MOON DUST, ADDITIONAL OBJECT REPORTEDLY FOUND NEAR SANTA CRUZ

This document consists of a 2009 FOIA response from the National Air & Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) regarding Project Moon Dust, enclosing two intelligence reports from 1979. The reports detail the discovery of two spherical objects in the Santa Cruz department of Bolivia in July 1979. According to the reports, the first object was found near Cotoca, and the second was discovered on the farm of Juan Saavedra, approximately 200 kilometers north of Santa Cruz, by a local resident named Gonzalo Menacho Viveras. Witnesses described seeing fireballs in the sky accompanied by loud whistling sounds and explosions. One witness reported seeing a silent aircraft with three lights flying over the area of the explosion. The objects were described as being approximately 80 centimeters in diameter, made of a copper-like metal, and featuring holes with melted edges. They were constructed of two pieces without rivets. Colonel Ariel Coca, Director of the Bolivian Air Force Academy, examined the objects and suggested they might be fuel tanks or parts of a satellite, noting they lacked identifying marks. The reports indicate that photographs, an undeveloped roll of film, and newspaper clippings were forwarded to the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) for further analysis. The local population reportedly delayed reporting the events due to fear that they would not be believed.