Flushing, New YorkAugust 1961

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of August 16, 1961, a resident of Flushing, New York, spotted a shiny, silvery object in the night sky at approximately 9:03 p.m. The witness described it as brighter than most stars and comparable in size to Saturn. The object appeared to move from west to east, reaching a maximum angle of 70 degrees above due north from the witness's vantage point in New York City. The sighting lasted about 10 minutes.

The witness initially contacted the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to ask what the object was. The Air Force's Foreign Technology Division then sent the witness a detailed questionnaire to gather more information about the sighting. The witness completed the form and provided drawings and descriptions of the object's path across the sky.

Following the investigation, the Air Force concluded that the object of the sighting had been identified as satellite Echo I. At the time of the sighting, this satellite was making a pass from southwest to northeast and would have been visible from the witness's location in New York. Echo I was an early American communications satellite, launched in 1960, and could appear as a bright, slow-moving object in the night sky when reflecting sunlight.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 12 pages.

Reported location

Flushing, New York

Date of incident

August 1961

State / country

NY / US

Page count

12 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 43

\ ‘ hi | LR PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD i I. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS " |O Wes Ball | | 16 Aug 61 Flushing, New York D Probably Bellon | 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION rye it | local 2103 ~~ | x3 Ground-Visuel 0 Ground-Redor Bry rar GMT 0 AirVisval O Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Airerafr S. PHOTOS . O Was Astronomical : 0 Yes O Probably Astronomical | XEB'Ne Civilian O Possibly Astronomical | : 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE 3 Other Echo T | | : 5 ibid Data for Evaluation 10 min 1 E AE ha | FE | 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTINGShiny silvery objt, 11. COMMENTS Objt of sighting has been | Po brighter than most stars. Size of a star or |determined to be satellite Echo I. Satelllitel Fo planet. : was making a pass SW-NE at time of sighting and could be seen fm witnesses’ i : location. | FE ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 82) g | ; oe | ‘ | 3 | 0 a A A sso NER BA a at / i A § J f/