Sighting Report - Extraordinary - 18 April 1960

This document consists of a Project 10073 record card and an accompanying letter dated 18 April 1960, authored by Major Jim G. Ford of the USAF. The report details an extraordinary sighting that occurred on 17 April 1960, between 1429 and 1431.5 GMT, at Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base in Missouri. Major Ford and a Field Representative from LINK were observing the M-42 nebula in Orion using a six-inch Newtonian telescope with a 48x eyepiece when they encountered an unidentified object. The object was described as having a reddish glow and subtending five seconds of arc. It was initially sighted north of the belt in Orion at an estimated 30 degrees above the horizon. The object moved in an arc toward the southwest, passing one degree south of Sirius before disappearing below the horizon. Major Ford noted that the object's angular rate of change increased significantly during the observation, moving from approximately two degrees per minute in Orion to one degree per second by the end of the sighting. The observers explicitly stated that the object was not an aircraft. They initially considered the possibility of a polar orbit, but upon checking the celestial axis, concluded that an orbit near 45 degrees was more plausible. Major Ford attempted to focus the object in his telescope but was unsuccessful. In his correspondence to the Smithsonian Visual Tracking Center, Major Ford speculated whether they had observed a vehicle of the Discoverer class on reentry just prior to it becoming a fireball. The official conclusion recorded on the project card states that no conclusion could be offered based on the provided information, and the case was officially classified as unidentified.