cases, and I am astonished at what I have found.
The question is very much an open one, and it is certainly too soon to harden attitudes and make any permanent contentions on the subject.