3030N 15835E (PACIFIC), October 1961October 1961

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the night of October 30, 1961, the crew of the USS Noble reported sighting a bright object in the western Pacific Ocean. The ship was stationed at coordinates 30 degrees north latitude, 158 degrees 35 minutes east longitude, roughly 600 miles south of Hawaii.

At 11:55 p.m. local time, radar and lookout personnel spotted an object with a brightness matching the second-magnitude star, appearing at an elevation of 66 degrees above the horizon and bearing 218 degrees true (roughly southwest). The object traveled in a generally southeast direction. Both air and surface radar on the ship attempted to track the object but could not pick it up on their instruments. The captain was called and confirmed the sighting himself. An elevation measurement was verified using a sextant, the ship's navigational instrument.

The object remained visible for eleven minutes. At one point during its passage, it appeared to make a slight change of course to the right. It finally disappeared on the horizon at bearing 138 degrees (roughly southeast) at 12:10 a.m., shortly after disappearing at 0410 local time.

The Air Force investigator noted that the duration, direction, and motion of the object conformed to a pattern consistent with a satellite observation. Though the sighting could not be verified against space tracking information at the time, the file indicates no evidence suggested the object was anything other than a satellite.

The complete case file, comprising 21 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

3030N 15835E (PACIFIC), October 1961

Date of incident

October 1961

State / country

? / XX

Page count

21 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 44

: : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD SAR aor, SEES E 1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS : One ( Sm SGT 0 Was Balloon / 29 Oct é1 30300 156358 | Phe Fic J D Probably Balloon : 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION ol - FRksIby Dutloon 1 V7 OE DH To pe ee A THGround- Visual 0 Ground-Radar & Probably Aiveroft E GMT 30/ 0359 D AirVisval O Air-Intercept Radar D Possibly Aircraft E 5. PHOTOS . SOURCE O Was Astronomical A 0 Yes O Probably Astronomical i %0 No Military O Possibly Astronomical 3 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE dB Other_Sabtellite Fcho I er 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation & i 4 Lis 0 Unknown 4 1l min ii SE J 9 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTINGOb jt w/brightness 11. COMMENTS Duration, direction and motion ) of 2nd mag star appeared at 66° az, moving 3E |conform to pattern of satellite observatidn. 3 and disappearing after 11 min at 130° on horizofliot verified with space track info, how- i ever, there is no indication this khix is E other than a satellite. E ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP $2) 1 ET