The Pentagon has released a tranche of never-before-seen documents on UFOs, including descriptions of reported sightings by civilians on Earth and astronauts on the Moon.

The documents, spanning decades, were declassified and posted online on Friday at the direction of President Donald Trump, who earlier this year said he would release them "based on the tremendous interest shown."

The US has seen renewed public interest in extraterrestrial life in recent years. In 2022, Congress held the first hearings on UFOs in 50 years, and the military has promised more transparency on the matter.

The 161 files are accessible on the Department of Defense's website, with more set to be released.

The files include previously classified transcripts from astronauts aboard the Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 17 Moon landing missions. Buzz Aldrin, famed astronaut from Apollo 11, said in a 1969 interview that he observed several inexplicable phenomena on his trip to the Moon.

Another file contains an audio recording from the 1965 Gemini 7 spaceflight, where astronaut Frank Borman reports sighting an unidentified object.

Among the decades of reports are dozens of individual claims of UAP sightings from 1957 to 2023, as well as military video clips from the Middle East taken in 2022.

Congressman Tim Burchett welcomed the release, calling it a "great start." However, former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene dismissed it as a distraction from more pressing issues facing Americans.

Source: www.bbc.com