Project 10073 Record Card — Palacios, Texas, 16 February 1959

This document is a Project 10073 record card and associated correspondence regarding a UFO sighting reported by Gaines Corporon in Palacios, Texas, on February 16, 1959. The witness, a civilian, reported observing a bright, glowing red object moving south at a speed comparable to a shooting star. According to the witness, the object was accompanied by a mass of smaller white lights. The witness described the main object as being twice as long as it was wide, with a neon-like red glow. Over the course of a ten-minute observation, the witness claimed the object moved in a clockwise motion within the cluster of lights before coming to a rest near a star. The witness provided detailed sketches and personal notes, including an attempt to calculate the object's speed and distance using astronomical references and triangulation. The witness also expressed a personal theory that the objects were extraterrestrial in nature, suggesting they were 'reconnoitering' or 'returning to home base.' The Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) evaluated the report and concluded that the sighting was likely an optical aberration caused by the light of the star Arcturus being distorted by the witness's window screen, combined with the natural pulsating effect of the star. The file includes the official record card, the witness's completed questionnaire, hand-drawn sketches of the object's path and appearance, and a letter from the witness to Major Lawrence J. Thacker at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, in which the witness further elaborates on his observations and his personal theories regarding gravity and space travel.