It’s The End Of The TTSA As We Know It! Or Is It?

It’s The End Of The TTSA As We Know It! Or Is It? 
By Dave Scott, Host, Spaced Out Radio
Is the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science on the verge of collapse?  It may be looking that way in some regards, or about to go through an overhaul, as I have been told to be prepared for a major shift in the landscape of the top UFO research group on the planet.  For the last month and a half, I have been hearing alleged rumblings of a major shift within the TTSA, which would allegedly see many key players of Tom DeLonge’s team departing for other venues.  Is it surprising?  To many within the UFO community, it’s not.  To many of their supporters and especially their public investors, this news may come as a blow in the help to bring full disclosure of the UFO phenomenon to the forefront of humanity.
Since its inception on October 11th, 2017, the TTSA has stood at the top of the heap when it comes to UFO research.  It was then that Tom DeLonge took the stage in Seattle, for a press-less press conference, to announce his impressive team of Chris Mellon, Luis Elizondo, Harold (Hal) Puthoff, Jim Semivan and Steve Justice.  To the world they announced initiatives that were going to help bring the entire UFO landscape and change the world with aggressive ideas to help bring ‘Disclosure’ forward.  They gave credence and immediate validation to those who’ve experienced the UFO phenomenon and weren’t believed.  This team was void of current UFO researchers, and filled with people ‘in the know’, who’ve been working on this phenomenon behind the scenes on a U.S. Government level.  Impressive resumes, such as Mr. Mellon, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.  Mr. Justice, Chief Operations Officer, Director of Aerospace for Lockheed Martin Skunkworks.  And of course, the star of the show, coming out in public for the first time, Mr. Elizondo, who could very well be the first public persona of a ‘Man In Black’, and the former head of the secretive AATIP program, from which he had resigned his position just days before this announcement.  Along with Mr. Semivan and Mr. Puthoff, the credentials of these men were insurmountable to DeLonge creating a team which could bring the public in, as investors, to not only work on bringing the ‘Disclosure’ movement forward, but to bring forward technology that could help everyone on this planet.
The TTSA made instant waves with the release of three United States Navy videos, which turned out to be the ‘Tic Tac’, ‘Go Fast’ and ‘Gimbal’ films.  These were described as unknown encounters filmed from a 2004 training mission with the USS Nimitz and it’s team of warships.  This is where we saw the likes of Commander David Fravor who, with his wingman, gave chase to one of these craft from his F/A-18 Super Hornet.  We learned about the crew of the USS Princeton, with Kevin Day, PJ Hughes, Gary Voorhis and Sean Cahill coming out publicly to discuss the topic.  The New York Times published front page news on this incident and the videos’ release in Dec. 17, 2017, with a stellar article co-written by Pulitzer Prize winner Ralph Blumenthal, along with Leslie Kean and Helene Cooper.  The TTSA seemed to be on a real roll, with all but guaranteeing that this was just the start of big things, and more videos, to come on the subject. For the first time in decades, the mainstream media started covering this subject with clarity and true journalism, without the typical humor and rhetoric they normally used when discussing UFOs.  Gone were the days of the ‘X-Files’ theme song, ‘Star Trek’ music or musings from the ‘Twilight Zone’. Instead it was filled with actual reporting as newsrooms and reporters were caught with their pants down, suddenly realizing the ‘tinfoil hat club’ was actually right after years of ridicule and dismissiveness.  Finally, there were questions the MSM were asking, at the behest of Pentagon officials like Susan Gough, who seemed to be in perpetual denial of information when it came to the subject.  It’s an accomplishment that continues to this day where this story has gone from the bottom of the barrel in newsrooms around North America to becoming a lead story.  The TTSA also went as far as denying dozens of media requests from UFO and alternative media, radio shows and podcasts outside of George Knapp on Coast to Coast AM.  Personally, Spaced Out Radio had fifteen requests either denied or not replied to.  With one of those replies asking for questions in advance for review, which we refused to grant on journalism ethics.  Our request for an interview was then denied. 
Yes, the TTSA helped bring forward a plethora of information to advance the entire community, whether you were a supporter or not.  However many critics were not convinced the TTSA was best for the UFO community at large, and took a great amount of heat for their lack of public support.  Like GUFON’s Richard Giordano.  Giordano is known as a brash UFO researcher and YouTuber who’s been investigating the phenomenon for the last 16 years.  Giordano felt the TTSA, coming in like gangbusters the way they did, really didn’t sit well with gaining the trust or loyalty of the UFO community, whether or not they wanted the support.  “When TTSA was introduced to the public in 2017, I definitely had mixed feelings. One reason was and still is, Tom Delonge. The second reason is those who worked in previous UFO groups affiliated within our government are now the TTSA All Stars. In a way I was intrigued like all of us who research UFOs. We thought, for a moment, they would help usher in disclosure like never before and it started off great. Almost immediately after conception we saw 3 UFO videos with the use of the FLIR cameras from F-18’s. That’s when I jumped off the bandwagon of hope that TTSA was going to help get full alien disclosure. Don’t get me wrong, TTSA did help get Ufology the most mainstream media coverage ever, but it was the 3 videos and the inclusion of Tom Delonge which supplied my doubts. The 3 videos are grainy but that’s the way FLIR cameras represent what they capture. No details whatsoever. Just a shape of something roughly the same size of almost any plane, no one knows for sure. It literally is impossible to tell what we are seeing with these cameras, which is why I was skeptical.”
To be fair, the TTSA has never stated they were a part of the UFO community, nor did it want to be.  It wanted to separate itself from the community that is filled with conspiracy theorists and long time researchers and experiencers who didn’t have the contacts within the Government or Government agencies to bring light to this highly controversial subject.  Joe Murgia, a Las Vegas based researcher, has been a staunch supporter of the TTSA since its inception.  He states, “When I first heard Tom DeLonge speak about UFOs, I was immediately turned off because he claimed to know things nobody else did. Big red flag for me. Plus, I wasn’t a fan of Blink-182 and hated his voice! But as time went on and the Wikileaks material came out, showing that he DID have contact with some influential people in our government and military, I changed my tune and decided to listen closely to what he had to say.  As the TTSA became public, Mr. Murgia put his money where his mouth is, and decided to invest. “Their credibility was off the charts. I immediately “invested” $200 in their stock offering without any expectations of getting it back or making a profit. Why? Because I felt they had an excellent opportunity to help educate the public about the reality of the phenomenon and remove some of the stigma that has been glued to the subject for decades, and I wanted to show my support for their effort and new venture. Right away, we heard jealous screams of, “Tom hasn’t put in the work that so many long time researchers have! He doesn’t deserve the spotlight!” For me, I didn’t care (and still don’t) who pushes the ball forward.  Elizondo hinted that he, Mellon and Justice may be heading for something new and international. If they leave TTSA, will it be the demise of DeLonge’s baby? I don’t think so. TTSA or not, the UFO genie has been let out of the bottle in a big way and I don’t see it slowing down any time soon.”

For the past couple of months, however, there had been rumblings that all was not allegedly well within the tight confines of TTSA’s walls.  Richard Dolan, a fan of TTSA’s work, stated on Spaced Out Radio, he’d heard the same information, “There’s been frustration inside that organization for as long as they’ve probably existed because they feel like they’re just smashing their heads into a wall trying to get the attention of a dead political establishment.  Trying to get the attention of a brain dead media that doesn’t seem to be moving on this.” Dolan went on to say, “I’ve believed for the last several years that this organization can just disappear at anytime.”  But should that be surprising though?  No, according to Dolan, “What is clearly the case, is that these guys are a faction.  They have friends and they have enemies within that [Government] community.  They have people who want to help them, and they have people who want to break and destroy them, and that’s just how it is.”

In a quote transcribed by Danny Silva of The Silva Record, On Coast to Coast AM with George Knapp, Luis Elizondo, the real face of ufology, was asked by Mr. Knapp, “What’s going on with TTSA? There’s these rumors floating around that an announcement is coming in January that’s going to shake things up a bit. What, if anything, can you say about it?”  To which Elizondo replied, “Well, I can’t speak for TTSA. You’d have to go through TTSA channels to ask them about TTSA and I’ll tell you from my perspective I love my friends at TTSA. They are incredible human beings, but I also have to say my mission has always been very clear, George, and that was to push disclosure forward. That’s it. I think after three years, you know, I can look back and I think we’ve achieved much of what we’ve set out to do. TTSA, it’s no secret, also focuses on it’s entertainment division and, you know, let’s face it, guys like Chris Mellon and Steve Justice and myself, we’re not entertainers. We’re not. So, very much like the History Channel project, we have accomplished our mission. Mission success. We have done more in three years collectively than anybody I think really expected us to achieve. Now it’s time I think we shift from…you know it’s like a car, right? You know I speak in car talk, I’m kind of a gearhead, so I think the time has come from the proverbial first gear to now second gear. We have enough momentum, enough inertia where we can shift gears and continue moving forward, and to do that guys like me are looking at new and exciting ways to expand that conversation to an even larger audience, while still staying true to our core mission of disclosure.” 

There are also candid rumblings behind the scenes that Chris Mellon, who has played a vital and key role in advising and educating members of Congress, most notably Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, may be looking to advance the cause further by heading back to Washington, D.C.  It’s alleged that Mellon’s knowledge and internal Top Secret ability helped lead Rubio, back in July of 2020 to state publicly to CBS reporter Jim DeFede that he was seeking public funding in the 2021 Intelligence Budget for a UAP Task Force, to learn more about the phenomenon military personnel were experiencing. “We have things flying over our military bases and places where we’re conducting military exercises and we don’t know what it is and it isn’t ours!”  Rubio followed up with, “Frankly, if it’s something outside this planet that might actually be better than the fact that we’ve seen some sort of technological leap from the Chinese or Russians or some other adversary that allows them to conduct this sort of activity,” Rubio said. “That to me is a national security risk and one we should be looking into.”  Sources have stated that Mellon could be up for a key position within President Elect Joe Biden’s staff, which could see an increase behind the scenes of his work to bring more elected officials up to speed on UAP studies and research.

Outsiders looking into the To The Stars Academy claim to have seen some shakiness within this ‘Dream Team’ of non-ufologists, who always denied it was about UFOs.  In fact, at launch, the TTSA website, while crowdfunding for investors that raised over two-million dollars, never mentioned the acronyms ‘UFO’ or ‘UAP’.  Their financials, according to MUFON Board Member and retired Financial Analyst, Tom Whitmore, “From the SEC filings, the business has been running accounting deficits since 2015 up to the present, cumulatively totaling over $5 million dollars (after stock compensation is backed out).”  Costs of paying a full time staff along with any costs incurred from their two season television show ‘Unidentified’ may have something to do with this.  ‘Unidentified: Inside America’s UFO Investigation’ also didn’t receive the popularity in ratings that many felt would come with Elizondo manning the front of the camera.  Even though many television critics were highly complimentary of the program’s direction.

Sources close to players within the TTSA have also indicated that many had grown tired of the alleged antics and social media posts of TTSA Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board, and Interim CEO, Tom DeLonge.  The successful rockstar had and has a penchant for posting then removing posts of UFOs on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  People with knowledge have stated to me DeLonge first seemed to draw the ire of many on the TTSA team when he went on the famous Joe Rogan Experience podcast back in December 2017.  From the foul language to commenting on questionable fake UFO videos from YouTube, it allegedly led many within the TTSA to feel uncomfortable with the way their ‘famous’ CEO was coming across while tied to various ‘governmental’ type people.  The video, which has since been removed from the JRE YouTube Channel, also had DeLonge talking about whipping out his penis during the live show, in total rockstar form!  No, he never did this on the podcast, and was joking for all intents and purposes.  But from what we have learned, it didn’t sit well with the insiders.

But from an intel perspective, the troubles from within were easy to spot, according to retired Chief Scientist of the Hume Center for National Security and Technology at Virginia Tech University, Bob McGwier.  From an internal standpoint, within many alphabet agencies, some of DeLonge’s troubles may have started with Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks cables.  The highly credentialed McGwier states, “I have believed the TTSA was going nowhere with Tom DeLonge since he revealed General McCasland’s name in an email to [John] Podesta, and Wikileaks got it and published it.  The only part that might survive is the entertainment division.”  When the leaked cables happened, DeLonge went on Instagram saying “I am still here. Wikileaks really messed some important stuff up!”  The email McGwier discusses apparently sent ripples through the intellence community because Assange is a high valued target to them, especially when the email involved a high profiled former Chief of Staff to two Presidents.  According to McGwier this would have stirred up the U.S. Air Force and the Pentagon, because McCasland was chair of the special access program committee!

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/3099

So does this mean an end to the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science?  The simple answer is no it doesn’t.  It’s not been announced as of yet, but if indications by Mr. Elizondo’s comments to Mr. Knapp are correct, it means they will have to regroup and move on without Elizondo, Mellon and Justice.  DeLonge has maintained that through this journey he has met and become friendly with some very public and no so public resources and people who are pursuing this phenomenon.  We don’t know the full extent or whether or not there is a mass exodus from the TTSA.  What we can allege is the two most popular faces of To The Stars are looking towards future projects.  Do those plans still include TTSA?  Right now it seems a little too early to tell.  It’s likely DeLonge and crew are looking into reformatting the future of the group, and if they will be able to accomplish their lofty goals with the millions they gained from sales of shares. The next move is DeLonge’s, as we wait for an official announcement from the TTSA regarding its future, which could come in January or early February