The New Year is on track to be one of the most significant years in the history of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.

Bryce Zabel
Jan 4 · 5 min read

We can already make a few key assumptions about 2021.

First, there’s going to be a report about UAP released before June 25th. This is firm reality because the Senate Intelligence Committee (as part of the recent Omnibus bill) has demanded one from the Director of National Intelligence. DNI has been instructed to work with the Department of Defense and the UAP Task Force embedded in the Office of Naval Intelligence. Whether it will be one of those historic markers in UFO disclosure or another disappointing dose of smoke and mirrors remains to be seen.

Second, there will be more shoes dropping in the world of crash wreckage retrieval and, possibly, reverse engineering attempts. The New York Times has already dipped its establishment toes into this one in 2020 and must obviously be working on a follow-up. If we’re talking about crash wreckage, can a reckoning about Roswell be far behind? Breaking new stories won’t belong entirely to The New York Times. Other news organizations will start doing original reporting in far greater depth, particularly once the nation’s attention moves beyond Donald Trump.

Third, it’s clear that something is afoot with Lue Elizondo, Christopher Mellon and Steve Justice scooting out of Tom DeLonge’s TTSA (To the Stars Academy). Elizondo told George Knapp on Coast-to-Coast AM that he was getting ready to go into “second gear.” Cards are being held closely at the moment, but clearly these three players are not going to disappear from the table. They have a plan. Part of it, I’m sure, involves behind-the-scenes lobbying for congressional hearings because D.C. is a world they understand.

That’s what we know is going to happen. The details, of course, not so much. That’s what makes 2021 look dynamic.

To be absolutely clear, this is not a claim that full-on, big “D” Disclosure will happen this year, certainly not the kind where the President walks to the podium in the East Room and says, “Yep, they’re here.”

What actually is highly likely for this year is confirmation which is something else altogether. Confirmation is the end of the long-held policy of official denial, replacing it with an acknowledgement that yes, mysterious, extremely high-technology objects exist in our skies and seas, we don’t make them, and we don’t believe Russia, China or any other country does either.

Of course, that begs the question: who does make them? The world probably won’t get to that answer this year but asking the question, openly and directly, does signify real progress.

There are other things that might happen in 2021 that are fairly intriguing as well.

A single, indisputable, high-definition photo or video may emerge and it will be the image that lights the world on fire. Elizondo himself has teased this, saying he is sure that there is a high-quality photo of a UFO shooting out of the ocean. We live in a visual culture. If the provenance of such a photo makes it clear that it’s not some Photoshop job but the real deal, well, let’s just say that it’ll get people talking a lot because they’ll see it, like, everywhere.

Another government besides the United States could join the discussion in a big, official way, forcing the U.S. government into what might just look like a race to disclosure. Candidates that are big enough to knock the world off its axis of UFO denial include Russia, China, the U.K., Germany and even the Vatican (yes, it is a country). There could be multiple motivations to act. First, going first on UFO/UAP confirmation steals the spotlight from the U.S. and second, if an acknowledgement of alien tech can be elicited, then it may force that tech into a global sharing arrangement. The chaos created by the Trump Administration actually does make it more likely that allies (or enemies) who were waiting for the U.S. to go first (for whatever reasons), may be re-thinking that position.

A statement about what UAP represents may come from high level testimony from retired military and government officials. While a former Israeli defense official can generate headlines by talking openly, it’s not the same as, say, the Pope opening up on the topic. It will have to be a big name to really move the needle, someone with the stature of a Colin Powell, so don’t bet the house on it. Among ex-Presidents who might talk, Donald Trump is most likely to do it, but won’t be treated credibly given his miserable record on truth-telling. It would take a George W. Bush or a Barack Obama to put it in the headlines forever, and they do not currently seem inclined to do it.

President Joe Biden, known for his gaffes, might just get asked some day and say more than he should. Once he lets the cat even half out of the bag, it will spur endless follow-ups and he may get caught in a disclosure scenario that was never planned. Or maybe that is the plan, to let Joe go, and then pick up the pieces after.

Public congressional hearings may be called for after the UAP report from DNI lands before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. These could swamp the interest that even the Watergate hearings had, particularly if they are bipartisan and discussed in the daily news cycle.

The James Webb Space Telescope is also set to deploy on the last day of October this year. Planned to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA’s flagship astrophysics mission, by virtue of its new ability look further into space, it’s expected to see exoplanets in greater detail. Our new eye in the sky may just see something that indicates extraterrestrial life.

So, whatever the specifics, the B.C. (Before Confirmation) world may cease to be in 2021 (for sure in the 2020s) and we will then be on our way to the A.D. (After Disclosure) world.

We’ll have to deal with pandemic death and politics, climate change, nuclear proliferation, species extinction, economic meltdown, environmental chaos, refugee crises and, yes, the reality of UFOs.

And that’s just the beginning of the beginning. We may find that the world is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

What we do know is this. Whatever is interacting with us, it’s been intensifying for seven decades. We are now about to start this global conversation together. The decisions we make could literally be life and death.

Denial of election results, diseases, climate change and even aliens may just all have to end at the same time. Denial of truth should no longer be an option.

Humanity’s survival in what may be a crowded universe requires less fighting with each other and bold action as a species.

It’s an important time to be alive.

People get ready.

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