Project 10073 Record Card and Incoming Staff Message - Kadena AB, Okinawa, 23 April 1962

This document consists of a Project 10073 record card and an associated incoming staff message from the Department of the Air Force, dated April 26, 1962. The report details a UFO sighting that occurred on April 23, 1962, near Kadena Air Base in Okinawa. The witnesses, Captain Thomas Belsjoe and Captain Alfred B. Brand, observed a starlike, white object moving across the sky toward the northeast for approximately ten minutes. The object was initially spotted on the horizon at a 225-degree azimuth and disappeared at a 045-degree azimuth. During the incident, the observers were flying a T-33 aircraft at an altitude of 22,000 feet and attempted to intercept or identify the object by deviating from their original course, but were unsuccessful. The intelligence officer, 1/LT George W. Thelin II, conducted an investigation into the sighting. The final conclusion reached by the Air Force was that the object was not an unidentified phenomenon, but rather the Echo I satellite. This determination was based on the orbital characteristics of the satellite and the specific location of the observers at 1055Z, which aligned with the satellite's position at 26°N 121.37E. The report explicitly notes that there was no physical evidence, such as photographs, and that no unusual meteorological or astronomical conditions accounted for the sighting other than the identified satellite.