[quote=@Keyguyperson]
<Snipped quote by Willy Vereb>

If you want, I can come to you. I'd say you send a ship, but I get the feeling that the feds don't really want to waste the money.
[/quote]They don't waste their money on scientific charity like exploring a distant star system on the mere hunch of the existence of alien civilizations.

We can say that there's some rare resource out there which worth the money to exploit.
Say, an unique neutron star which generates antimatter like crazy.
And you meet a mining party preparing to exploit this resource.