GEIPAN

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French space research unit (founded in 1977)

title: "GEIPAN" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["cnes", "government-responses-to-ufos", "1977-establishments-in-france", "organizations-established-in-1977", "space-program-of-france", "ufo-organizations", "ufo-sightings-in-france"] description: "French space research unit (founded in 1977)" topic_path: "geography/france" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEIPAN" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary French space research unit (founded in 1977) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox organization"]

Field	Value
full_name	Study and Information Group on Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena
native_name	Groupe d'Études et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés
native_name_lang	fr
logo	File:Geipan logo.svg
formation
abbreviation	GEIPAN
location	Toulouse, France
type	Nonprofit
founder	Claude Poher
leader_name	Frederic Courtade
key_people	Yves Sillard
formerly	GEPAN, SEPRA
parent_organization	French Space Agency
website
::

GEIPAN (an acronym in French for Groupe d'Études et d'Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, or Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena Research and Information Group) () is a unit of the French space agency CNES based in Toulouse, whose mission is to investigate unidentified aerospace phenomena (UAP) and make its findings available to the public.

History and developments

GEIPAN was founded in 1977 as GEPAN (Groupe d'Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non-identifiés, Study Group for Unidentified Aerospace Phenomena). Claude Poher was the inaugural director, of then director general of CNES Yves Sillard.

GEPAN was renamed to SEPRA (Service d'Expertise des Phénomènes de Rentrée Atmosphérique, Atmospheric Re-entry Phenomena Expertise Department) in 1988, and then to Service d'Expertise des Phénomènes Rares Aérospatiaux ("rare aerospace phenomena expertise department") in 2000. In 2005, the research unit was renamed to GEIPAN.

The French Gendarmerie was instructed to channel data from reports of UFO sightings to SEPRA, which therefore was in a position to draw on a large database of such events. In cases where physical traces appeared to be present, SEPRA could call on the technical resources of CNES to perform a thorough scientific investigation. A famous example of such an investigation was the Trans-en-Provence Case.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Ufo_reports_in_france_by_year_according_of_GEIPAN_archives_1.png" caption="Sightings numbers per year"] ::

In March 2007, GEIPAN started to make its archives available online to the public. The same year, French skeptics criticized the quality of their investigative work, arguing the sightings were too quickly filed as unidentified. On March 26, 2007, the CNES' own report said that 28% of sightings remain unidentified.

More recent reports of GEIPAN estimate the unidentified sightings at around 3%.

Directors

GEPAN period

1977–1978 Claude Poher
1979–1983 Alain Esterle
1984–1988 Jean-Jacques Velasco

SEPRA period

1988–2004 Jean-Jacques Velasco

GEIPAN period

2005–2009 Jacques Patenet
2009–2011 Yves Blanc
2011–2015 Xavier Passot
2016–2019 Jean-Paul Aguttes
2019–2020 Roger Baldacchino
2021–2023 Vincent Costes
2024–present Frederic Courtade

References

GEIPAN is clearly focused on UFO study, but UAP (''PAN'' in French) is meant to cover a much broader area than UFO (''OVNI'' in French), as "UFO" may imply the presence of a physical object despite any actual evidence of it.
Kreidler, Marc. (2009). "UFOs: an Assessment of Thirty Years of Official Studies in France".
link. (2007-09-27 . Critical skeptical investigations of GEPAN's work.)
"CNES report, March 26, 2007".
Costes, Vincent. (2022-11-03). "Ovnis : comment travaillent les scientifiques pour étudier les phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés".
"Geipan {{!}} GEIPAN".
"Nomination au GEIPAN: Xavier PASSOT {{!}} GEIPAN".
"Interview de Jean-Paul Aguttes, du Geipan : « L'extraterrestre fait partie du job »".
@NatGeoFrance. (2021-09-22). "Qui se cache derrière le GEIPAN, le « bureau des ovnis » en France ?".
Friscourt, Baptiste. (2024-04-24). "The New Director of GEIPAN, France's Official UAP Investigative Office, Discusses Science and the Study of Aerial Mysteries".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::