Kansas City, MissouriSeptember 1960

On the evening of September 30, 1960, a cable foreman for the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company in Kansas City, Missouri, spotted an unusual light in the sky using binoculars. The object appeared as a round, luminous shape, roughly the size of a baseball to a beach ball. He watched it for about fifteen minutes while it remained stationary in the sky.

The sighting triggered a wider investigation. Air Force personnel learned that other observers in the region, including people in Wichita, Topeka, and Omaha, had reported similar sightings along a southwest-to-northeast path. One particularly credible witness was a radar analyst from the Weather Bureau station in Kansas City who observed the object from a nine-story building. This witness concluded the object was likely a large, high-altitude weather balloon, though he could not identify where it had been launched. He attempted to track it on radar but was unsuccessful.

The Air Force examined the sighting carefully. They reviewed wind patterns at various altitudes, checked for any balloon launches in the area, and considered reports from multiple observers. They noted that the object's bearing and estimated elevation suggested something large and distant. However, no air defense radar in the vicinity detected the object, which complicated analysis.

The Air Force's final evaluation, recorded on the case file cover sheet, listed the sighting as "unidentified." However, the comments in the file suggest investigators believed a weather balloon of unknown origin was the most likely explanation, even though they could not confirm it definitively.

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