! 1. OATE: ~IM GPI~ll ci_yilian & ~Ulitarl' c. HUMl'ER OF OIJECTS I 2. LOCATIQtl Northeastern U. Y. 11. CONCLUStOt4 Other t Satellite Decay ~ St~ulus identified as decay ot satellite debris. S. -LENGTH OF OISERYATION 11. IRIEf SUMMARY AND AMALYIII About 2 Minutes 6. TYPE OfOSSERYATIOH Ground-Visual -=--- I. PtiOTOS 9. PHYSICAL EVIDIMCl is \V:tshingtvn corrc:spondcnt of 1\'t!h' Scicnti~t t\l'l"t'~" th.: l'a:-:t.:rn t;nitld SI:Jtt::-.. fi\)Jll ~orllh.:rn Tc:tm St:l' hl thlrlh l':t'll'rtl P~llll:""~VIV:IIli:t, Sunday l'\'l'lling. J ~ fard1 I ')(,X, w:r' dl:tr nnd ~,,I d. Tht 1\tn,lll, llC:W tlU thl' :'Xth till~' ,,f lhl' I'U'l'\'h'll~ llhmlh", ~nuth ~ll!'!lt!rly hl u lll'l'th nurth t.astc..'rly dirt!~tion. They Wt!rt! in my sight", he wrote, .. for about three or four minutes ... \Vhen Mr \Vilson first saw the objects tliey looked, he said, "like a single small white light in the sky ahout the size of the blink(r light that I sec on planes, hut when this light did not hlin k I watched it intently wondering it was so constant. As it approached, it grew larger and looked like the nose of a plane. I how strange. the whole cockpit of that plnne is lit up'. Then I saw red streaks from the object and I thought, 'th~ plane is on fire'. Then directly behind the first object I saw a second just before t hey were overhead I obscr\'cd was a third. Thl!y weren't planes, they weren't on fire, there was no sound and no smoke but they were emitting ch(rry red st reaks of exhaust five or six times the length of the objects. It was a heautiful si(lht to behold and the wonder was that, with all this speed, there was no sound". At about the same time on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio, a f\1r Edwin \V. Daley reported that hi! saw an o bject, due east ahout 40 to 50 dc:e.rees above the horizon. Mr Daley describes himself as an amateur astronomer and a member of the American Association of Variable Star Ohserv- ers. ..There were three: star-like objects, close together", he wrote. ''The leading one was about 30 feet or less ahead of the others which were closer togl!ther. There was a beautiful, long, persistent trai!. The three ohjecb were of equal brightness, about I to 0 on th e .... tellar hnghtne::.s ~calc. The ra tl! of mo tion was fa ter th an a high-flying jet plane but slower then a meteor". He lost sight of the objc:cts h\!n they were \\'ithin five degrees of the horizon. These account~ lnd others like them about a of dozen in all are on file in a tiny t:!ree-room oftic:! in \Vashington, DC, the head- 0~:1:-ters of an orl!r!niS.1tion known as the National I :i\estigations Co: ittee for Aerial Phenomena AP). A s;~:il~:-2.nJ much larger file of about - J ~!ccount~ o~ t~i5 p:t-ticul~r incident on 3 ~1arch . in the Aerial P.ien 0 menon Office of the United S~z:es Air fore~ at \ Vright-Patterson Airforce Base. It is now appa rent that thl! ~1arch p!tcnomenon w~:; the return to Earth of fragments of the So viet L'nion's satellite Zond J V - a n apparently abortive .\:oon probe. Zond tr' was launc hed o n Saturday. 2 arch. Ttw following day the Soviet Union an- nounct:d it had bl!en placed in :t parking orbit until it would he in positill!l for lnu nching farther from l.:anh. The ass urnptill'l was that the satellite wa'i int..:ndcd to travel to th e environ~ l>f th e ~1oon to take photograph~.; and then return to Earth. Rut on Sunday night at appruximatdy 02-15 lJT (2145 ta ... tcrn ~tandurd time in th\! United St~tk~J a piece l Ztlld IV re entert:d O\'<.:r the nort h-ca~!c.:rn aren o!' ' 'lnilcd Stall''\. h prn. ,1,!\' l ;t'ldn ! ... ot'll'\ tfl~ lll'XI day. I lad he heard :thmtl th~ rl'f'lll'b of thl' r;tll)'l' )'. ight i ng tH'l'l' the IH H' t h l':t't lite prt.'\ i( H I ' IIi!'. hi'! I k h:td ttPI. It \\'il" 11n1 It~ It/' hl'f'pr, It, di d . Mr l((tllt wnrl., 111 ll11i1cd's of'll~l' 111 Stuplclull ""''"''' \\'ll'lt', lfiiiPIII'. !ti t, lllhl'l' dlll!r., Ill.' h Thb group, wltld1 II~ ~lurt~d, Cl>llel!l:t pilt>h' repnrl't of llllusual sightings of nt!rial phcnomen:t, such us unidentified flying objects (UFO). nrtd collates the observations in nn attempt to fix the source. The University of Colorado is interested in UFOs it is there that a study, directed by Dr Edward Condon, on UFOs is being undertaken. It should be available before the end oft he year. Later that week, Mr Roth received several reports pilots who hnd seen the event, all of them pointing toward the trajectory of the Zoud IV re -entry pat h. The UFO enthus ia~ts, for their part, nrc quick to ou~ that not all such sighting" as t h~ o ne of ) March can he attributed to returning dehri~ from i space. Nevt!rtheles~ it is just this mat erial corning in : from space that is now receiving attention as a new type of hazard to high nying aircraft and Mr. Roth has been asked to help dt!al with it. ~lr. Roth ' estimates that the chance of a plane being hit by a piece of space debris is less than one in a millio n. But with more high-tlying aircraft and with t hi! advent of the supersonic planes which will fly al heights between 70 000 and 80 OOOft these chances will increase. At 80 000 such debris retu rning to will he speeding at 2000 mile /h. If even n small piece hit the fuselage of a p rc:ssurizcd planc the resulting sudden decompression wou!d he e:\plo It was quietly revealed, after the publicizing or the Zond IV incident, th at ~1r Roth with the I co operation of the North American Air Defen~c! I Command in Colorado Springs , som ~ 60 rrrik-s J south of Denver, had for some months been oper- ating an early wanung system to al ert aircraft to l debris falling out of Earth orbit 1 Two months before thc sc heduled decay of a 1 satcllitt! the Defense Command computes the pre- dieted trajectory of the satellite, refining nnd re -' calculating the path right up until only two hours the \'chide re-enters the atmosphere. \Vit h communic&llions facilities of United Airline\ , aircraft whose routes cross the prc:dicted re-entry ' corridor can he warned and divcrt~d out of the area during the danger period which is about half-an- ho ur at the maximum . Most planes fly at low en ough altitudes to avlli I the danger of being hit by satellites, burned out rocket cudnc'i nne! housirH!,S still travtlling at thl! I high vl!:o~iti~-; with which- th ey could strike high I nyirtg ~upcr-.(lnic plitllC-\. ~C\'Crthclc-;s \\it h th e in : crea'iing frt:qucnc y of ~atcllite-; being pl:tc~d in ot 1\il th e han trd is hound to inc rease. The N:tti,\n:t! Aeronautic~ and Spac~ Admini~tratinn C'lirn:Hr-; that th~rc nrc J50 ~Htdlitc"' in orhit and :tlmu-:r 1000 hit" of rocket cn"'in~-; and otlh.'r m:1tcrial that r 11t c.: r t!d or hit \\' i tit t he sat ~IIi t L''. It i.., : 1 t lll.'; ''u r ~ "f tilL' di-;tan~t: \!an Ita' Cl'llW in It) ~l::11' 1,,. Sf'.h. t' ~ WHERE WERE YOU WHEN YOU SAW THe: PHENOMENON' (l:IHd, (ll'l"oprirllt> h101 k .r;.) '>, OUTDOORS IN BUSINESS SECTION OF CITY IN DUILDING IN RESI D ENTIAL SECTION OF CITY < ,_l.~ ... i,: '"'.'" IN 8CH7 NEAR AIRFIELD IN AIO~LANE 0 AS PILOT 0 AS PASSENCER FL VIN GOVER CITY IF YOU WERE IN A VEHICL E COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING_ :.1 1 .. ,-:. .: s .. HOW FAST WERE VOU MOVINC? 't''-i A.T OIRE,CTION WERE YO\J MOV .. NG' SC'JT.,_ , ; r!.' JhN"' . WEST ! ; 010 YOU STOP ANYTIME WHILE OBSERVING THE EXF'LAIN Vr"1E:THER SUCH MOVEMENT AFFECTS YOUR SKETC~IES IN ITEMS 5 AND 5 DES:~IB~ -vpE OF VEHICLE YOU 'Y~RE IN AND TYPE OF ROAD. TERRAIN OR BODY OF WATER YOU TRAVE RSED C'URJNG THE SIGh-!~C. STATE WHETHER WINDOWS OR CONVERTIBLE TOP WERE UP OR DOWN. hOW MUCH OTHER TRAFFIC WAS THERE1 :. 0 YOU NOTICE ANY AIRPLANES? ~YES 0 NO. IF y ES, D~SCRIB E WHEN THEY WERE IN SIGHT R ELA T I V C:. TO THE TIMt: .: .: SICH71NG THE PHENOMEt~ON. ANO ~riERE iHEY WERE IN THE SKY RELATIVE TO THE POSITION OF THE PHENOMENON. HOW LONG WAS THE PHENOMENON IN SIGHT? L~'IGT'"' TIME . ,_. CERTAIN OF TIME NOT VE~Y SURE v-FAIRLY CERTAIN JUST A GUESS ~AS 7'"'~ ~-;:"JO..,ENON IN SICHT CONTI'~u0usLY{ KlYES ONo. IF No." INDICATE WHETHEFITHIS t s DUE T O YOUR ~OV ::ME:"' T =: c THE BEHAVIOR OF T l'i E: PH E~OMENO~t'" AN 0 OESC R 10 E SUCH MOVEMENT 0 R 8 EH AVIO R . IN DIC ATE DIS AD. P E .a.R A:-.: E:. 0~ PqEVIOUS SK ETCf-J ES. If: .f-. It PAGE 3 OF 9 PAGE<; AF R B0-17(Cl) PH:! NOMI!HON YES t-1 0 lJNK~fOWN MOVE I N ~STRAIGHT LINE? ,-/ j\ f\ 'i STAND ST I LL. AT ~NY T IME? SU00N\.l" S=!:! O UP AND AUN AWAY? =-A~t'TS ANO EXPLODE? CH A)4~ !I~ CMTNESS? FLASH :;._ t\o.lCKER? AND .. EAPPEAA? SPIN L.IK~ FLUTTE:;, -:~ 'NOSBLE? 14. WHA T O~!'N YOUA ATTENTION TO TME PHENONENON? FINALLY DISAPPEAR t S~\,'l.fj OR I N f'RONT OF SOMETHING, LIKE A CLOUD, TREE , O R BUILOINC AT ANY I F v c:S,"' OESCQI~! . PAGE 50 F 9 P AGES 1!. DRAW A PICTURE THAT WILL. SHOW THJ: SHAPE 0, THE PHENOME~40~. INC\.UOI! ANO L 'DEL ANY DETAILS THAT MIGHT HAVE APPEAAEO A~ WINGS OR PROTRUSIONS, AND IHOICATE Ei(HAUST OR VAPOR TRAILS. INDICATE BY AN ARROW THE DIRECTION THE PHENOMENON WAS MOVING. 16. WHAT WAS 7'-: A': ;~,..",_SIZE? HOLC A M.-.TCH AI ARM'S LENGTH IN FRONT OF A KNOWN OBJECT, SUCH A S A STREET LAMr OR~ ... ~ "4c:~ \ljTE HOW MUCH OF To;~ OBJECT IS COVER:> BY THE HEAD OF THE MATCti. NOW IF YOU HAC BEEN A9t..E i~ .: :::=i::""R._. THIS EXPER!.,EN; -.T THE TIME OF THE SIGHTING. ESTIMATE WHAT FRACTION O F THE PHENO~E,..O._. ~:. -;: -/ . .'oJE BEEN COVER ::c 3Y Tn E MATCH H EAO. PAGE 6 OF 9 PAGES 17.010 Y O U OBs::qvE THf PHENO M E N O N THROUGH ANY OF Tl-iF. FOl.LCIWIN G ' INCLU Ot:: INF'O~t~,._1.10N O N M O D E L , TYPE, F'I L . L~NS F"R~SCRIP1' 10N OR OTHE R APPLICARLE DATA . THEOOOLIT C