10 Mi W Of Huntsville, TexasJune 1958

Insufficient Data

Summary

On June 12, 1958, at dawn, Captain Eugene H. Richards was aboard a B-52 bomber flying about ten miles west of Huntsville, Texas. He was using a sextant, a navigation tool, to take a celestial shot on the star Kochab when an unusual object passed through his field of view. The object appeared oval-shaped, about the size of a pinhead, and reddish in color, shining about as bright as a second-magnitude star (easily visible to the naked eye but not as bright as the brightest stars).

The sighting lasted only two seconds. The object moved from south to north across Richards's sextant view at an elevation of about 26 degrees above the horizon and at a bearing of 343 degrees (roughly north-northwest). Richards did not track the object with his sextant, so the investigation team had no precise data on its speed or trajectory beyond the brief observation.

The Air Force investigation noted that the object moved too fast to be conventional aircraft but slower than a meteor or shooting star. A news broadcast from Roswell, New Mexico, on the morning of the sighting reported that Sputnik III (a Soviet satellite) was visible from that area around the same time, traveling from south to north. The investigative summary concluded the object was probably Sputnik III. The weather was clear at the bomber's altitude, with winds reported from various directions depending on altitude.

The full case file, 17 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

10 Mi W Of Huntsville, Texas

Date of incident

June 1958

State / country

TX / US

Page count

17 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 33

4 ES | : Ey 130 - OT T——— " ARPT PR Bi I IITITEnm——. 2“ —_— go dri / : ‘ J 1 PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD ¢ wd | 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS | O Weg Balloon 12 _Jun_ 58 10 Mi W of Huntsville, Texas8 © Py Stic EE : 3. DATETIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION he oon : O Was Aircraft Lectl o op EY O Ground-Radar a Pre bably Aircraft cmt 1210267 X Xie Visvol O Air-Intercept Radar 0 Paesitly Aircraft S. PHOTOS . O Was Astronomical O Yes O Probably Astronomical : No Military DO Possibly Astronomical 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 0 OtheSputnik TTT Roclkt DO Insufficient Data for Evaluation A O Unknown 2 min one S to NE 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING | 11. COMMENTS Oval shaped obj, size of Ebed of pin, Since obj too fast to be a/c & {reddish in color, bright as second slower than shooting star, believed : mznitude star, to be Sputnik III rocket, since | o { rocket crossed this area at | : stated time, | | i | | | | ATIC prom IM (RRV 26 SEP $2) | Eo | | fo | 3 la EA NSA hr A SR BHP eis : i re : BE SRA 0 SS A BN a I st ms pe ti i