Richard F. Haines was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Michigan State University in 1964. In 1967, he began work as a research scientist at NASA, where he worked on a number of projects including Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and Space Station Freedom. He was appointed Chief of Space Human Factors Office at NASA-Ames in 1986, where he directed research and development efforts of the AX-5 "hard" EVA space suit, habitability design research for Space Station Freedom, and spacecraft window design. He retired from government service in 1988 and taught at San Jose State University as an Associate Professor of Psychology while working part time as a scientist in the Research Institute for Advanced Computer Science. Afterwards, much of his effort was concentrated on documenting and studying UFO sightings around the world.

Haines’s interest in UFO research is separate to his professional work with NASA. He worked with several UFO/UAP investigative organizations such as Chief Scientist with the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP), a field investigator with the Center for UFO Studies, National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), and founded the Joint American-Soviet Aerial Anomaly Federation (JASAAF). His work was primarily focused on cases involving military and commercial aircraft sightings from around the world beginning in the early 20th Century with the First World War and continuing into the early 21st Century. Through the use of photographs, video, pilot and passenger interviews and testimony, military and media reports, and secondary research, Haines thoroughly documented hundreds of UFO sightings over a hundred year period.