To The Stars Academy

To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science (TTSA) was a public-benefit corporation founded by Blink-182's Tom DeLonge in 2017, combining entertainment, science, and aerospace divisions around the UAP subject. Its October 2017 launch and December 2017 video releases catalyzed the modern era.

DeLonge assembled former officials he had cultivated: Luis Elizondo (days after leaving the Pentagon), Christopher Mellon, CIA veteran Jim Semivan, physicist Hal Puthoff, and former Lockheed Skunk Works program director Steve Justice. Funding came substantially from crowdfunded shares under Regulation A+.

TTSA released the FLIR1, Gimbal, and (in 2018) GoFast videos, coordinating with the New York Times reporting that revealed AATIP. Its ADAM Research Project collected alleged exotic materials, some later transferred under a CRADA with the U.S. Army (2019). The History channel series Unidentified (2019-2020) carried Elizondo and Mellon's investigation to television and helped drive the Navy's official acknowledgments. DeLonge's Sekret Machines books and films ran through the entertainment arm. By late 2020 and 2021, Elizondo, Mellon, and other principals departed, and TTSA announced a refocus on entertainment, continuing today as To The Stars Media.

DeLonge, Elizondo, Mellon, Puthoff, Semivan, Justice, and CEO-era executives including Steve McDaniel.

Operating as a media and merchandise company; its advocacy function dispersed to its alumni, who remain central figures individually.

SEC filings showing accumulated deficits drew mockery about a "UFO company" funded by fans; critics called the materials claims overhyped (analyses never published exotic findings), and skeptics saw officials monetizing mystery. Defenders answer with the scoreboard: the videos, the Times story, Navy acknowledgment, and ultimately congressional hearings all route through TTSA's founding moment.