Editing Ground Crew Project (section)

==Hale-Bopp==
A new landing date was set to coincide with the arrival of the Hale-Bopp comet on 5 May, 1997.  According to the channeling, the comet was a large spaceship containing "cloaking and holographic systems that imitate what a comet should look like".   It contained a crew of over 200,000 sentient beings and bore 10,000 ambassadors who would initiate humanity into the Galactic Federation.  This would coincide with the mass landing by the Federation involving millions of ships.  A special delegation would meet with the ambassadors. 

After the mass suicide of Heaven's Gate members, Valerie Donner, a core member, distanced the Ground Crew from such "ridiculous acts of self-destruction".  Two days before the scheduled event, Nidle posted that instead of a mass landing, a meeting between a shuttle from the comet and a shuttle from the "Galactic Federation Fleet" had taken place just south of Ayers Rock in Australia.  A special ceremony had been conducted and vital papers had been exchanged.  After May 10 there was no further mention of the comet or its occupants.<ref>Helland, Christopher (2000) p141</ref>