NASA FOIA Release Details Grant on Astrobiology, Religion, a

NASA FOIA Release Details Grant on Astrobiology, Religion, and Extraterrestrial Life

NASA's final FOIA response (20-HQ-F-00617) released grant reports for NASA grant NNX14AR81G, 'Astrobiology, Religion, and Society,' led by Dr. William Storrar at the Center of Theological Inquiry — records tied to a January 10, 2017 Congressional Record reference to a '$1 million NASA project' on religion and extraterrestrial life.

Published

September 13, 2026

Declassified

Date not listed

Source agency

The Black Vault (FOIA archive)

nasafoiadetailsgrantastrobiologyreligionextraterrestriallife

Tracing Congressional Record Claim to NASA Grant Records

The January That sentence, quoted verbatim in a FOIA request dated June 24, 2020, became the test case for a simple question — did the record match the paperwork? NASA's final response, tracking number 20-HQ-F-00617 and dated July 13, 2020, answered it in a way that satisfies neither the Record's sweeping framing nor a dismissal of the project as fiction. The search itself was narrow.

NASA's Office of Communications confirmed that staff reviewed the 2016-2017 grant file pertaining to the Center for Theological Inquiry (CTI) within the Science Mission Directorate. That review located responsive records, and the agency noted that most had already been released under an earlier request, tracking number 16-HQ-F-00616. The final package combined those prior releases with subsequently created records: 29 pages released in full, 2 pages released in part, and 14 pages withheld in full.

The withholding is the hinge of the story. C. C.

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Based on the official release at https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/nasas-1-million-grant-to-prepare-religions-for-extraterrestrial-life-discovery/

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