1977 / T126
France establishes GEPAN within CNES
Toulouse and national reporting network
Witness account
France created the Groupe d’études des phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés, GEPAN, within its national space agency CNES. The organization collected and investigated reports of unidentified aerospace phenomena with a scientific remit. Its creation supplies an important counterpoint to the closure of the U.S. Blue Book program eight years earlier.
Public record
Official CNES histories distinguish GEPAN, founded in 1977, from SEPRA, which succeeded it in 1988, and GEIPAN, created under that name in 2005. Using the present acronym for the entire institutional history can make the 1977 foundation appear to be the birth of today’s exact organization. Early investigations also need to be distinguished from modern case reclassifications and website publication.