Galileo Project

The Galileo Project was announced on July 26, 2021 at a virtual press conference hosted by Mike Wall of Space.com, with Faye Flam of Bloomberg Opinion as Q&A moderator. The press release described a "multi-institutional, international" effort "in conjunction with the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian" to advance "a systematic experimental search for cross-validated evidence of potential astro-archeological artifacts or active technical equipment made by putative existing or extinct extraterrestrial technological civilizations." It stated that the project "has been co-founded by Avi Loeb and Frank Laukien, and it is a transparent, non-profit, multi-institutional and international project," chaired by Avi Loeb of the Harvard astronomy department, and that it "has initial funding from generous donations and pledges by individuals and foundations listed on the Galileo Project website."¹

Scope and stated rules

The release named three lines of research: high-resolution multi-detector imaging of unidentified aerial phenomena with a network of telescopes and detector arrays; a search for objects resembling ʻOumuamua, including through the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time; and a search for small extraterrestrial satellites. Loeb cited the June 25, 2021 report of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on unidentified aerial phenomena as an inspiration. The release also stated that "additional philanthropic, foundation or governmental funders are encouraged to join the Galileo Project." The project's home page stated four ground rules: it does not work with classified information or unreliable past data, analyzes data using known physics, publishes data and analysis freely, and releases no results except through accepted scientific publication.¹² The project's support page states that it is "unaffiliated with any governmental or military organizations and receive[s] no funding from these sources"; donors give through a Harvard alumni giving form to a "Research Fund u/d Professor Avi Loeb," and gifts above 50,000 dollars require additional documentation from Harvard Development.³

Philanthropic Advisory Board

The project's website lists a Philanthropic Advisory Board "to provide philanthropic advice" with these entries as of 2022: Eugene Jhong (Harvard A.B. and J.D.; M.S. in computer science, Stanford University); Vinny Jain; Teddy Jones (entrepreneur; Harvard A.B. and J.D.; MBA, University of Virginia); the Laukien Science Foundation; Joerg Laukien; William A. Linton (founder, chair and chief executive of Promega Corporation; executive director of the Usona Institute); and Adnan Sen. The Scientific Advisory Board listed Roberto Abraham, Charles Alcock (director of the Center for Astrophysics), Sagi Ben Ami, Paul Davies, Ferki Ferati (president of the Jefferson Educational Society of Erie), Mercedes Lopez-Morales, Seth Shostak, Rizwan Virk, Stephen Wolfram and Dimitar Sasselov.⁴ The combined advisory boards page, read October 3, 2026, lists the Philanthropic Advisory Board in this order: Brinson Foundation ("*Privately funded philanthropic organization"); Charles Hoskinson ("Technology Entrepreneur, CEO and Founder of IOHK"); Eugene Jhong; Vinny Jain; Teddy Jones; Eric Keto ("*Member, Galileo Project Research Team"); the Laukien Science Foundation; Joerg Laukien; William A. Linton; and Adnan Sen, with the page's introduction reading "The Philanthropic Advisory Board provides philanthropic advice to The Galileo Project." A separate standalone page for the board lists only Jhong, Jain, Jones, the Laukien Science Foundation and Linton. The Scientific Advisory Board on the same page lists Alcock, Ben-Ami, Davies, Ferati (Ed.D., University of Pittsburgh; MPA, Gannon University), Shostak, Virk (venture capitalist; founder of Play Labs at MIT), Wolfram and Sasselov.⁵ The project's organization page states that it was "founded in July 2021 by Dr. Avi Loeb, the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard's Astronomy Department and Dr. Frank Laukien, Visiting Scholar at Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology," and its FAQ ("Version 2, January 26, 2022") states that it "is not and will not be funded by any government, military organization, or related agencies such as the Department of Defense" and has "not partnered with any government or military/defense organization," while noting that "some project affiliates bring experience in the government sector, or with technology and aerospace companies that conduct business with the government of the United States."⁶

Joerg Laukien is described in Bruker Corporation's 2022 proxy statement as the brother of Frank Laukien; the same proxy lists William A. Linton as a Bruker director since 2000, serving on its Nominating & Governance Committee, and as founder and executive director of the Usona Institute.⁷

Inverse, citing Science, reported that wealthy donors contacted Loeb after his 2021 book Extraterrestrial and that about 1.75 million dollars had been donated by four of them.⁸

Named gifts and fellowships

Richard Cloete arrived at Harvard in May 2022 as the "Laukien-Oumuamua fellow" from the University of Cambridge, and on May 12, 2022 the project announced that Laura Domine of Stanford had accepted the first "Keto-Galileo postdoctoral fellowship," to begin February 1, 2023.⁹ On August 15, 2022 it announced that Brinson Foundation had awarded a three-year "Brinson Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship."¹⁰ ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer lists the Brinson Foundation (EIN 68-0656415, Chicago, tax exemption October 2007) with end-of-year assets, as extracted from its Form 990-PF, of 108,336,300 dollars for 2021, 104,471,491 dollars for 2022 and 198,225,050 dollars for 2023.¹¹

On October 30, 2021 Loeb announced Christopher Mellon and Luis Elizondo as research affiliates, to assist in "the selection of sites where the UAP-Scope systems will be located" and in assessing societal implications; the announcement credited them with efforts "pivotal in bringing about the Pentagon's release and confirmation" of the three Navy videos and with two years of lobbying behind the 2021 ODNI report.¹² On April 26, 2024 the project announced 575,000 dollars from the Richard King Mellon Foundation for a third observatory station, in Allegheny or Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania; the release says Mellon "was instrumental in stewarding this grant."¹³ By August 2022 the project's first telescope system had been assembled on the roof of the Harvard College Observatory.¹⁰

Bruker and Laukien

Bruker's 2022 proxy statement says that Frank Laukien is "a co-founder of two start-up venture companies in therapeutics and space exploration, respectively, as well as of the non-profit Galileo Project at Harvard University," and that he is a visiting scholar in Harvard's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology.⁷

Interstellar Expedition, 2023

In June 2023 an expedition of the Galileo Project, led by Loeb as chief scientist and coordinated by Rob McCallum of EYOS Expeditions, used the vessel Silver Star from Lorengau, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, to tow a sled over about 175 kilometers of seabed on June 14 to 28 along the calculated path of the January 8, 2014 fireball catalogued as CNEOS 2014-01-08 (IM1), and recovered 50 metallic spherules of 0.1 to 1 millimeter. The expedition press release states it "was funded privately by American entrepreneur Charles Hoskinson." Loeb wrote in his published diary that he spoke with "the expedition funder, Charles Hoskinson" on a jet to the site and later that "the Interstellar Expedition received funding at 1.5 million dollars."¹⁴¹⁵ DL News reported that Hoskinson had invested in Colossal Biosciences, which is attempting to revive extinct animals, in its 60 million dollar Series A round.¹⁶ The project announced a memorandum of understanding with the Papua New Guinea University of Technology on August 21, 2023 and a paper on the spherules in Chemical Geology on September 23, 2024.¹⁷

UAP Science Advisory Council, 2026

The Harvard Crimson reported on July 11, 2026 that a week before the government's latest release of declassified files a representative of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence visited Loeb at his home with a request, and that Loeb then formed a UAP Science Advisory Council "in support of President Trump's directive on UAP transparency"; of its 18 publicly named members, 12 had ties to Harvard and four were Galileo Project research affiliates. Members include the Skeptic magazine founder Michael Shermer, a Galileo affiliate, and the billionaire Ben Lamm, whose company Colossal Biosciences "helps fund the Wyss Institute at Harvard." Loeb said the council has no budget and communicates through him and a parallel UAP Governing Board whose membership is not public, and that the council has asked the Pentagon to declassify 50 items without a response.¹⁸