Among the 16 images in the PURSUE Release 01 slideshow at war.gov/ufo is archival imagery from the Apollo 17 lunar mission. The official government caption reads: “Archival imagery from the Apollo 17 mission to the Moon. The yellow box contains an enlarged area of the original photo in which three lights are visible above the lunar terrain.”
Apollo 17 was December 7–19, 1972 — the sixth and final crewed lunar landing mission. Astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt and Ronald Evans. The last time humans were on the Moon. The mission carried the most comprehensive science payload of any Apollo flight.
Why This Is Significant
NASA has a vast archive of Apollo imagery. The agency has never officially included any Apollo photograph in a UAP-specific context — until now. The decision to include this image in PURSUE Release 01 was made by officials at NASA, DOW and ODNI who reviewed and approved the release package. It was not an accident. Someone decided that this image, with three lights above the lunar terrain, belonged in the first batch of declassified UAP evidence presented to the American public.
What the Caption Says and Does Not Say
The PURSUE caption describes what is visible — three lights above the lunar terrain — without characterising what they are. This is consistent with the DoW’s stated approach: Release 01 contains “unresolved cases,” meaning cases where “the government is unable to make a definitive determination on the nature of the observed phenomena.”
Three lights above the lunar surface in 1972. The US government formally cannot explain them.
The Apollo UAP Context
Multiple Apollo astronauts reported anomalous observations during their missions. Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14) became one of the most prominent public advocates for UAP disclosure before his death, stating privately that Roswell was real and that the government had covered up UAP information for decades. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s statement at the PURSUE launch — “we will remain candid about what we know to be true, what we have yet to understand, and all that remains to be discovered” — takes on additional resonance in this context.
The Oracle Assessment
The inclusion of Apollo 17 imagery in the first UAP declassification package in history is one of the most significant individual decisions in the PURSUE launch. It extends the unresolved UAP record to the lunar surface and to 1972. It signals that NASA’s historical photographic archive is within scope for future PURSUE tranches. And it formally acknowledges, on a .gov website, that the US government has UAP-related evidence from the Moon.
Source: war.gov/ufo, PURSUE Release 01, May 8, 2026. Apollo 17 mission: December 7–19, 1972.