To complete their work, the independent NASA team identified how data gathered by civilian, commercial, and government entities as well as any other sources can most effectively be analyzed to shed light on UAPs.

Finally, the announcement specified that NASA's UAP study team would be a second and independent undertaking from the program under Department of Defense direction, saying, "the agency is not part of the Department of Defense's Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force or its successor, the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group" although NASA has "coordinated widely across the government regarding how to apply the tools of science to shed light on the nature and origin of unidentified anomalous phenomena".

[2] In July 2022, one month after NASA's announcement of its independent UAP study team, the United States Department of Defense replaced the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group with the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO).

Kirkpatrick said that "though NASA and AARO are taking on different aspects of the UAP problem set, our efforts are very much complementary" as both are committed to the scientific method and a data-driven approach.

AARO is "grateful for the partnership", said Kirkpatrick, and welcomes "the opportunity to join with NASA to share our collective findings with the public as the U.S. Government moves towards greater transparency on this issue".

[7] As summarized in ETC: A Review of General Semantics, "aside from UAP's more encompassing description, this term avoids the heavy cultural baggage attached to UFO, whose initial association with extraterrestrial origins ...sets up a narrow and inflexible framework for honest scientific research.

"[8] The term UFO now has decades of association with aliens across many areas of culture, popular entertainment, conspiracy theories, and religious movements as considered in American Cosmic by Diana Walsh Pasulka.

"[14][15] Regarding David Grusch's claims of a government coverup(s) regarding UFOs, team member Joshua Semeter said that, absent more information, little can be said about the Grusch claims, adding that the NASA team is "working in collaboration with the Defense Department's All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office," with his panel's specific objective being "to create a roadmap for how NASA assets and expertise can contribute to determining the origin and nature of UAP.