Project 10073 Record — UFO Sighting, 9 August 1965, Hollywood Hills, California

On August 9, 1965, at approximately 9:30 P.M., a witness in the Hollywood Hills, California, observed an unidentified aerial phenomenon while using a Japanese telescope to view the moon and stars. The witness, who described themselves as a skeptic, initially mistook the object for a falling star but noted that it did not dissipate as a meteor would. Instead, the object appeared as a large, orange ball of fire that crossed the horizon from the moon at a high speed, leveled off, and continued straight into the horizon. The observation lasted for approximately two minutes. The witness reported the event to the Air Force, noting that while there were many airplanes in the sky that night, the object was clearly not an airplane. The Foreign Technology Division of the Air Force Systems Command investigated the report under Project 10073. Their official conclusion was that the sighting was characteristic of the re-entry of space debris. They noted that while no major objects were recorded as re-entering the atmosphere at that time, there are many smaller fragments of 'space junk' that are not tracked or plotted, and it was highly probable that the witness observed one of these smaller pieces of debris.