Project 10073 Record Card: Sighting Incident, Indian Springs & Las Vegas, Nevada, 30 September 1961

This document comprises a series of military communications and a Project 10073 record card detailing a UFO sighting that occurred on September 30, 1961, in the vicinity of Indian Springs and Nellis Air Force Bases in Nevada. The incident began at approximately 1714Z when weather observers from the 25th Weather Squadron, Detachment 31, reported observing a round, metallic-looking object with a silver shine. The object was initially tracked as a single entity but was later reported to have broken into four smaller objects. The sighting lasted for approximately 45 minutes. The object was also tracked by the 865th AC&W Squadron on radar, though it appeared only on the azimuth scope. Military personnel, including Captain John H. Chilling Jr. and Captain Earle W. Deneau, were involved in the reporting and analysis of the event. The official investigation, led by Major Robert J. Friend of the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC), concluded that the visual sighting was consistent with the planet Venus, which was at a magnitude of -3.4 at the time. The radar contact was attributed to a weather balloon. The report notes that the elevations and azimuths of Venus at the time of the sighting were coincident with the reported UFO. Furthermore, the document mentions that the Las Vegas Review Journal reported a separate, unrelated sighting of a disc-shaped object south of Salt Lake City on October 2, 1961, involving an airborne pilot and ground observers. The military authorities requested follow-up investigations to ensure all pertinent data, as required by Air Force Regulation 200-2, was captured. The final assessment maintained that there was no evidence to suggest the objects were anything other than the planet Venus and a weather balloon.