Eastern Mediterranean, August 1958August 1958

On August 20, 1958, a crew member aboard the USS Thornback, a naval vessel in the Eastern Mediterranean, spotted a slow-moving object that pulsed intermittently like a star. The witness and six others saw the phenomenon and reported it to military authorities. The object resembled Sputnik III, the Soviet satellite that had been launched earlier that year.

The witness described the object as star-like with a slow, steady motion across the sky. According to the official report, visibility was unlimited at the time of the sighting. The initial military message placed the object at bearing 145 degrees and elevation 49 degrees when it was lost from sight, though an earlier sighting had been recorded at bearing 116 degrees and elevation 89 degrees.

A second sighting report from August 21 described what may have been a related event. This observation lasted 49 minutes and involved a white dot that at times appeared to have a point on top. The object changed colors from red to orange to blue to white and had a fuzzy outline. It oscillated throughout the observation. The Air Force noted in its file that based on the description, the phenomenon was probably astronomical in nature, specifically the star Arcturus setting at 2330 hours (11:30 p.m.) at an azimuth (compass direction) of 300 degrees.

The Air Force marked both sightings as "unknown" in its official evaluation, though the file comments suggest the second event was likely the planet or star Arcturus observed near the horizon. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 14 pages.