In the late 1970s, at the request of President Jimmy Carter, Daniel Sheehan acted as a special consultant to the United States Library of Congress investigation into the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. In this role, Sheehan presented a closed-door seminar on the “Theological Implications of Contact” to leading scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
In 2001, Sheehan served as general counsel to The Disclosure Project, which coordinated the sworn testimony—before members of Congress—of former U.S. military officers, Federal Aviation Administration officials, and NASA employees attesting to direct personal knowledge of government information concerning the UFO phenomenon and the potential existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Sheehan also served as general counsel to the Institute for Cooperation in Space, a U.S. citizens group dedicated to banning space-based weapons and the development of any weapons intended for offensive use against potential extraterrestrial civilizations.