Project 10073 Record Card: Sighting at Ft. Bliss, Texas, 10 May 1961

This document is a Project 10073 record card and associated military report detailing a UFO sighting by Specialist 5 Donald N. Whaley at Ft. Bliss, Texas, on May 10, 1961. The observer, who was conducting amateur astronomical observations with his wife using a 6x telescope, reported a comet-like object that exhibited complex flight characteristics, including hovering, climbing, and a 360-degree turn. The object was described as golden in flight and khaki brown while hovering, with a size estimated to be equivalent to a B-52 fuselage. The sighting lasted approximately 38 minutes. The report includes detailed meteorological data and a log of local military air traffic, which the observer explicitly denied could account for the phenomenon. Despite the observer's detailed account and his reputation for reliability, the official conclusion reached by the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) was that the object was the star Altair. Investigators attributed the sighting to an atmospheric inversion that made the star visible while it was technically below the horizon, noting that observations on subsequent nights supported this conclusion.