GEIPAN (an acronym in French for , or Unidentified Aerospace Phenomenon Research and Information Group) () is a unit of the French space agency
CNES
CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...
based in
Toulouse
Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
, whose brief 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 (, 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 (, Atmospheric Re-entry Phenomena Expertise Department) in 1988,
and then to ("rare aerospace phenomena expertise department") in 2000. In 2005, the research unit was renamed to GEIPAN.
The French
Gendarmerie
A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (). In France and so ...
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
CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...
to perform a thorough scientific investigation. A famous example of such an investigation was the
Trans-en-Provence Case.

In March 2007, GEIPAN started to make it
archives available onlineto 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 - now Frederic Courtade
See also
*
List of UFO organizations
This is a list of notable UFO organizations located around the world.
Belarus
* UfoCom
Estonia
* AKRAK (inactive)
France
* COMETA (')
* Groupe d'études et d'informations sur les phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés (GEIPAN)
...
References
External links
*
GEIPAN official siteGoals and history of GEIPANon the
CNES
CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...
website.
''From GEPAN to SEPRA: Official UFO studies in France''(International UFO Review, winter 2000–2001), the earlier years of GEIPAN related by
Gildas Bourdais.
{{Authority control
CNES
Government responses to UFOs
1977 establishments in France
Organizations established in 1977
Space program of France
UFO organizations
UFO sightings in France