Groupe d’Études et d’Informations sur les Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non identifiés

France set up an official UFO study group after a wave of sightings in the mid-1970s. On 1 May 1977, CNES director general Yves Sillard authorized GEPAN (Groupe d’Étude des Phénomènes Aérospatiaux Non identifiés), led first by Claude Poher and based in Toulouse. Gendarmerie reports were routed to the unit, which could draw on CNES technical resources when a case left physical traces. In 1988 GEPAN was replaced by SEPRA, which added atmospheric re-entry and space-debris work to the UAP brief; around 2000 the unit was refocused on rare aerospace phenomena, but with thin resources. A 2001 audit led CNES, in 2005, to restructure the activity as GEIPAN. The added “I” marked a new public-information mandate.

Since 2007 GEIPAN has posted anonymized case files online. Reports come through its site or through police and gendarmerie statements, then go through technical analysis and a published classification: A (identified), B (probably identified), C (unidentified for lack of data), and D (unidentified after investigation). CNES’s current breakdown is about 24.6 percent clearly identified, 39.7 percent probably identified, 32.4 percent unidentified for lack of data, and 3.3 percent still unidentified after investigation. The unit is overseen by COPEIPAN, a steering committee with civil, military (gendarmerie, police, Air and Space Force), and scientific members (CNES, CNRS, Météo-France, and others). Frédéric Courtade has headed it since January 2024. It remains the longest-running official government UAP office still in operation.