Why That NASA Book About Communicating With Alien Life Was Removed From the Web

NASA recently published an e-book that might have surprised some folks, because it suggested ancient rock art “might have been made by aliens." But shortly after the book got a bit of news coverage, NASA removed it from the Internet.

Why?

NASA didn't return TheBlaze request for comment on the removal of the book and its news release, but NASA's Chief Historian William Barry emailed Spoid and said that it was posted by mistake.

Image source: Wikimedia

"[The] page you saw was a draft web page for the planned book release early next month," Barry explained. "Our publication support folks accidentally published the page to the web instead of saving it for review. The PDF and e-Book versions you saw there are complete, but the rest of our publication release process (e.g., getting the hard copies from the printer) are not done yet. We expect to make the book available (in print and in free e-Book versions) around June 10th."

That said, Barry added "it never hurts to have some positive pre-publication buzz." He dubbed the mistake "a (not very) exclusive sneak peek of our (very soon to be) forthcoming book."

Those interested in "Archaeology, Anthropology and Interstellar Communications" edited by Dr. Douglas Vakoch can look forward to downloading next month.