Houston, TexasJune 1963

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of June 14, 1963, a man and his wife were stargazing from atop Addicks Dam, just west of Houston, Texas. At 9:57 p.m., they spotted what looked like a star positioned about ten degrees below Polaris, the North Star. The object shone about as bright as Polaris itself, maybe slightly brighter.

Then the object began to move. It traveled from south to northeast in a curved path across the sky, taking about 35 minutes total to cross their field of view before fading away. The motion was steady but notably slower than a meteor. During its journey, the object appeared to stop twice, each time for roughly 20 seconds, without dimming. Its brightness fluctuated unevenly throughout the sighting, growing fainter as time passed but never pulsing in any regular pattern. The witness, a civil engineer and practicing attorney, was confident the object was neither an airplane nor a shooting star.

The Air Force received the sighting report through official channels and investigated the case. On September 16, 1963, the Air Force responded to the witness, concluding that the object had been Satellite ECHO I. An analysis note in the file states that the satellite's direction of flight and position aligned with observations of ECHO I passing north of Houston at roughly 30 degrees above the horizon, heading northeast, which matched the witness accounts. The file also includes what appears to be a detailed tracking log of ECHO I sightings across multiple dates in June 1963, though much of this log is difficult to read in the OCR scan.

The complete case file, consisting of 9 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

Houston, Texas

Date of incident

June 1963

State / country

TX / US

Page count

9 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 48

Ts : PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD ER | [5 cate 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS | | 2 : O Wos Balloon | 14 June 1963 Houston, Texas O Probably Balloon | | [3 DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION rl Resataly, Raoon | LA (RA A ER Gr Ground-Visvael O Ground-Radar a ot tog LSS EE Am LDJOREED a AirVYisual O Air-Intercept Radar OD Possibly Aircroft 1 5. PHOTOS i) 0 Was Astronomicel | 3 O Yes 0D Probebly Astrenomicol 4 8 No : civilian O Possibly Astronomical "| 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 5. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE H omer Satellite ECHO I |. b 0 Insufficient Data for Eveluation "| 3% minutes one (1) Curve NE BF | 1 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS : | 4 | © |ObJect observed to move from S of Polaris to Satellite ECHO I passed Houston North of | 4 NE. Faded after 35 minutes observation. Moved the city at 30 deg elevation heading NE | 3 through arc from origincal position to point at 15/03467. Direction of flight and | * |below pointer stars in dipper. (toward Draco) | position of object in accord with this § |Speed rapid, but much slower than meteor. analysis. | Appeared to stop twice. Intensity seemed to : + | fluctuate. | - ATIC FORM 229 (REV 26 SEP 52) | 1 / | ‘ \ E ;