Diboll, TexasNovember 1961

On the night of November 1, 1961, two neighbors in Diboll, Texas observed a bright object moving across the western sky at approximately 8:00 p.m. CST. One witness received a phone call from a neighbor inviting him to see what appeared to be a satellite. The object was brighter than the surrounding stars and moved in a northerly direction across the sky, starting at an angle of 70 to 80 degrees above the horizon in the west.

What made this sighting unusual was the object's sudden disappearance. When the object reached the northern sky at an angle of 45 degrees, it vanished abruptly at 8:05 p.m. CST and was not seen again. The witnesses watched for several minutes before the object vanished. The night sky was clear with many stars visible. The primary witness noted that although the object resembled the Echo I satellite, which he had observed on several previous occasions over the past several months, the direction of travel differed from those earlier sightings.

The Air Force received two witness questionnaires from the observers. The investigation noted that the object displayed all the characteristics of Echo I, a NASA satellite that reflected sunlight and was bright enough to see at night. However, the Air Force investigators checked the orbital position of Echo I for the time and location of the sighting. They concluded the satellite was indeed in the correct position to be observed from Diboll at that time, and they classified the sighting as satellite. The file, marked "unidentified" in its initial evaluation, contains 21 pages as held by the National Archives.