PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD t. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS D Wa1 Ballaon 4 Jul 58 Las Cruces New Mexico D Proltaltlr Balloon 827 Mount Time D Wae Aircraft ,04-VIeual D GreunciRadar D ProltaWy Aircraft D AI~Yhu.. D Air-Intercept Radar D PoteiWy Aircraft Wat Attronomi col \ i 0 t e 0 r D Yea D Probably Astronomical .,._ C i 1 1 1 A t D Poaaiblr Astronomical 7. LINOTH OP OIIIRYATION I. NUMIIII OP OIJI!CTS t. COURSE D Other::---- -- - 0 lnaufflcient Data for Evaluation a Urtlcnown IRIIP 0, liGHTING 11. tremely bright obj -5 or -6 mag (w/ '4dgr tail) obsvd by leading astronomer over arc fm 320dgr azimuth 35dgr alt to lOOdgr azimuth.20dgr alt. Travel hus 5dgr per second, almost too slow for meteor. AftC NaM 121 OtaY H 12) Confirmed meteor sighting. (per U.S.A.F. BeadquaPt .. Vlre ot lul7 1S) . . . .tb obJttot vere quS. te potb17 fireball or MoP . .Cba~ Wb!oh wo~ld d~end an 1: and brijbtn Nbiob ... DO' ~: .~ ... 'deHOPliMNI). J~ tbe7 we" 1 ob3' ua1 oould be .nreball o , :: u4 le 1 t wCNld be r.tmarkabl tba' eo anJ tlrballa oould l)e . DO' :.'1lde th~t b0\1ftdll of poatb1l.1tJ' : . . . !beS.r Yar1d ua aome,ime oppo1 te d1 reo,lon voald : L .eov I'Ul O'.st &ny ohanoe ot tb,a being ooameoted vltb. aq T . ~: bal~ Dormal Rl't1t1o1al tell1 te . . _.,. ... ~ .. : .. I' b lDtereetlns to nota 'ha-,1 ve ban tbn otbel' ~ ot wtaat. aS.IIllar UD1deo,1t1ed obJMt. : . Ohapet Hille I .c Auau' 4- .. . GoloP va co' 11ent1oned 1h tb La tJruo ... o !be Potla4 ! . . . ob~"' obanced whl te to red aDd vaa almoa t one-tour~ .ot tb.e r \ ~an tn J !be Chapel Hill ob .. , vaa ODtentb or tbo oGD' . . dltp3Mr .ad bact a lus orange ta . were t~avell1DS 1n a . Alo ot. SateP' tor wba~' Uut oo1Do1denoe 7 be vortb, .1 l tbe taot tba' the two time 1ncer,Yal8 betwn the 1 l . Bel'tnada -.to .. aata 1lgh tla and the. Laa 0 rQOea and Portln4 : ; . obeepyat1one. haYe 001r..'Oil denom! tor. o oo:auum bule penod,. or about )lJ.S ,,tr..11t~n. fee Chapel Hi~l a1eht1ng can uso ba t 1nolud4 1D th1 G time !;Z'OUp!.n~ 1t we UD8 ~net..'l1N of tbla Pl'lOde n:l:-&~17, 115 c1nutoa~. aa tt'.& \1o oD baato polocl ror all three . SDtenal (I.a. file led l&btlq S. cml.J rt 8MITHSONIAN INSTITUTION A8TROIIHY81CAL OBSERVATORY aiCTION 01' U~l .. ATMOI~I .. I aTUDIII lOY OPTICAL IATILLITI T .. ACKINO ~ .. OORAM 10 OA .. DIN aT .. IIT CAM8 .. 1DOI II. MMIACHUIII 18 captain George T. Gregory Air Technical Intelligence Canter ~\fright-Patterson Air Force Base Dayton, Ohio Dear captain: (dictated .J:-1 I am on the eve of' my departure for Noscow and I am taking the liberty of enclosin~ an itinerary so that you t'Iill 1~notr :rhel\e I am and, if necessary, can get in touch with me at th3se places. I honestly don't know v;hich or the alternatives to give greater Neight to. :Jhile the artificial mctco~ h~rpothes is is cer - tainly a possibility, I do not favor it myself vc~y much. I thj.nl~ really it Nas a slotr meteor especially since it vrc..s observed in the early evening. . or that, Dr. called me Just yesterday to report an extremely bright o eo The data on this is as fol- lo\-ts: 3:~ UT (Zebra) JUly 25, 1958; 8:~ Mountain Time. 1\n ex- tremely bright object about minus 5 or minus 6 (that is much brighter than any or the planets) with a four degree l~ne tail and emitting sparks as it \tent along, ~1as first sis~d at 1\zi:nttth 3 20 degrees and alt1tud3 35 and traversed 100 or so deg~ees in a ercat circle to about 100 degrees Azimuth and 20 deg:-ee~ altitude. It covered the 100 degrees in about 20 seconds, thus iving 5 deer~cs per second. Dr. a reputable astrono~erJ ay3 that in his opinion it \'las no a meteor, but again it is a bordel"'line case. It is t
[email protected] for a satellite unless the object vrcre a foreien object on its ~:ay r1o',m. For instance if the object tt!ere 20 nile~ hie;h, it i.ras travellinG at 2. 7 miles pel"' second. ~eve!'al peop l e it 30 there's nJ question or conr:!.rmat!on. I'll admit that calling everything a brieht meteor is a very handy thing to do but, until tte have definite evidence that it is something else, I would still rather favor that explanation. Ho\'1- ever, we should keep a list {and we are doinz so here) or all these very bright, slo\t-moving objects, because intelligence data at a later date may reveal that some strange things were up there. It