Elmendorf, AlaskaOctober 1957

On the night of October 8, 1957, six Air Force intelligence officers at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska watched a bright object move across the sky. The object first appeared 27 degrees above the horizon to the northwest. It climbed steadily and rapidly toward the zenith, passed directly overhead, and then descended below the eastern horizon. The entire sighting lasted about three minutes. The observers described the object as a single white point of light, as bright as any star or planet visible to the naked eye.

The sighting conditions were excellent. The moon was nearly full, the sky was mostly clear with only thin cirrus clouds near the horizon, and all six witnesses had sharp, clear views throughout the observation. Two of the officers managed to photograph the object using a Leica 35-millimeter camera. The azimuths (compass directions) recorded in the initial report were to be verified and the photographs were to be sent for analysis.

An amendment to the original report corrected the observation time to between 1303 and 1306 (roughly 1:03 to 1:06 p.m.). In November 1957, Air Force intelligence analysts concluded that the object was almost certainly Sputnik 1, the Soviet satellite that had been launched on October 4, 1957. The analysts noted this was consistent with the timing, trajectory, and brightness reported by the qualified observers. The photographs were requested for further analysis to confirm this assessment.

The full case file, as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below and consists of 7 pages.