France has investigated the sky since 1977: inside the space agency's UAP office
GEIPAN, a permanent unit within the French space agency, collects reports, conducts remote and field investigations and publishes cases. The most useful figure is not the number of reports received: only 3.3 percent remain unidentified after an investigation with sufficient information.
CNES created the programme in 1977. It works with police, the Gendarmerie, the Air and Space Force, CNRS and Météo-France. CNES classifies 24.6 percent as perfectly identified, 39.7 percent as probably identified, 32.4 percent as unidentified for lack of data and 3.3 percent as unidentified after investigation.
Unidentified is not a finding of non-human origin. Case quality varies and not every event contains original imagery, radar or independent witnesses. Percentages may also change when old files are reassessed.
A real office inside a space agency
GEIPAN is neither a private club nor a publicity campaign. Its formal mission is to collect, analyse, archive and publish reports of unidentified aerospace phenomena. Based at CNES in Toulouse, it is supported by civil, military, meteorological and academic expertise.
Unknown is different from insufficient data
The French categories prevent an important confusion. Some 32.4 percent remain unidentified because evidence is insufficient, while 3.3 percent remain unidentified after investigation. A blurred light without timing and direction is not equivalent to a case that survives witness, weather and field checks.
Reports can arrive through the website or authorities such as the Gendarmerie and civil aviation. Investigators compare astronomy, weather, aircraft routes, satellites, balloons and local conditions. Follow-up interviews and field work may be conducted before the documented case and classification are published.
Witnesses receive an address that does not begin with ridicule, while the public receives a checkable conclusion. Most cases are fully or probably explained and another large group remains open mainly because evidence is weak. That strict filtering makes the small residual category more useful.
A government can treat the subject as an aviation-safety and scientific question without choosing an exotic explanation in advance. The foundation is timely reporting, preservation of the original file and a visible distinction between lack of evidence and an investigated case that remains unresolved.