Dallas, TexasMarch 1961

On the morning of March 9, 1961, a Dallas resident doing amateur satellite watching saw a bright object streak across the sky from northeast to southwest in just 2 to 5 seconds. The witness described it as moving at roughly 1,700 miles per hour, resembling a Greyhound bus in size about a mile away. The object had no sound or color but left a dusty glow behind it. It appeared at 85 degrees from north and 40 degrees above the horizon, then disappeared at 230 degrees from north and 25 degrees above the horizon. The weather was clear, dry, and cold.

The sighting caught the witness's attention partly because a news report that morning mentioned the Russians had orbited a dog, prompting curiosity about whether the object might be related to the Soviet rocket launch. The witness wrote to Congressman Bruce Alger requesting information about what had been seen. The Air Force asked the witness to complete a detailed questionnaire and forward it to the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for analysis.

The witness described the object in the questionnaire as resembling a big, extremely fast object with lots of dusty glow behind it, though again noting no sound or distinct color. In comparing the sighting to familiar objects, the witness gave the description of a Greyhound bus about a mile away, moving at tremendous speed with headlights out but lots of dusty glow behind. The file indicates the witness estimated the object moved roughly 1,700 miles per hour based on how quickly it crossed the sky.

The Air Force's preliminary evaluation on the case card concluded the object was "probably a meteor," noting that its direction of movement from northeast to southwest contradicted the path any artificial satellite would follow and that the described appearance was characteristic of an object entering Earth's atmosphere. The full case file of 13 pages is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.