Donna Hare, a former NASA contractor who held top-secret security clearance, has made allegations that the U.S. space agency intentionally removed evidence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) from photographs before releasing them to the public. Hare, who worked for contractor Philco Ford Aerospace from 1967 to 1981, claimed in multiple interviews that she was informed by a photo lab technician at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston that UFOs were routinely airbrushed out of images.
According to Hare, in 1970 or 1971, a lab technician showed her a photograph of a distinct, round, white object with sharp edges hovering above pine trees. When Hare inquired if the object was a UFO, the technician reportedly responded cryptically, "I can't tell you that," before adding that they "always have to airbrush them out before we sell them to the public." Hare, who died in 2021, first shared these claims publicly in May 2001 at a press conference hosted by the Disclosure Project in Washington D.C.
While Hare continued to give interviews for two decades, the original photograph, the technician's identity, or any official NASA statement confirming an airbrushing policy have never been publicly disclosed. NASA and the U.S. government have consistently maintained that there is no definitive proof of extraterrestrial life visiting Earth or existing in the cosmos.
Hare also alleged that a NASA worker involved in the medical quarantine of returning astronauts stated that nearly every Apollo astronaut claimed to have seen alien craft on the moon. This individual reportedly overheard astronauts discussing their experiences and witnessing "craft follow them," with Hare recalling claims of "three on the moon when they landed."
These astronauts were allegedly instructed to remain silent for national security reasons and were made to sign non-disclosure agreements punishable by imprisonment. However, some Apollo astronauts did publicly speak about their experiences with extraterrestrial activity. For example, Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon in 1971, reportedly told his former wife, Anita, that "UFOs were out there, because so many of the pilots and astronauts had seen something."
Anita Mitchell also recalled Project Mercury astronaut Leroy Gordon Cooper Jr. remarking at a dinner party, "Listen, we have nothing that goes that fast and goes that high." Mitchell himself publicly stated his belief in UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation, asserting that governments worldwide were withholding information.
These resurfaced claims follow recent public scrutiny of NASA's photography of the interstellar object 3I/ATLAS, which some scientists speculated could have been alien technology. Despite ongoing government efforts to declassify files related to UFO encounters, including hundreds of pages from NASA and the Apollo missions released by the Pentagon as of July 2026, no released files have corroborated Hare's specific allegations of doctored satellite photos. However, some images from the moon landings have featured unexplained lights and shapes.