Project 10073 Record Card — Bellflower, California, 21 January 1963

On 21 January 1963, a 40-year-old probation officer in Bellflower, California, reported observing a bright light, comparable to a bright star, moving across the sky. The witness observed the object for approximately ten minutes, from 1845 to 1855 PST, using both the naked eye and a small telescope. The object was described as moving from a position 20 degrees east and 15 degrees south of vertical toward the southeast horizon. The report was filed with the SSD Command Post in Inglewood, California, and subsequently forwarded to the Air Technical Intelligence Center (ATIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The official evaluation of the sighting, documented on a Project 10073 record card, concluded that the object was the satellite ECHO I. Investigators noted that ECHO I was positioned north of the city at 55 degrees elevation heading southeast at 1836, and attributed the discrepancy in the report to a nine-minute time error by the witness. Additionally, Lt. Colonel Howard E. Short, the Deputy Commander of the 6592d Support Group, noted that the location of the sighting was near several major flight paths for Los Angeles International and Long Beach airports, suggesting that an eastbound aircraft might have also been a factor in the report.