Project 10073 Record: Sighting Reports - San Luis Obispo, California, August 1966

This document contains a series of Project 10073 records and correspondence from the 4392d Aerospace Support Group at Vandenberg AFB, California, regarding multiple UFO sightings in the San Luis Obispo area during August 1966. The reports detail observations made by civilians on 2 August and 29 August 1966. Witnesses described round, white, and amber objects, sometimes accompanied by small red lights, which appeared to move in formation or hover. One witness reported the object changed shape from spherical to vertical elliptical. The investigating officers, including 1st Lieutenant Cy L. Asta and Major Robert L. Hess, conducted interviews and cross-referenced the sightings with local authorities and FAA facilities. The official conclusion for these incidents was that the witnesses had observed a large, 450-foot diameter experimental balloon (Project No. H-66-74) that had been launched from Holloman AFB, New Mexico, on 26 August 1966. The balloon had lost control and drifted over California, where it was tracked by the SAGE Unit at Phoenix before being lost in a thunderstorm. The reports suggest that the observers' descriptions, combined with the presence of the experimental balloon in the vicinity, provided a logical explanation for the sightings.