To The Stars Inc.
| Company type | Public benefit corporation |
|---|---|
| Industry | Aerospace, Science, Entertainment |
| Founded | 2017 |
| Founder | Tom DeLonge, Harold E. Puthoff, Jim Semivan |
| Headquarters | San Diego , United States |
| Products | Music, literature, television programs, films, aerospace research |
| Website | tothestarsacademy |
To The Stars Inc., previously known as To The Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences Inc., is a company headquartered in San Diego. It was co-established by Tom DeLonge (guitarist for Blink-182 and Angels & Airwaves), Harold E. Puthoff (a parapsychologist), and Jim Semivan (an author). The enterprise encompasses divisions across aerospace, science, and entertainment, producing a range of music, literature, television programs, and films. It is particularly recognized for its promotion of research and media concerning UFOs and unconventional scientific fields.
History and funding
The organization was founded in 2017 as a public benefit corporation by Semivan, Puthoff, and DeLonge. It integrated DeLonge’s earlier media company, To the Stars, Inc., into its Entertainment Division.
In September 2017, To The Stars initiated a $50 million Regulation A+ equity crowdfunding drive. Nevertheless, filings with the SEC in October 2018 disclosed that only $1 million worth of shares had been sold, alongside a $37.4 million deficit primarily attributed to employee stock compensation, raising questions about the company’s financial viability.
By 2022, the firm underwent rebranding, simplifying its name from To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science to To The Stars.
Entertainment
The entertainment branch, operating under the name To the Stars Media, produces albums, books, television content, and films.
Initially established in 2014 as a record label, To the Stars launched with Angels & Airwaves’ fifth studio album The Dream Walker and Tom DeLonge’s solo work To the Stars... Demos, Odds and Ends. In 2015, it broadened its scope to include publishing books, graphic novels, and children’s picture books—many in collaboration with Simon & Schuster. These publications predominantly explore themes of the supernatural, ufology, and science fiction. Notable works include the Sekret Machines fiction series (co-written by DeLonge and A. J. Hartley), the non-fiction counterpart Gods, Man & War (co-authored with Peter Levenda), Hartley’s space-themed Cathedrals of Glass series, as well as DeLonge’s young adult series Poet Anderson (with Suzanne Young) and Strange Times (with Geoff Herbach).
The company co-produced the animated short film Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker in 2014. Its initial significant television venture was the 2019 History Channel series Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation. A feature film adaptation planned for Strange Times was later converted into a television series for TBS. Additionally, production has commenced on both a documentary TV series and a feature film linked to the Sekret Machines franchise.
Most recently (as of May 2025), To the Stars delivered Tom DeLonge’s first feature film as director, titled Monsters of California (2023). Upcoming projects include an animated series named Breaking Bear for Tubi, alongside a television adaptation of Sekret Machines developed in partnership with Legendary.
Promotion of UFOs and fringe science
The company’s science and aerospace sectors concentrate on pioneering research into phenomena such as unidentified flying objects. Harold E. Puthoff has described their objective as introducing "25th-century science" into current times. Among their prospective initiatives is the development of an "electromagnetic vehicle."
Engaged in UFO investigations and fringe scientific endeavors, many of the technologies explored by To The Stars involve speculative concepts that border on pseudoscience. Investors have been cautioned about risks including possible failure in areas like beamed energy propulsion and telepathic communication.
Although frequently linked with ufology, Luis Elizondo highlighted that most team members possess backgrounds in U.S. Defense and Intelligence sectors and do not identify themselves as ufologists. The firm’s collaboration with the U.S. Army indicates aspirations toward military contracting; however, it remains positioned at the intersection of defense contracting and UFO research. Elizondo exited the company toward the end of 2020.
The VAULT
The "Virtual Analytics UAP Learning Tool" (VAULT) serves as a publicly accessible repository for UFO sighting records. The VAULT team is responsible for gathering, scrutinizing, and validating UFO reports, notably incorporating declassified documents from government sources.
In September 2019, the US Navy confirmed the authenticity of three videos from VAULT, which were captured during the USS Nimitz UFO incident and USS Theodore Roosevelt UFO incidents. These clips were originally released as part of an initiative led by former intelligence officer Luis Elizondo, who was then affiliated with To the Stars. The effort aimed to reveal the existence of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, a confidential Department of Defense project focused on investigating UFO phenomena. Subsequently, in April 2020, the Navy officially declassified and made these videos publicly available.
With backing from Christopher Mellon, a former official from the Senate Intelligence Committee and Department of Defense, To the Stars engaged with Congress and arranged classified briefings involving pilots to evaluate any potential threats posed to military aviators.
ADAM Research Project
The ADAM Research Project undertaken by the company concentrates on studying an "extraterrestrial" metal with potential applications in both commercial and defense sectors. Announced in July 2019, this initiative involves acquiring and analyzing "potentially exotic materials" under the Acquisition & Data Analysis of Materials (ADAM) program. Steve Justice, COO and ex-head of Advanced Systems at Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, explained that these materials possess structural and compositional characteristics not found in current military or commercial technologies and are being examined for possible reverse engineering. The company invested $35,000 to obtain items including "six pieces of Bismuth/Magnesium-Zinc metal" along with aluminum samples.
These metals are purportedly sourced from an unidentified flying object and had previously been examined by ufologist Linda Moulton Howe, who suggested they exhibit “lifting body” behavior when exposed to electromagnetic radiation. Nonetheless, To The Stars stresses the importance of fact verification and aims to establish independent scientific validation regarding the materials’ properties. According to Moulton Howe, tests conducted by Carnegie Science and researcher Harold E. Puthoff yielded no evidence supporting alien origins or anomalous effects, though one additional test remains pending. The company continues its research in collaboration with laboratories founded by Puthoff.
Skeptics contend that no credible proof supports claims of these materials being extraterrestrial or scientifically significant. Experts affiliated with the American Chemical Society and Oregon State University regard such assertions as highly unlikely, noting that unknown alloys would be rapidly identified through standard academic research methods. Chemical engineer Chris Cogswell has proposed that these metals might simply be industrial slag.
On October 17, 2019, To The Stars entered into a five-year cooperative research agreement with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command. This partnership focuses on areas including inertial mass reduction, mechanical and structural metamaterials, electromagnetic metamaterial waveguides, quantum physics, quantum communications, and beamed energy propulsion technologies. Although no direct public funding is allocated under this contract, the Army provides at least $750,000 worth of support and resources toward advancing and testing To The Stars’ technologies.
Under this agreement, To The Stars is required to supply samples of metamaterials, data concerning vehicles utilizing beamed energy propulsion systems, and information about active camouflage technologies potentially applicable to Army ground vehicles. A U.S. Army representative remarked on their interest in scientifically assessing the ADAM project’s materials for possible military advantages. Additionally, the Army is overseeing To The Stars’ partnership with TruClear Global, a firm specializing in delivering advanced technological solutions to U.S. government agencies.
Books and graphic novels
Sekret Machines
- Sekret Machines: Book 1 – Chasing Shadows (2016) (co-authored with A. J. Hartley)
- Sekret Machines: Gods (2017) (co-written with Peter Levenda)
- Sekret Machines: Book 2 – A Fire Within (2018) (collaborated with A. J. Hartley)
- Sekret Machines: Man (2019) (jointly with Peter Levenda)
- Sekret Machines: War (2024) (in partnership with Peter Levenda)
Cathedrals of Glass
- Cathedrals of Glass: A Planet of Blood and Ice (2017)
- Cathedrals of Glass: Valkrys Wakes (2020)
Poet Anderson
- Poet Anderson: ...Of Nightmares (2015)
- Poet Anderson: ...In Darkness (2018)
Strange Times
- Strange Times: The Curse of Superstition Mountain (2015)
- Strange Times: The Ghost in the Girl (2016)
Other
- The Lonely Astronaut on Christmas Eve (reissued) (2016)
- Who Here Knows Who Took My Clothes? (2018)
Television and film
- Poet Anderson: The Dream Walker (2014)
- Unidentified: Inside America's UFO Investigation (2019–2020)
- Untitled television adaptation of Strange Times (forthcoming)
- Untitled documentary series on Sekret Machines (forthcoming)
- Untitled feature film based on Sekret Machines (forthcoming)
Music releases
- Angels & Airwaves – The Dream Walker (2014)
- Tom DeLonge – To the Stars... Demos, Odds and Ends (2015)
- Angels & Airwaves – ...Of Nightmares (2015)
- Angels & Airwaves – Chasing Shadows (2016)