New York, April 14 -- A set of precise, published, scientific predictions made by Richard C. Hoagland, almost 20 years ago in Star & Sky Magazine, still electronically available on the World-Wide-Web, have now been strikingly confirmed by NASA's latest results from the on-going Galileo Mission to the planet Jupiter. Hoagland is founder and current Principal Investigator of The Enterprise Mission, an independent space research and policy group pursuing studies on the scientific and social implications of the successful confirmation of extraterrestrial life. Incoming images and data, gathered during a recent fly-by of the Jovian moon "Europa," appear this week to have confirmed not only Hoagland's 17-year-old detailed model of a liquid "satellite-wide ocean under the icefields of Europa" -- but also "now strongly indicate the presence of organic compounds lying on Europa's surface," in precise accordance with Hoagland's earlier discussions re the possibility of "the origin and subsequent evolution of life in this satellite-wide ocean." The latest Galileo findings, now strongly supporting Hoagland's pioneering analysis of previous NASA Voyager mission data from Jupiter in 1979, were released at an official NASA press briefing, held in Pasadena, CA., April 9.

Galileo program officials and scientists could hardly contain their excitement at these confirmations; John Delaney, an oceanographer with the University of Washington, Seattle, who this week led a NASA team planning a crash, follow-on unmanned surface mission to Europa, designed to remotely explore its "ice-bound oceans" and "the possibility of life," flatly stated: "The bottom line is, it's about life. The discovery of life on another planet will surpass anything that has ever taken place in human history . . ." He concluded, "I'm sure there's life there."

In point of fact, this immensely significant research -- a proposal that a current liquid ocean, containing possibly highly exotic alien LIFE FORMS, might be confirmed by the Galileo mission -- was an original idea, extensively researched and published 17 years before (in 1980) not by NASA, but by an independent space researcher, Richard C. Hoagland. Writing over a decade ago in acknowledgment of Hoagland's historic "Europa Concept," well-known space pioneer and inventor of the communications satellite, Arthur C. Clarke, noted in 1982 in "2010:Odyssey Two," his sequel to the famed "2001":

"The fascinating idea that there might be life on Europa, beneath ice-covered oceans kept liquid by the same Jovian tidal forces that heat Io, was first proposed by Richard C. Hoagland in the magazine Star & Sky (The Europa Enigma, January, 1980). This quite brilliant concept has been taken seriously by a number of astronomers (notably NASA's Institute of Space Studies, Dr. Robert Jastrow), and may provide one of the best motives for the projected GALILEO Mission..."

Clarke, whose sequel ("2010") was built entirely around Hoagland's 1980 concept, would later add, in "The Snows of Olympus" (W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1994):

"I owe him [Hoagland] a considerable debt of gratitude [for the idea for the follow-on book and film]. He was the first to suggest that life might exist in the ice-covered oceans of Europa. See 2010: Odyssey Two' (1982)."

Official recognition of Hoagland's clear priority in successfully predicting this immense discovery has, however, been curiously slow in coming inside NASA; in all its published press releases and announcements, including the latest April 9 press briefing -- at which scientists discussed not only the evidence confirming Europa's "covered ocean," as well as flatly predicting the eventual discovery of "life" -- Hoagland's name and paper are strikingly missing from all official references. This major scientific omission was only partially corrected the evening of April 9, on ABC's "NIGHTLINE"; during a discussion of the "Europa results" among several NASA Galileo scientists, correspondent Ted Koppel noted at the program's opening:

"Last February, the space probe Galileo' flew within 363 miles of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. The images that were sent back suggest conditions that could support certain lower forms of life. It is hardly a new concept . . . 17 years ago the idea that there might be life on Europa beneath its ice-covered oceans was put forward by space researcher, Richard Hoagland. Let's put it this way: every image that Galileo's cameras have sent back to Earth enhances the likelihood that the theories may be correct . . . ."

The Enterprise Mission is presently analyzing a wide variety of additional NASA data concerning potential extraterrestrial life -- including on-going information from Galileo concerning the other moons of Jupiter. Hoagland's classic paper, "The Europa Enigma," complete with the original color Voyager photography, is available world-wide in its entirety on the "Enterprise Mission" website (www.enterprisemission.org).

On March 21 of last year, The Enterprise Mission, led by Hoagland, held a major news conference in Washington D.C. The briefing, held at the National Press Club, presented 30+ years of additional, highly controversial NASA photographic evidence, through a panel of outside experts, attesting to NASA's "less than forthcoming attitude" regarding full disclosure of "other space data relating to possible extraterrestrial life." In 1971, Hoagland successfully proposed to NASA (along with fellow researcher, Eric Burgess) that a "message" be attached to Earth's first interstellar spacecraft: Pioneer 10. NASA, through the offices of the late Dr. Carl Sagan, accepted the proposal; thus was born the well-known "Pioneer Plaque," carried into space aboard both Pioneer 10 and 11. On March 31, 1997 NASA received its last scheduled data from Pioneer 10, which -- message still carefully attached -- is now heading ever deeper into the Galaxy beyond the solar system . . . finally on its own.

Hoagland has served as an official NASA consultant to the Goddard Space Flight Center; and, in the 1960's, was formal science advisor to Walter Cronkite and CBS News during NASA's Apollo Program to the Moon. In 1993, for his current and continuing work on "possible extraterrestrial life and its associated artifacts and implications," Hoagland was awarded the prestigious international Angstrom Medal for Excellence in Science.