Project 10073 Record Card — Sighting near Saipan Island, 5 April 1950

This document consists of a Project 10073 Record Card and associated military communications regarding an unidentified aerial phenomenon observed in the vicinity of Saipan Island on April 5, 1950. The sighting occurred at 050907Z and involved a single object described as oblong and roughly the size of a softball. Witnesses provided varying accounts of the object's appearance, describing it as either blue-white or red-yellow, with a tail estimated to be 20 times the length of the main body. The object was observed descending in a slow arc from north to south for a duration of 10 to 60 seconds. Some witnesses reported that a small segment appeared to separate from the main object about one second before it burned out, while others maintained that it remained a single object throughout the event. The object was noted to be much brighter than a star and to have a significantly slower fall rate than a typical meteor. Military personnel, including the Commanding Officer of the COGARD LORAN Station on Saipan, were among the witnesses. The official conclusion recorded on the card is that the object was 'probably a meteor,' with the investigator noting that the discrepancies in witness reports regarding color and physical characteristics were consistent with such an event. The document includes internal military routing information and was later declassified in 1969.