The following is a brief breakdown of some of the main institutional developments and changes having to do with the U.S. government’s research into psychic phenomena, presented in the easily digestible form of a timeline.

• 1969–1971 — The CIA determines that the Soviet Union has been spending a very large amount of money researching psychic phenomena, suggesting that they had achieved some kind of breakthrough. This stimulated U.S. interest in the topic.
• 1970 — The CIA initiates the SCANATE (scan by coordinate) project, one of the earliest known forays of the agency into the study of psychic phenomena.
• 1972 — Remote viewing research begins at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California with Dr. Russell Targ and Dr. Harold Puthoff.
• 1974 — A remote viewer allegedly describes an airfield with a large gantry and crane at one end of the field. The airfield at the given map coordinates was Semipalatinsk, a former Soviet nuclear testing range.
• 1977 — the Army Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) Systems Exploitation Detachment (SED) begins GONDOLA WISH to study remote viewing.
• 1978 — The U.S. Army formalizes their study of remote viewing as GRILL FLAME.
• 1979— Army Intelligence integrates SRI’s remote viewing research with the U.S. Army’s research program as GRILL FLAME at Fort Meade, MD (INSCOM “Detachment G”). This year, the National Security Council staff inquires about an emerging Soviet submarine and a remote viewer describes a large submarine with 18–20 missile launch tubes and a “large flat area” that would be launched within 100 days. Two submarines, one of which had 24 launch tubes and the other having 20 launch tubes with a large, flat deck, were sighted within 120 days.
• 1983 — Paul H. Smith relates his experience with Major General Albert Stubblebine III, Commanding General of INSCOM, the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, visiting Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where he related to the soldiers there that he and other officers had learned to manipulate metal objects with their minds (psychokinesis); remote viewing research is redesignated INSCOM CENTER LANE Project (ICLP)
• 1984 — Joseph McMoneagle leaves the program with a Legion of Merit Award for providing information on 150 targets that were unavailable from other sources.
• 1985 — Remote viewing research is redesignated SUN STREAK after it is taken over by the DIA’s Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate (office code DT-S) after funding is terminated by the U.S. Army.
• 1987 — Lt. Frederick Holmes “Skip” Atwater and Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine no longer involved in the project.
• 1988 — U.S. Army Captain David Morehouse relates precognitive visions and an out-of-body experience to Lt. Col. Ennis Cole (pseudonym) after Morehouse had suffered a gunshot wound to the head, stopped by his helmet, by which presumably triggered psychic abilities; he is introduced to Master Sgt. Mel Riley, Capt. Ed Dames and Paul Smith. He is then introduced to Fernand Gauvin, a civilian General Service Administration(GSA) employee who headed the unit. Gauvin explains the concept of remote viewing to Captain Morehouse; A remote viewer specifies a building in a South Lebanon building in which Marine Corps Colonel William Higgins is being held hostage. A released hostage later expressed his belief that this was probably correct.
• 1991 — Project is renamed STARGATE. Most of the contracting for the program is transferred from SRI to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), with Edwin May controlling 70% of contractor funds and 85% of the data. Its security is altered from Special Access Program (SAP) to Limited Dissemination (LIMDIS).
• 1995 — The STARGATE Project ends after the DIA ceases research into psychic phenomena. The CIA evaluates their efforts and decides not to pursue further research into it.